The seaside walk poster’s dilemma illustrated! I posted this walk in the expectation of a solid week or more of fine weather. But today decided to be the first day that it was windy and cloudy . Seas at Eastbourne were mountainous (well, a metre high at least…). Definitely no swims there.

You might think that the poor weather forecast would at least make the trains less busy. But Walker’s Law is that people decide whether to go to the sea based on the previous day’s weather. Friday was hot and sunny, so the train was full, particularly with shiny-faced youth types. But we all got seats, and some even sat together.

15 emerged from the train at Eastbourne, one joined who had got an earlier train, and another materialised thereafter, so 17 in all? It is hard to be sure because some were in the toilets and the station was noisy, and if we left anyone behind (we did wait a good while….), sorry.

So we walked along the seafront, the pounding waves looking rather impressive, and up onto Beachy Head (steep hill climbing practice for Scottish holiday types). Five then stopped for lunch at the Beachy Head pub, two took a slightly inland path to look for butterflies (a few whites at one point) and the rest walked the cliff (encountering a dead stoat).

I was one of the butterfliers, but as I got close to Birling Gap hurried on just in case a swim there was possible. Reader, it was! Miraculously the sea in the bay was almost a flat calm, it being sheltered from the otherwise fairly relentless wind.

Even more surprisingly, a number of the group were on the beach and very kindly guarded my stuff while I had a 15 minute dip, the water an extraordinary milky green, the sky grey, the cliffs white - like being in an Impressionist painting. When I emerged another potential swimmer turned up, but realising the group was about to leave, sacrificed her personal preferences in favour of group cohesion (though actually, I am not sure we saw her again…).

The Beachy Head pubbers had said they would walk to Seaford, but thus far it had not been clear what option the main group would do. But on the rather autumnal beach the charms of the Tiger Inn in East Dean were strong. Nine of us went there, at least five had a late lunch at an outside table, and as we finished one joined us from the Beachy Head group.

Thus fortified, we walked on, losing two to the bus, the rest following the afternoon of the Eastbourne Circular - except four initially didn’t, insisting (against the advice of the walk author) that the GPX showed a slightly different route. We all met in the end, though.

Cresting the downs we briefly had some rain. We lost one to the bus here; the rest carried on into Eastbourne, down the downs and along suburban roads towards the station. Six went to the Bibendum pub for tea and drinks, one fairly briefly. Five of us stayed a bit longer getting the 18.05 train, which was busy, but emptier at the front. We had just the one bottle of wine, plus chips and humous, and were joined at Lewes by one of the Seaford finishers who told us he and a companion had been able to ford the river at Cuckmere Haven.

And so home to bed….

Anyone swimming?

12 on this walk, including one late starter who caught up with us at lunch. The weather was very windy , though that does not tell the whole story. There was even some sun on the seafront in Eastbourne, raising hopes that the weather might be better than forecast. Cloud soon took over, but it was still not that unpleasant as we walked along the coast towards Beachy Head. The main irritation was some kind of endurance race in the opposite direction: do ALL these events have to be on the South Downs Way?

It was once up on Beachy Head the fun started. It was misty and there was a howling gale blowing from the west, straight into our faces. After a cosy lunch in the pub, we had to walk into this all the way to Birling Gap.

The mist did clear as we got lower, however, and there were reasonable views. The seas at Birling Gap were tremendous with two metre high waves. There was again a bit of brightness here, even sunshine. The tea room provided welcome shelter from the wind.

We then turned with relief inland (no talk of going over the Seven Sisters!) to East Dean, which was more sheltered. Two of us had a second tea at the deserted Hiker's Rest tea room.

Several then got the bus to Eastbourne. Five carried on up a sheltered valley and over the windy ridge one more time to Eastbourne. Four had Thai food in the lovely friendly restaurant in the old freight building. They remembered us from February, which shows what strange and unusual customers we must be.

We got the18.55 train home well pleased with our outing despite the weather. When I got home I noticed that for the first time this year my boots had no mud on them. Despite appearances to the contrary, spring is here!

Anyone doing the Eastbourne walk on Sunday ?

I am planning to do the Eastbourne walk tomorrow.

Thanks to Thomas and David for this fine walk.

Hi, we're new to the club and we're planning to join this walk:)

Note that to do the Circular walk, you have to switch to the directions on the LAST PAGE when you get to the paragraph 25 of the main walk directions (something that is not made very obvious in the walk directions pdf)

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8 on this walk with the weather sunny intervals but blustery and cold . AA fairly vigorous workout with the steep hill near the start made even tougher by having a stiff wind in our faces. Good lunch at Beachy Head and with the Downs looking superb in the winter sun we set off for Birling Gap and thence to East Dean where we all decided to go on to Eastbourne along an attractive track I have not walked before. Got to Eastbourne in time to catch 3.59 train. Excellent day out and I hope our 2 Czech newcomers enjoyed their first SWC outing and are inspired to do other walks.

The Eastbourne Circular option for this walk - back through the downs from East Dean to Eastbourne - now has full directions, which were added at this time last year, but have never had an SWC outing. This makes a walk of 18km/11.2 miles.

An excellent shortish route, but cool and wet weather meant that swimming in an uninviting sea wasn't an option for the 3 walkers (Anna, Emma & Nick). It would be great to extend the walk beyond Birling Gap on a warmer and sunnier day.

3 cool and wet