Tuesday 24 December 2013

England: To the end of the earth, Beachyhead

Now this was a new idea but I can't say I was thrilled at the idea of  waking up at 7 on a Saturday morning just to explore the English countryside. Somehow my friend Mireille had convinced me it would be worth it but as I really love to hate on England, if I hadn't of brought my train tickets the day before I think I would of gone back to sleep...

I'm glad I did make the effort as it turned out to be a really pleasant day, the scenery was beautiful and the weather was so nice I actually ended up removing layers of clothing, something totally unexpected for
December here in the UK. It was great catching up with Mireille to as I hadn't seen her in about a year.

We spent the morning walking, talking and snapping photos of fields, sheep and cottages before finally reaching the cliffs about 1.30 pm. Then decided to check out some of the scenery at the foot of the cliffs, stopping to look at some of the rock memorials left along the way, which if Mireille hadn't pointed out to me would of been just the kind of thing I'd trample on, fall over or bang into! I wondered about the people who they were left for, what kind of life they had or how sad they must of been to want to do something like that? It's hard to imagine but it made me feel a little sad. 

Before heading up to the top we decided to stop for a rest and a bite to eat, well Mireille did anyway, she's so slim but she sure knows how to eat lol! I'd brought my tripod along but forgotten the bit that screws into the camera so it became a pointless thing we took turns dragging around all day and it felt soooo good to put it down for a little while. There's always something going wrong, I've forgotten, or some small detail left out going on with me! The cafe we stopped at was kind of expensive so I settled for a boring Kit Kat, while Mireille had a piece of cake and an egg and bacon bap and didn't gain a single lb of course lol.




                       It wasn't long after we headed up the cliffs, the weather got colder and the wind began to pick up to the point I thought I might lose my camera and my life lol. I kept telling Mireille to pose like she was going to fall over the edge but for some 'strange' reason she wouldn't play along haha! Then the sun began to set and the sky began to turn a magical array of purples, blues, oranges and pinks. I'd never seen anything like it here and it was simply beautiful! After an hour or 2 we decided to head back down, we were tired after 5 hours of walking, we'd soon be missing our bus and and we didn't fancy walking along the edge in the pitch black neither.


Now remember earlier I mentioned something always going wrong with me? Well on the bus Mireille mentioned going to check out the pier lit up in Eastbourne, I was a little concerned because we only had about half an hour before my train came but she promised it wasn't far away so I decided to tag along. BAD MOVE, the pier was pretty lame and not worth it, just a few lit up bulbs on strings illuminated the pier and Mireille didn't know the way back to the station but I assumed she did and she assumed I could catch any train so she didn't say anything and I just kept following her. Luckily in the end I did manage to catch the train but I was covered in sweat after power walking and stressing out about having to shell out £15 on another ticket. I was a little mad but I can't stay mad at sweet little Mireille for too long haha!

All in all the day turned out to be a really good one and I'd highly recommend it. To get to Beachyhead first it might be best to go to Eastbourne (For information on how to get to Eastbourne from London and other parts of the country click here). Then you can either walk (will take hours) or take bus numbers 12 or 13x from the town center. You can keep extortionate travel costs down in the UK by buying bus and train tickets in advance from an early booking service like thetrainline.com or redspottedhanky.com.