11 Oct. - Beachy Head

 Image: Beachy Head and its Lighthouse from the clifftop South Downs Way

Beachy Head - We pace down the path, protected from the wind-driven rain by thickets of blackberry, hawthorn + like. Past the Coastguard Cottages, the flint pebble beach, restrained by timber-pile weirs, is ceaselessly pounded by the Channel waves, made opaque with chalk washed from the astounding vertical bulwark of Beachy Head + The Sisters.

Battle - The rain hasn't abated, but we enter, dripping, the quiet + petite calm of the Battle Local History Museum, staffed by enthusiastic volunteers + holding perhaps the only genuine surviving relic of the battle of 1066 - an axe head.

Rye - Walking the steep back-streets of slippery, wet cobble past timber-framed Tudor buildings - hospital, school, homes - we come to the main street, the shops still active though much changed in purpose, + sit with coffee + a tiffin cake in the grand multi-paned, curved window of the old apothecary - grand, golden mortar + pestle affixed as sign on the outside wall.

Notes: Whilst the wind at Cuckmere Haven beach seemed to be pushing the strong swell into the cliff, the wind on top of Beachy Head was blowing toward the Channel with such ferocity, it was only safe to approach the sheer drop at its edge by lying prone on my stomach. Otherwise there was a genuine probability of being blow over to a very long and fatal fall. Being great fans of the Bayeux Tapestry, a visit to the Battle Museum was imperative and well rewarded.