Sussex Coast Walk - Stage One - Following In The Footsteps Of John Wayne
And so it begins.
Only three months and a lock down later than planned.
Back in March of this year we decided that we needed an adventure. Not just a “day out” kind of adventure, although there is nothing wrong with that, and almost certainly not an “expedition into the jungle” kind either. What we were looking for was something that was challenging, different to what we might normally do, of course, and hopefully something that would actually take time as well as effort to complete.
So no pressure at all, really. Especially for people like us who are not as young as we used to be.
We decided, after much deliberation and for specific reasons that mostly escape me now, that our challenge would be to walk the length of the Sussex coast. Something like 120 miles in total. It would not be too far away from where we live, with the scope to do some sections on long days out and others with overnight stays. And after extensive research, or a weekend of searching on Google if you prefer, we arranged the first few stages and booked a couple of nights in bed and breakfast accommodation. Three days of walking to get our new challenge up and running. All set for the end of March. And very excited we were too.
But of course, what we hadn’t planned for was a global pandemic to suddenly appear and get in the way or our meticulously planned adventure. The country went into lock down just a day or two before we were due to start and after the initial frustration, well, it’s probably fair to say that we had other things on our minds. So we had not really given it too much thought over recent months.
But after three months of being confined, mostly, to home, things are gradually starting to open up again. Non-essential shops have opened up again in the last couple of weeks and people are being allowed to travel, albeit mostly by car, outside of their own localities. We are being told that holidays might even be allowed with effect from 4th July. All positive and encouraging but is it enough to kick-start our plans?
Well, if you factor in the forecast of a week of beautiful weather then, absolutely.
So we decided it was time to take the first steps on our slightly delayed and rather overlooked challenge for 2020.
Stage one of our walk was due to begin at Camber in East Sussex. Well, to be exact, at Jury's Gap, the closest part of the coast to the Kent / Sussex border that we could reasonably access. Unless we wanted to chance the Ministry of Defence firing ranges just around the corner. Which we didn’t.
The day did not start well.
We missed the bus at Rye station.
By all of a minute.
After a slightly longer drive down than expected, the roads were much busier than we imagined, we saw the bus move off just as we parked the car. We spoke to a few people at the bus stop and discovered that the service that we needed was, rather disappointingly, hourly. They very kindly provided us with the numbers of local taxi drivers and, after numerous calls (one was miles away in Ramsgate, another was in “acute” lock down and most just didn’t bother to answer), found a very friendly and generous cabbie to take us down to our starting point. Face masks ready out of respect for the driver, we were very pleasantly informed that we didn’t really need them as far as he was concerned.
We took our obligatory selfies at the start (another challenge to get us both in the photo due to the difference in our heights and my lack of selfie technique – take a look at the photo and you will see what I mean) and off we went.
Camber is a very popular place on warm, sunny summer days and is frequently filled with families and wind-surfers enjoying the long, sandy beach. After the initial clouds lifted we welcomed the sunshine but, maybe surprisingly, maybe not, the place and the beach itself remained deserted. Whilst the car parks were open people were clearly still a little reluctant to venture out to the beach.
Our good luck.
We walked along the top of the large flood defences at the start and then ventured out onto the open sands. We headed away from the quiet caravan sites towards the welcoming and, to me at least, familiar sand dunes. I have fond memories of days out in the sand dunes at Camber as a child and, whilst they are smaller than I remembered, they are still impressive. They have also, apparently, become an iconic location for big budget movie making over the years and have featured in many well known films. Having done a little research post walk it was a little surprising to find out the list of famous actors that have visited Camber to make movies: the list includes Kevin Costner and Tommy Lee Jones in 2014 (Criminal), Matt Damon, Cate Blanchett, John Goodman and George Clooney in 2013 (Monument Men) and, going further back, John Wayne and Richard Burton (The Longest Day) and even Phil Silvers and Kenneth Williams in a Carry On classic (Carry On Follow That Camel).
With no way to cross the River Rother at the end of the dunes, we turned right along a track between the river and the Rye golf course. Just a short distance along this path we discovered what remains of the old Rye to Camber tram way, closed down in 1939 at the outbreak of war and sadly never re-opened. A few of the old rails still exist, concreted into an old road back during the war years and, rather amazingly, one of the old stations has been preserved, although difficult to identify as such on first look. Opened in 1895, this narrow gauge railway initially took golfers from Rye down to the links course. It was then extended to enable tourists to use the line to visit the Camber sand dunes and beach. The walk up into Rye town itself was mostly along the old tram line, with one or two diversions, and was a lovely, mainly quiet, walk through the countryside and fields full of sheep, right up to the edge of the town. Where the path was diverted briefly onto the main road we were lucky enough to find a very helpful woman who showed us exactly where there was a hole in the fence to get us away from the cars.
The generosity and friendliness of strangers is something we are hoping to find more of on our adventures this year.
We took a break in a park just outside one of the main gates into Rye and enjoyed a beautiful view of the impressive old houses, steeply rising up into the town. Having been to Rye at the end of last year, we didn't plan to spend any time there on this walk. But it is without doubt a place worth visiting and exploring when time is not an issue. It is stunningly pretty, full of history, plenty of pubs, shops and a handful of museums and has been home to many famous people over the years, including Henry James, Paul McCartney and Spike Milligan.
We walked through a few of the old streets after lunch on our way to the next footpath and made a point of visiting Mermaid Street, a favourite from our previous visit. Very photogenic, we stopped to take a few pictures of the cobble stoned street and old houses. We then crossed the bridge over the River Brede and found the Saxon Shore Way tucked away behind a few more modern houses just around the corner. This path is over 160 miles in length and traces the coast of South East England, as it was in Roman times, from Gravesend in Kent to Hastings in Sussex. We only planned to follow it for a few of those miles, but will almost certainly pick it up again on the next stage of our walk.
This part of the path meandered its way through more fields of sheep and headed down towards our end point for this stage, Winchelsea Beach. We walked alongside the River Brede for much of this part and it really was beautiful in the glorious sunshine. One of our plans for this adventure was to stop frequently and to enjoy as many of the sights and sounds as we could. We therefore took a decision to take another break here, in the middle of the sheep, and to enjoy the very peaceful river and wild life.
We also took some time to look at Camber Castle, tucked away, if not lost, in the fields outside of Rye. It’s actually a very small castle, not currently open to the public on a frequent basis, and dates back to 1539, when it was built on the instructions of Henry VIII as part of the coastal plans to protect the country from France. As with much of the coastline in this area, it constantly changed and moved due to the silting up of rivers and harbours and the depositing of large amounts of shingle on the beaches. By 1637 the coastline had moved so far away from the castle that it was largely redundant and it was closed and subsequently partly dismantled.
We continued down through the fields, chatting to the owner of a farm and her slightly crazy dogs, before taking a long road, conveniently called Sea Road, back down to the beach. A rather mixed road it was too, populated with a genuinely eclectic mix of beautiful, modern and completely run down houses on one side, with views over the fields on the other side to die for. This lead us into the very small village of Winchelsea Beach and the peculiar story of Smeaton’s harbour.
Apart from the beach and two caravan sites, there is little of interest at Winchelsea Beach. However, once the history of the slightly peculiar rectangular piece of grassland in the village is known, it takes on a level of interest, or even fascination, that easily grabbed my attention.
Back in the early 18th century, Rye harbour was struggling as its entrance channels were regularly silting up. A plan to build a brand new harbour, just a couple of miles along the coast at Winchelsea, was therefore developed and approved. It took around 60 years to agree, prepare and build, with an enormous budget at the time of £300,000, but the new harbour was finally opened in the summer of 1787. However it was a disaster. Just a few months later it was closed, abandoned to the same problems that had, and continue to, beset all harbours along this coast, the silting up of waterways and the movement of shingle.
Presumably, the site was filled in and never developed, as the outline of the harbour is still visible today. All most people will probably notice is an area of grass with a playground and changing rooms for local sports teams. The sort of history, hidden in plain site, that I love.
We found a bench on the beach and took in the lovely views back down to Camber on the left and along to the cliffs on the other side, our destination for the next stage of the walk.
A beautiful place to end the first, and very enjoyable, part of our Sussex coastal journey. All that remained was for us to dig out our face masks and to try to find our way to the nearest bus stop for our trip back to the car.
Stage 1 – Jury's Gap, Camber to Winchelsea Beach - distance walked 8.81 miles / 14.18 km
Date of walk - 22nd June 2020
Distance walked 8.81 miles / 14.18 km
Floors climbed (using Apple Health app.) 11 floors
