Down to The South

Last Saturday, I went out, once again, on a day trip. This time, I went southwards, to the South Downs National Park. The South Downs is one of Britain's 'breathing spaces' that extends from Winchester in the West to Brighton and Eastbourne in the East. Near Eastbourne, the South Downs meet the English Channel at the Seven Sisters National Park, the Seven Sisters being a series of milky white chalk hills that overlooking the channel. 'Overlooking the channel' is an understatement and belies the drama associated with it. May be the best way to look at it would be to see it from the point of view of a little wave that runs in from somewhere in the sea towards the land, looking to wash the sands and crash on the little pebbles and rocks and instead comes face to face with a massive structure, a couple of hundred feet high; a massive structure you would not want to strike hard; as it is a structure that is menacing in its scale and yet has peace written all over it, being so white, milky white! And yet, I read that this structure recedes into the land by a bit over a feet every year, thanks to the action of our little wave!

So, to the practicalities. The Seven Sisters country park, as this site on the South Downs is called, is easily accessible by public transport. All that you have to do is take the train from London Victoria to Eastbourne. And take the bus to Brighton from right outside the Eastbourne station and get off the bus, 15-20 minutes into the journey and you are there at the park's visitor centre. And then you start walking along an easy access path that is dotted by sheep poo (the park being a working sheep farm), but allows you pretty views of the downs with a little pond in the foreground. And the bonus is the pair of white mute swans that one can see swimming on the pond - at least I was fortunate enough to see them there.




Further down the walk, you will join the South Downs Way, a long distance National Trail that runs from one end of the South Downs to the other, a distance of about 100 miles. You dont have to walk the 100 miles, since a walk of about 500 meters affording views of combinations of green, yellow and brown of the Downs brings you to the coast and to exhilarating views of the Seven Sisters.




Forget the seven sisters, you also have a relatively dirty looking hill on the other side, and this, along with the pebbles, chalk rocks and the terrain, makes for a lovely landscape photo subject, provided the light is right!




And you look the other way to the Seven Sisters and you just stand and admire the work of nature in deriving such geological formations. And from an artistic point of view, you look for photographic opportunities. By the time I had taken pictures of the dirty cousin of the Seven Sisters (sounds somewhat like the five aunts Bertram Wooster dreads!), I was dead tired and I took a little break sitting in the shadow under one of the Seven Sisters. And while here, I took some lazy snaps of the pebbles and the colour of the sister giving me shade.




And very soon, I was back and, this time, took the photo ops presented by the sisters themselves in collaboration with the matching or contrasting colours of the rocks lying on the beach and went snapping. And yes, there were occasions when it was tempting to reach places on the beach, which my attitude and physical consitution would not allow, in order to grab interesting snaps. But better sense prevailed!


And soon I was on my way back, taking a quick picture of the hand of man on the coast - a cranky looking tyre and a colourful piece of furry cloth left on the floor.



I finished with snaps of excited bikers and walkers in the landscape.



Finally, I ate at the farmhouse restaurant, which is next to the visitor centre by the bus station - note that I could not find any place to have a snack or anything closer to the beach - and offers a rich cream tea meal comprising two large scones, clotted cream, butter, jam and tea. And then it was time to take the bus back to Eastbourne and the train to London.

A thought, in case the authorities read this. I was surprised to find that I could get absolutely no signal on my mobile phone near the beach. And this being a tourist location, a coast, but importantly, remote, I wonder what one would do if there is a necessity (however improbable that may be) to quickly call 999, the emergency number!!!

(For more pictures, please see http://picasaweb.google.com/aswinsainarain/SouthDownsSevenSisters)