Series 12, Episode 1: East Sussex

Here is the cycling forecast for Sunday 10th May, issued by the Met Office at 0400 hours: West London: North westerly headwind, fresh to brisk; cloud cover: slight; visibility: good, traffic: scarce, temperature: tinglingly cold.

I rode into the rising sun to catch my 7 o'clock train from Clapham Junction, calling at everywhere on the way to Hove. My legs started to get re-accustomed to the weight of panniers and camping gear as every slight incline required changing to a lower gear.

I shivered on the platform and the train wasn't much warmer.  When I reached Hove, it was grey and breezy with a few spots of rain, but it soon brightened up a bit.  Brighton was quiet as I rolled along the prom.  There wasn't much to see on the nudist beach either, but that could be due to the cold.

Brighton

Royal British Legion conference 

who knows?

From Brighton there's a concrete cycleway along the undercliff for maybe six miles, to Peacehaven where you go back on the undulating cliff road.  Before that, I entered East Sussex at Saltdean.  There's a hill to get over to Newhaven,  on a very dodgy steep, potholed and pebbly road, but soon I was back at sea level by the port.  Whichever way you look at it, Newhaven is not the most picturesque port,, but I found a harbourside cafe for a good breakfast.

Undercliff walk/cycleway

Peacehaven

Dodgy promenade in Saltdean

Newhaven 

Newhaven fort

After Newhaven it was quite varied.  A rough pebbly track along the beach, only just rideable in parts with some walking, took me a few miles to Seaford, which nestles below the Seven Sisters, seven hills that produce seven white chalk cliffs where they encounter the sea.   The A road climbs about 100 metres in a mile to get past most of them, but it's a busy and narrow road, so I took a detour inland to avoid it.  It was about ten miles and treble the climbing, but I wasn't being followed by a queue of impatient drivers, and it was pretty, so it was much better.

Dodgy

Dodgy

Scenic detour

Lunch was at a very busy Birling Gap cafe, which was moved  back from the cliff edge recently after it got too close.  Birling Gap is between the biggest 'sister', Beachy Head, and the other six, so there was only one more hill to climb... Two and a half miles mostly into the wind, and very exposed, so it was hard going.  The descent on the other hand was lovely, snaking round hairpin bends down into Eastbourne. 

Birling Gap

 

Beachy Head

Everybody should enter Eastbourne that way. It gives a good impression, rolling down a wide road lined with big houses and hotels in well kept grounds. On the seaward side, a few parks and sometimes just the tree-covered cliff. The road is called Grand Drive, and it is. The grandness gives way eventually to ordinary hotels and houses but it's still nice.  

Eastbourne 

One problem emerged though :  the coast was now angled up so I was riding north west, right into the wind, still a strong and cold north westerly.   The further I pedalled, the slower I was going and I had to scale back my ambitions to reach Hastings, another 12 miles and another hill .   Instead I stopped in a campsite in Norman's Bay, a few miles past Eastbourne, and somewhere I've camped before.   Put the tent up, rushed to the pub but unfortunately they stopped serving food three quarters of an hour earlier (at 5pm).   I was gutted, but recovered when they said they could do a pudding for me.

They very kindly gave me the most
sheltered spot, which isn't very sheltered.

So I'll have an early night and hope I sleep well - it's forecast to be cold.   A good first day - modest distance but pretty hilly, and a 20mph headwind reducing to 15mph, all day.  I must have annoyed the weather gods.