Essex Man Does Walking

The penultimate day dawned and I awoke actually not feeling too bad. A bit hungry I chomped my way through the last of my chocolate bar as it was way too early to wake Rob up let alone anyone else. We were going to meet up with Mark one of the original Back Alley Boys at Southease and then head to Alfriston for a look around and a few drinks. The route wasn’t particularly difficult and not too far either.

When Rob did awake I made a cup of tea, and had one of the those yoghurty granola type things I bought in Tesco’s. Rob tried to heat up some croissants on the Trangia but only succeeded in charring them, but waste not want not. We packed up the tent and set off back down the road we walked up to get here through Telscombe and then down towards Southease.

At this point we rejoined the South Downs Way, heading through the village who were having a garden fete later and towards the station. It wasn’t long before we saw the familiar figure of Mark walking towards us in the road. Greeting our mate we crossed over the rail line and headed up towards YHA Southdowns for a drink and a quick chat.

We left the youth hostel and climbed Beddingham Hill, the only really big climb of the day, about 570 feet. It was a really pleasant day compared to yesterday and the Sun was out as we walked along the top of the downs towards Firle Beacon, looking down upon Beddingham and Firle as we walked. On the other side of the trail Newhaven and Seaford were prominent and I picked out a few landmarks such as the Newhaven incinerator. Firle Beacon was the highest point and it was from here that we headed down into Alfriston.

Rob and Mark had not been here before but I have a number of times so they were struck by how good looking the village was. We decided to head to the campsite, put up the tent and have a shower before investigating further. The campsite looked great but was well packed with large groups all enjoying the weekend Sun. Mark headed back into Alfriston whilst we had a shower.

We headed in and met Mark at the Star Inn where I had a flat pint of Harvey’s. A shame. We headed to a number of other pubs and shops enjoying the walk without a heavy pack on our backs. Mark had to head back to London that afternoon and was trying in vain to get an Uber to pick him up. In the end I googled other ways and found a bus was heading to the nearest station soon. So we all headed to the coach park and saw him off. Rob and I headed back to the George and had some good food before buying some wine and heading back to the camp.

The camp was in full swing with music and cooking everywhere. We settled down to watch text commentary on the boxing and drink some wine. The wind picked up and soon I was shivering and feeling really cold. I knew this was down to low energy levels so the only thing I could do was to head into the tent and into my sleeping bag. Rob did his usual drinking by the toilets and charging his phone and came back to hear my snoring.

Distance: 9.93 miles

Ascent: 1065 feet