Eastbourne. This isn’t my first visit here but the view through the window this morning was enough inspiration to share some of this place in a post. It’s a seaside town that’s directly east of the highest chalk sea cliff in England, called ‘Beachy Head.” Eastbourne used to be a market town longtime ago and now there are lots of residential neighbourhoods, fancy supermarkets, train tracks slicing through town roads (with actual passing trains) and standard city features like shops, boutiques and restaurants in abundance.
A few times I walked across an endless carpet of good-sized rocks which cover the sand to stand by the sea – wearing a coat over a jumper. Apparently, people swim in the sea here during summer and lay their towels out like how some people like their drinks – straight on the rocks. There’s a part of this town where quite a few hotels hold hands facing the seaside for when the summer season starts.
One thing about Eastbourne you’ll notice if or whenever you visit is why it has the nickname of “The Sunshine Coast.” Especially if you go to other parts of Britain where the sky is grey or cloudy a lot, it drizzles on and off regularly, fogs in fractions and gets dark (like night sky dark) between 4:30-5pm around this time of year (mid-November.) The colder it gets, the earlier the sky darkens. Here on the sunny side of the U.K where, the fact that people count the amount of hours of sunshine is intriguing. Sunlight almost always seems be peering around, through or over some building or another, then as it hits evening the breeze turns up the volume and takes over until morning.
Butts Hill Walk
I love to see rolling hills, and before visiting England had never seen anything that actually fit that description, even though I’ve travelled to 38 destinations. (A lot of airport to hotel to sound check – onstage to hotel to airport and out.) The vastness of the land when you’re walking along a high trail that looks over the sea on one side and what seems like an endless green camouflage carpet everywhere else makes you remember how small we are. Today’s walk wasn’t long but that’s alright. It was chilly and windy as ever but still refreshing and I got to see those fluffy white sheep they have here which look so different from the black belly sheep in Barbados. From far, they look like little cotton balls on the green hills at this time of year when their wool is left on to keep them warm.
This is the second time we came here and next time (once there’s breath) we’ll go for a much longer walk with haversacks. Apparently, two Stone Age monuments are somewhere around Butts Hill or Butts Brow and it have a path that leads to a lighthouse where you can get a good view of Beachy Head cliff.
Pets & Places
Most of the people we passed were walking with their dogs – pretty much at any open green space whether it’s a park, nature reserve or forest people and dogs are in pairs or groups. For people who have a fear of dogs or have allergies to their fur or are not comfortable around them, yuh buss’ luck ’cause they come with the territory over here.
You ever heard of a travelator? Well until yesterday, I never had and it turns out that even the spellcheck on this laptop hasn’t either. It looks like those those moving conveyor belt things you stand or walk on in big airports – but flat like a CD and leading UPstairs to get in and then down – no graded steps.
Only a minute ago I read that Eastbourne was the most bombed town during the last world war, and apparently it was a hub for lots of sea battles. Today, it’s a quaint (and windy) place where seagulls are seen and heard daily and you can enjoy a walk on a pier or boardwalk by the sea if that’s your kinda thing. As a beach girl from Barbados, I prefer ‘my’ sea turquoise (or at least blue) but it’s a beautiful sight to see in England – plus, the breeze coming off the ocean is healthy and refreshing.
Its Joy Within 