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| My walk from West St Leonards station to Bexill station 6th August 2009 |
My
plans for a day out today didn't go exactly as I planned it, but it
turned out to be better than my original plan. The original plan was to
walk from West St Leonards railway station along the coast for about a
mile and a half. That would take me to The St Leonards railway depot
where I hope I might see something of interest. At that point I also
planned to have a paddle in the sea, and then to walk back and
grab a pint of beer (or two) before getting the train home again. What
actually happened was I carried on walking along the sea front until I
turned inland to get to Bexhill railway station. From there I caught
the train back to St Leonards Warrior Square station. I had 20 minutes
to wait before the next London bound train, and I called into The
Victoria Bar pub for a cool refreshing beer, and the use of their
toilets.
View The sea route in a larger map
[ note added 10th August 2009 : Google estimates my walk to be 3.2 miles. Plotting the same walk on an Ordnance Survey map, Landranger series, map 199, it would seem that my walk was actually 4.5 miles. - closer to how it felt.]
Having consulted the tide tables I knew it was just about high tide when I reached the sea. That was unfortunate, and made my walk just a little less interesting.
Above is my first view of the beach looking along the coast towards Hastings.
Below is the view from the same place looking towards Bexhill.
View The sea route in a larger map
[ note added 10th August 2009 : Google estimates my walk to be 3.2 miles. Plotting the same walk on an Ordnance Survey map, Landranger series, map 199, it would seem that my walk was actually 4.5 miles. - closer to how it felt.]
Having consulted the tide tables I knew it was just about high tide when I reached the sea. That was unfortunate, and made my walk just a little less interesting.
Above is my first view of the beach looking along the coast towards Hastings.
Below is the view from the same place looking towards Bexhill.
Much
of this walk was done on shingle, and that often made the going quite
hard. The total distance I walked was around 3.2 miles, but it felt
much further. Off in the distance, in the picture above, are some
cliffs. These were to be the first ones I have encountered close up on
my new travels.
After trudging through the shingle for some time I reached the St Leonards railway depot, and the bridge that I incorrectly assumed crossed over the depot, and hoped would provide a good vantage point to see the Heritage diesel electric multiple unit train that lives there. I did catch a glimpse of a tiny bit of it through two rows of fencing, and into the gloom of the depot shed, but I didn't attempt to photograph it.
The depot is just out of view on the right hand side of the railway lines as they run parallel to the seashore.
A class 171 diesel electric multiple unit passes the railway depot on it's way to Brighton.
Looking slightly to the right of the previous picture to where I started my walk
(The white buildings on the far horizon)
As I continued to walk the cliffs became closer
The cliffs here are not particularly impressive. I estimate the height of them here to be around 30 feet.
The cliffs do get a bit higher, maybe 40 feet, or a little more. It's not very dramatic, but there is some stratification visible.
I am not sure of the technical term, but I would say they are mostly made of a soft mudstone.
It is soft and crumbly, and warning signs warn of rock falls.
I did come across one such fall that would have given someone a considerable headache if it had fallen on them.
It's not only rock that falls from these cliffs !
Of course it had to be a Tesco's tolley !
After trudging through the shingle for some time I reached the St Leonards railway depot, and the bridge that I incorrectly assumed crossed over the depot, and hoped would provide a good vantage point to see the Heritage diesel electric multiple unit train that lives there. I did catch a glimpse of a tiny bit of it through two rows of fencing, and into the gloom of the depot shed, but I didn't attempt to photograph it.
The depot is just out of view on the right hand side of the railway lines as they run parallel to the seashore.
A class 171 diesel electric multiple unit passes the railway depot on it's way to Brighton.
Looking slightly to the right of the previous picture to where I started my walk
(The white buildings on the far horizon)
As I continued to walk the cliffs became closer
The cliffs here are not particularly impressive. I estimate the height of them here to be around 30 feet.
The cliffs do get a bit higher, maybe 40 feet, or a little more. It's not very dramatic, but there is some stratification visible.
I am not sure of the technical term, but I would say they are mostly made of a soft mudstone.
It is soft and crumbly, and warning signs warn of rock falls.
I did come across one such fall that would have given someone a considerable headache if it had fallen on them.
It's not only rock that falls from these cliffs !
Of course it had to be a Tesco's tolley !
It
was soon after passing the shopping trolley that I had my paddle in the
sea. The waves were rushing up the beach very quickly, and very
variably too ! My new shorts really came into their own for this
tomfoolery. Several waves came almost up to my kneecaps, and some of
their spray did get the bottom of my shorts a bit damp. However one
thing that is apparent in my pictures was that it was actually a
glorious day. The sun shone for most of the time, and it was quite hot.
I had a lot of trouble with sweat pouring into my eyes from time to
time. I suspect it was the sun blocker that I had applied to my face
that made the sweat really sting when it got into my eyes.
Standing in the sea looking inland
Once I had finished getting wet I dried my feet, and transferred back into my dry walking shoes to continue my walk to Bexhill.
Bexill approaches
Standing in the sea looking inland
While
standing in the sea, with waves crashing around my legs, I took a
little video of the waves. I can't be bothered to try and embed the
video in this web page, but if you click on the link here something might open to show you the short video.
Once I had finished getting wet I dried my feet, and transferred back into my dry walking shoes to continue my walk to Bexhill.
Bexill approaches
I was quite glad that I was nearing Bexhill. Trudging across all the
shingle was quite wearing. It was also very hard work climbing up from
the beach after my paddle. You can see in the picture above just how
steep the shingle is to climb. For every foot you raise yourself you
sink back 6 inches, and the whole thing turns into a mad scramble just
to get up to the pathway - and I did that 3 or 4 times !
I had visions of the beach at Bexhill being sandy, and maybe it was when the tide was lower, but all I saw was just more shingle. It was quite a relief to get onto the tarmac promenade for my last bit of walking along the shore at Bexhill.
Sailing seems to be quite popular at Bexhill
Assorted craft on the beach at Bexhill
I had visions of the beach at Bexhill being sandy, and maybe it was when the tide was lower, but all I saw was just more shingle. It was quite a relief to get onto the tarmac promenade for my last bit of walking along the shore at Bexhill.
Sailing seems to be quite popular at Bexhill
Assorted craft on the beach at Bexhill
Although
Bexhill may not be able to boast of broad sandy beaches, well not at
hogh tide it can't, it is still quite popular. It's beaches may not be
crowded like those at, say, Brighton, but there were plenty of people
there to enjoy the sunshine. Once upon a time it must have been a truly
elegant place, and once you get past the ugly appartment blocks on the
outskirts of the town, the old town still retains some of that old
world elegance.
Once upon a time these houses would probably have belonged to rich Edwardians (or similar)
Since then they have probably been boarding houses, and I suspect now they are just divided into flats.
Another bit of olde world elegance on the sea front at Bexhill
Once upon a time these houses would probably have belonged to rich Edwardians (or similar)
Since then they have probably been boarding houses, and I suspect now they are just divided into flats.
Another bit of olde world elegance on the sea front at Bexhill
By
the time I had reached the centre of the Bexhill sea front I was
definitely feeling the strain of the long walk. I expect I could have
gone a lot further, but with the end in sight......
.....
I felt like I had had almost enough. It was a couple of hundred yards,
and slightly uphill to the station, but the worst was yet to come. I
had not planned to be at Bexhill station, and so I had no idea what
time the trains were. It turned out that I had mere minutes to buy a
ticket before I had to run to the platform and jump on the train. From
there on my journey home was relatively relaxing, but I felt knackered
when I got home, and now nearly five hours later, I still feel
knackered, and I am very much looking forward to hitting the save
button, and going to bed.