Seven Sisters (SouthDownsWay), England

I love my life! I love it more than I hate it. And that’s the scary part. I feel I’m living the peak of my life, right at the top, at the beautiful edge and everything from here is downhill. 

I sit here on my chair beside my little balcony with a cup of hot tea and think of the amazing walk that I did a few days back on the ups and downs of the Seven Sisters. No, this is not the famous seven sisters’ waterfalls in Cherrapunji in India. This is the rolling green hills of the South Downs in Sussex, England, though none is lesser than the other. 

We started our hike with a very steep uphill from the bottom of the valley in Whitbread Hollow in Eastbourne. The path takes you right to the top of Beachy Head, also commonly known for being a suicide spot. My calf muscles were so tense, I could hardly move when I got to the top and was panting badly. I’m still recovering from my screwed up leg muscles. But the view from there just heals you instantly, - the view of the white cliffs hanging from the green edges against the blue sea is awesome.

We continued our walk with the cold wind gushing against our faces and the soft warmth of the bright sun countering it perfectly. It was the ideal conditions for the hike. From the top of Beachy Head, leaving behind the little pub in the country, we walked down and then up again to the Belle tout lighthouse. My friend says, this lighthouse was further away from the cliff edge and now due to erosion, it’s almost on the brink of falling into the sea; maybe another 10-20 years and the sea will engulf the lighthouse.

We sat by the lighthouse and had our homemade sandwiches, brewed coffee from the flask and a few chocolate biscuits. After re-fuelling ourselves more than necessary, we headed down to get to the third peak of the seven sisters.

The name seven sisters denotes that there are seven peaks of the rolling up and down hills, the seventh one ending at Cuckmere Haven. We climbed up and down  the lush green curved clifftops with the sparkling blue sea by the side. Occasionally, we could hear the noises of some old world war II aircraft that probably took off from the nearby Shoreham airport and we watched them flying off into the distance performing their aerobatic manoeuvres. I think, we were on the top of the 5^th peak when we turned back and could see the peaks and troughs of the seven sisters with the white cliffs bordering the blue sea.

The penultimate peak was a bit harder to climb down but the last one was the toughest (by my standard). I am generally a bit nervous in going downhill, especially if the path contains loose chalk and stones. And this path we chose was steep, chalky, full of loose stones and slippery edges. With 200% focus and concentration, I finally made it to the bottom.

The hills of the Seven Sisters end in a pebbly beach where the Cuckmere Haven River meanders in a long snake like movement and meets the sea. We sat on the beach, had one more brewed coffee and then continued walking along the river inland. The river flows through a vast open green valley with a few streams channeling out from the main course. The path by the river takes you to a small cottage style pub and a tourist office where you can get the information for all of the walks around the Seven Sisters country park. People generally start their walk here but we started ours from Eastbourne and walked all the way along the coast.  

Sussex is such a beautiful place, I cannot get enough of it. The beauty of this place lies in its rural sleepy charm and that’s what I like. I don’t like big buildings, flashy roads and boasting cities. I like simple and sweet. And hiking in the midst of such openness makes me feel richer than the richest.

Days like these are made with such perfection that you want to keep hold of it and live the moments over and over again. Future scares me, I love it today!

Camborne, Cornwall, UK

July 2018. 

Amidst a lot of apprehension, I set off on a hiking trip to Cornwall with one of my office colleagues. I have always wanted to go to Cornwall because of its well known picturesque coastline but there have always been limitations in terms of transport and time. Cornwall is about 6-7 hours drive from where I live in England. However, we took an overnight coach to Camborne in Cornwall as we wanted to save time. Even though national coach express buses are quite good in service, overnight bus journey is still a nightmare to me and I would not recommend it personally.

So when I got off the coach in Camborne the next morning, I was a grumpy self. On top of that it was drizzling out of the blue, not helping my mood at all. We checked into our pre-booked airbnb which was just a 5minutes walk from the bus terminus. After a refreshing coffee, we hopped on to a local bus to St.Ives.

The moment I laid my eyes on the St.Ives and its coastline, my grumpy mood jumped back to its jovial self. St.Ives is a coastal town, famous for its surf beaches and you could see many people surfing in their colourful surf boats. We bought the traditional Cornish pasty and set off on our coastal hike from St.Ives to Zennor. It is a beautiful hike. The coastline in this western most part of Cornwall is very rugged with rocky edges, unkempt wild flowers and bushes, clear blue sea, hidden sandy beach and to our utmost delight lazy seals on the sea rocks. The views were simply amazing. As we approached towards Zennor, the hike started becoming challenging. We had to make our own ways through big boulders and sharp edges. The sleepless overnight journey had also started taking a toll by this time. And I was kind of grateful that the walk ended for the day. Where the walk finishes in Zennor, there is a small pub and a church café in the Zennor village. We refuelled ourselves with some ice cream and water and got the bus back to Camborne.

After a well deserved sleep that night, the next morning felt much more energetic. Having done a classic Cornish coastline hike the previous day, we decided to enjoy a beach trek this time. We headed to Porthcurno, a very popular and very pretty cove in the southern coast of Cornwall. This place was again breathtakingly beautiful. The rugged rock green cliffs converge inland to form sandy beaches inside little coves and there are many such little beaches all lined up along the coast. On a low tide, you could easily walk around the cliffs along the beach from one cove to the other. We climbed up the cliffs on both sides of the Porthcurno beach. On one side, you could walk on top of the cliffs almost into the sea where few big chunks of rocks stick out, called the Logan rock. We climbed all over the Logan rock, having fun and taking in the beautiful view through all our senses. There is also a telegraph museum there and an open-air theatre called the Minack theatre built on a granite cliff edge. Apparently Porthcurno was the point where many submarine telegraph cables were connected. With climbing all the cliff rocks, swimming in the cold sea water, fighting our hunger with nuts and biscuits, getting burnt in the strong sunshine and almost getting into the wrong bus, it was an exciting day.

On our third and final day of the hike, we decided to keep it relatively easy. We hiked from Tehidy park to the Deadman’s Cove along the Godrevy Coast and continued along the coast ending the hike in the Portreath Beach town. This walk started with a pleasant walk through the shady woods, passing by many streams and ponds and then taking a sharp turn post which we found ourselves crossing farm lands and getting on to the top of the cliff by the coast. The walk then continues along the coast by the infamous Deadman’s cove where the amazing views come with a danger of abrupt rock falls. As we approach towards the end of the route, we came across two very steep peaks with loose rocks and a sinister vibe in the atmosphere. The silence due to the focus and concentration to climb up and down these two peaks was such that it could be cut through a knife. But with danger comes beauty and magnificence. It was exhilarating. 

We ended our walk in the Portreath beach where we could see many young boys and girls doing cliff jumping and coasteering. The beach was unique with its little caves formed by the cliff formations. There was a fishing dock as well where we met a fisherman who had just got lucky with a bucket full of big lobsters, still alive when we met them. It was a bustling little town. We spent some time idling around, having more ice creams and watching the busy beach.

Our short hiking trip came to end with this and we had to take an overnight coach back home. Each of the three hikes we did was so different yet so engaging. Our first hike was a rugged cliff walk by the coast whilst the second day was more of rock climbing and swimming and the third hike took us through woods, open farmlands, deadly peaks and bustling fishing town. Each of these places was so charming that you feel magically refreshed even after a long tiring day. There are few places I have visited which leave your heart longing for more and Cornwall definitely tops that list of places.