Reporting from the Downs Again- Day 3 | Seaford

Day 3 - Windy Seaford & Scottish Deerhound

Piddinghoe was just a pit stop early in the morning. But I have to mention it. It is such a cutesy little village with a river flowing by, in its most picturesque setting one could imagine. The stone walled ancient church perched on the river bank had a bunch of daisies swaying slightly in the breeze. The residential cottages looked right out of a Christmas postcard. The summer greens and the thousand wildflowers with the bright sun made the whole village vibrant with colours. Gosh, I was jealous of all the people who were lucky to swim in this pretty Piddinghoe river.

Church at Piddinghoe

And then I was flying! Quite literally! We were at Seaford.

The English Channel, in general, is pretty calm. Its flat, serene blue and green surface is what comes to mind when I picture it. Occasionally, it creates some foamy, choppy waves splashing against the cliffs but you can’t really call it wild. But this day was a rare spectacle. Right from the car, one could sense the extreme restless nature of the sea. But with the windows rolled up, I didn’t quite feel the atmosphere which came as a shock just as I stepped out of the car. The wind speed was at its tremendous best, blowing at an average speed of about 10-20 knots perhaps but I am no expert and it felt like a thousand knots to me! Being right on the beach, my glasses immediately got tinted by salt. Also, I was grinning wide at this sudden gusty wind. This made the inside of my mouth very salty and made me look quite stupid!

Seaford Head

We literally pushed ourselves into the headwind and made our way up along the cliffs to the Seaford head. The wind was stronger here. Going from Seaford towards Cuckmere haven, we had the wind at our back. So I felt the invisible hands of the wind kept pushing me forward. We were hiking along the coast and the wind was blowing from the south east side side of the sea. This meant I was constantly pushed towards my left and often whipped by the unruly wind, jolting myself a few feet above the ground and dumped a few inches ahead in front! If I wanted to stop for a bit, the wind always had better plans. I could not hold my feet to the ground and literally felt like flying.

Blown Away!

I didn’t have any cover for my ears and my wind-battered, battle-worn right ear started hurting. We bent low to the ground and stretched out flat to give my ear some rest. There were quite a few people on the walk - everyone walking with funny legs, thanks to the weather. The dogs were having a jolly good time, which they always seemed to do, regardless. We met a wiry coated grey Scottish deer-hound who took a good sniff of my shoes and decided it was worth the lick. We mistook it as an Irish wolfhound but the owner confirmed that they did have an Irish wolfhound earlier but now they had settled for a ‘lightweight version’ i.e. the deer-hound. Quite a distinct looking, big but super gentle dog. We then found ourselves a bushy corner protected from the wind with the perfect view of the white chalk cliffs of the seven sisters.

Iconic view of the Seven Sisters & bonus : the white horses

The choppy sea waves or in a very English way of saying, ‘the white horses’ continued to come rushing to the beach. We walked the entire stretch down to the river at Cuckmere haven where the winding river met the sea. Tide was out when we arrived, so a tiny little stream trickled its way down to the sea. People crossed the stream in bare feet. But as we idled our time there, we could see the river level slowly rising up as water came flowing inland.

Where the river meets the sea...

Tide is such an amazing occurrence of nature! And just to make that even more interesting, a trio of friends arrived and seeing the tide coming in, one of them took his shoes and pants off ! At this point, we had to divert our focus from the tidal water to the human wonder here! He crossed the stream holding his pants and shoes in his hands, with his face twitched to its extreme corners as his bare feet touched the many rocks and pebbles in the water bed. Time well spent! 

Hope Gap

On our way back from the Cuckmere haven to Seaford, we walked into the headwind, ready to combat the gusts with brute force. Initially, as the cliffs dived into the Hope Gap, we were a bit nestled into the cosy green meadow before we came up the slope again to face the wind. Quite surprisingly, it felt way more steady walking into the headwind! It did require more strength but we were not thrown here and there by the gusty blows. Suddenly, we saw hundreds of spongy foams being sprayed from the bottom of the cliff right on to the meadows! The big waves splashing against the cliff wall created these foams and the strong wind sprayed them like foams from a huge spray can!

When the Sea went mad!

Our hike of the day was almost over now. We were back to the Seaford head where the neatly trimmed empty golf course looked super inviting. I rolled on my back and laid flat there, smelling the grass whilst the wind kept blowing above my head with a whistling whisper…

Afriston village

Making our way home through yet another pretty countryside village of Alfriston (where a bunch of dogs were lined up to race by their owners in the village church ground) and along the slopes of the Downs (where the Littlington white horse still maintained its graceful trot), we called it a day with a hearty meal of veggie pasta and crunchy garlic bread.

Alfriston village church yard