Frugal English Channel coast

There’s nothing better than a brisk, country walk that begins and ends with food and drink. Tea and toast before you step onto the path. A pint of beer hours later when you step off.

Such is the opportunity on a frugal day trip from London south to the English Channel coast. The walk is along a section of the South Downs Way, one of the country’s oldest pathways. The payoff is a view of the Seven Sisters – the chalk cliffs along the coast, said to be beautiful and “so unmistakably British.”

I took the train to Brighton, then a bus to the Seven Sisters Country Park, just east of Seaford, and free to enter. The park is local-council owned land where both the landscape and the wildlife are considered important, if fragile.

So, tread with care lest you worry the sheep, trample the wildflowers.

I arrived around 10 a.m., opening time for both the visitor center and the restaurant. Fueled by a late-morning tea from the restaurant, guided by a map from the visitor center, I set off.

There’s a choice of routes, based on your answer to this question: Do you wish to approach the cliffs from above or below? I elected from below, and followed a marshy, farm-land path along the Cuckmere River.

Just minutes along, the road noise abates, the wind picks up.

The path is mostly grass, though there is some bare ground that will muddy after a rain. But this May morning is dry. The sky is clear and bright. No rain in the forecast. This is level-ground walking: not even a “hike.” Stout shoes are always a good idea in the country, but boots aren’t necessary.

All sorts are attracted to the path. I passed a mom and dad, their two children and three dogs. Two women in bikini tops passed me!

Sheep and cattle graze nearby. Men in skiffs work the river. I saw gulls, blackbirds, finches and swans. A sign said the “bird of the month” for May was the peregrine falcon, but I saw none.

As the river opens into the beach, and the path becomes pebbles, the payoff nears: The Seven Sisters cliffs, to my left, are said to be the most beautiful, and certainly the most famous, section of the English Channel coast.

The Sisters are seven nearly vertical, white chalk cliffs that rise 500 feet from the beach. “The remarkable feature of these cliffs,” one writer has noted, “is that they have a distinctive undulating appearance with seven rounded summits – the Sisters. This has made them an unmistakable landmark for generations of seafarers.”

Stunning to observe from beach level, many say the Sisters are even better observed, and most-often photographed, from the Seaford Head cliffs, to the right, just above a set of coast guard cottages. Visitors have erected benches at key points. A plaque on one reads: “For Anne and Tim, who loved the view from here.”

(The coast guard cottages, erected in 1818, are historic – and now threatened. They housed the guardsmen and soldiers who prevented smuggling in the 19^th century, and defended against a German invasion in the 20^th. Today, the government wants to abandon the sea defenses, allow a seawall to crumble, and let the cottages fall into the

sea.)

On the way back, I walked part of the way with that family of two children and three dogs. The mom and her daughter alternated carrying a cantaloupe-size block of chalk that had flaked off the cliffs – their souvenir of the Seven Sisters.

(OK to take such souvenirs from the cliffs? I didn’t ask.)

Stepping off the path, at the edge of the car park, I met a young mother in a sun dress, her daughter on one hand, a picnic hamper in the other.

“Is this the way to the beach?” she asked. I assured her it was.

The encounter was a reminder to me that these coastal paths are for walkers with different goals. For me, it was to see the broad sweep of coastal cliffs walked upon by man since the Ice Age.

For others, it’s simply a way to the beach.

If you go:

Transportation: Southern Railway express trains from London to Brighton depart from Victoria Station twice an hour most days. The trip is 52 minutes. Roundtrip, $42. Take the Brighton & Hove Bus east to the Seven Sisters Country Park. Catch Bus #12 at the Old Steine stop across Marine Drive from the Sea Life Center. Day pass, $7.50.

Guidebooks: The South Downs Way Web site has a useful section on the Seven Sisters. It’s here. The visitor center at the Seven Sisters Country Park sells an excellent map for $1.50.

Currency: Prices quoted in U.S. dollars based on the rate of exchange in May 2015, roughly $1 equals 0.64 British pounds.