Coastwalk

Eastbourne → Cooden Beach

Distance: 9.7 miles
Ascent: unknown
Duration: 2 hours 40 minutes

Memories of 1994
« Cuckmere Haven | Hastings »

It seems fitting that the first time I'm using the new car to take me to a walk, I've parked it precisely where I stepped out of that MX-5 back in 1994. I parked at Cooden beach, took the train back to Eastbourne and walked to the car.

Eastbourne itself lives up to all expectations of a slowly ageing seaside town. The white seafront hotels, the occasional motorised wheelchair, the rose gardens running back from the pier to the town. There is the odd sign that young people live here too, for example the half-pipe on the prom. (Complete with proof that the year's 2000: scooters rather than skateboards provide the wheels of choice.)

Just out of town though, is proof that the area's on the up. Sovereign Harbour is a huge development of yacht clubs and harbour flats. It's a standard issue wealthy south-east development, and one that will perhaps soon stretch further along the beach through Pevensey, Beachlands and Normans' Bay to Cooden.

But until then, these coastal villages will keep their thirties bungalows fringed by the sea, the railway and the road, one last stretch of unthreatening coastline.