Let's be brutally frank... England isn't exactly renowned for having amazing weather. In fact, it often sucks. So much so, that one of the most common questions I get from Brits is "why on Earth did you ever leave sunny SF for HERE?"
Fair enough. Actually I love it here for a number of reasons, but I've been forced to get used to greyness and/or rain. However, on the rare days when the planets are in alignment, the skies clear, and the sun warm, England is absolutely amazing... golden sunshine, green hills, and wildflowers galore.
Sigh.
It's even better when your long-planned hike to the south coast happens to fall on this day.
First the hike... it did involve a fair amount of sacrifice for everyone, as to get on the trail by 9:30ish, we had to catch the 7:20am train. Which, shudder, meant most folks were up by 6.
But, it was worth it... here's the route:
View South Coast Walk in a larger map
The hike was straightforward... just straight up and down over a series of seven white chalk hills called "the Seven Sisters". 8 miles or so, and a fair bit of work, but it was hands down the best hike I've seen in the UK yet. Period.
Throw in a great 17th century pub with a sunny warm beer garden...
... plus the bonus that our merry band of walkers included friends of friends of friends, with 13 hikers all told from 8 different countries.
Fantastic.
The icing on the cake? Fun with a frisbee... at least, until SOMEONE (cough, cough... Graeme!) threw it over the cliff ;) **
Here are some pics - with the views so stunning, it's much easier to let them do the talking.
** Um, to be fair, Graeme did dive to prevent a rolling errant disc going over the side, thrown by, well, um, me. So he was more than entitled.
No comments:
Post a Comment