Sabbatical Diary – Day 35

Beachy Head Lighthouse.

This is Tim. Tim took the photo of Beachy Head Lighthouse, because I was freaking out and physically unable to get near enough to the edge of the cliff to see the lighthouse, let alone take a photo of it. Tim is my hero of the day!

Just to put my terror into some sort of context, this photo (taken by me, about 25 feet from the edge, about 3/4 mile further along the cliffs), shows the 141 ft Beachy Head Lighthouse dwarfed by the 531 ft cliffs! Beachy Head’s stunning cliffs are the highest white chalk cliffs in the UK, and have been featured in a variety of films and TV shows, most notably perhaps (for me) at the end of Quadrophenia, but also featured in films as varied as Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, The Living Daylights, and Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.

Beachy Head is also reputed to be the most common suicide location in Britain (actually in Europe). Sad.

Route today took me through some of the South (East) coast’s best known resorts, starting in Hastings, I travelled through Eastbourne, Brighton, Worthing, and Bognor Regis, with lots of smaller places in between. Rainy most of the day, thankfully not too heavy and with occasional breaks, but not great. Got to Selsey, my destination for the day, quite early, and called my B&B to see if I could check in early (about 3.00), only to be told they had no record of my booking. Managed to sort an alternative, so all good.

Off to the Sandbanks peninsula at the opening to Poole harbour tomorrow. Looks awesome.

God bless,

Mike