Monday September 24 & Tuesday September 25 (Eastbourne)

Monday

After a very wet and cool weekend, today has been glorious. I needed to go up town and do some shopping so we dropped my luggage at the hotel and then Richard and cousin Linda dropped me in town. I said goodbye to them and set off to find the shops I needed.

Later on in the afternoon I went for a walk to the Pier. 

On the way, this fellow stopped me asked what was wrong with my shoulder. We had quite a long and pleasant conversation, first time I have been chatted up in years, lol! He was quite an interesting fellow, having moved to Australia on the £10 deal and lived in Perth for a couple of years. He returned ot the UK and spent some years in the armed forces. We talked about travel and he said he would like to visit South Africa, I told him a Safari was a must, lol! As we finished our conversation he asked me why I had such a lovely sense of humour, I told him I liked to enjoy life!!! 

On the way back I saw him driving the Highways Maintenance truck and he waved at me, lol!

Tuesday
I decided to spend some of the day riding the Hop on, Hop off bus along the Sea Front, up onto the South Downs and back through the town centre. Eastbourne was looking good on this beautiful Autumn day, very sunny after morning cloud with a bit of a cool breeze!

I waited for the bus outside the Lifeboat Museum, the only one of its kind in the UK.

We drove past a statue of one of the Earls of Devonshire who have always lived in Eastbourne. opposite that is the Grand Hotel which was bult in the early 20th century and many important people have stayed there. 


I remember the Duke of Edinburgh arriving on the Western Lawns, opposite the hotel, by helicopter around 1950. He attended a luncheon at the hotel and my mother actually served him, lol! 

The whole drive was very interesting as, even though I was brought up in the area and lived there most of the time before I left for New Zealand, I learned many thing I did not know about Eastbourne. 

The town was mentioned in the Doomsday Book but under a slightly different name so it has been around for centuries! The current population is approxiimately 100,000.

We continued on, passing St Bedes, a private school, but in WW2 it was used to house code breakers. 

During the war, children were initially evacuated to Eastbourne, but eventually the town became a real target, there was an Army signalling station in the area, and most folk were evacuated to places further west and away from the coast. 

Eastbourne was also in the area where the balttle of Britain took place. A lot of damage occurred and much of the town was unrecognisable when people returned.

The cliimate of Eastbourne was such that many hospitals were built in the late 19th/early 20th centuries, most of these have now been closed.

We stopped at the foot of Beachy Head where there is a very steep path up to the top, but we were staying put on the bus, lol! 

Beachy Head is the highest point of the chalk cliffs that comprise the South Downs and is on the eastern end of the downs. 

Along the coast one can see the Seven Sisters, headlands of chalk that were formed long ago by the action of rivers.

There is a Downlands Centre and an Inn, the Beachy Head, plus an office for the Chaplain who is stationed up there. This is because the area has seen many suicides take place.

A hang Gliding CLub was operating at the top of Beachy Head and it was a good day for this activity due to the strong breeze!

Further along, the bus approached Birling Gap and the Belle Toute Lighthouse. It has not been used as a lighthouse for many years and was converted into a house. 

It had to be moved back 50 feet some years ago due to coastal erosion. in fact the whole of Beachey Head has been prone to this and a few years ago a large area of chalk crashed into the sea below.

We could see across to a new Wind Farm that is being built west of the town of Worthing which is some way round the coast, it will be completed later this year. 

As we drove along we could see many sheep grazing on both sides of the road, this land was originally under forest that was removed years ago. 

We passed through the village of East Dean with its old houses and I remember I used to come and pick blackberries on the downs here when I was a lot younger! We drove back towards Eastbourne and had some great views of the town as we dropped down. 

We passed the Town Hall and on to the town centre which is undergoing a multi million upgrade that is very much needed. The current Arndale Centre will be renamed The Beacon when it is completed.

We travelled through the Town Centre to the Pier that was built in the early 20th century. In 2014 the Dome area burned down and it took 80 firefighters to put the fire out. Thankfully, as 80% of pier was untouched, it was totally rebuilt. We then drove past the Carpet Gardens renonwned for the symmetry of their design and the gorgeous colours. All the plants used are grown in the council nurseries. Then it was on to the Band Stand which houses many events throughout the year, it is the only one of its kind in the UK.

I did hop off a couple of times, on the top of Beachy Head where I walked along for a distance and also by the Town Hall in an area called Little Chelsea that is nothingl like the area of London it is named after, lol!

My final stop, in mid afternoon, was opposite the Grand Hotel where I left the bus and went back to the hotel. I needed to sort all my photos out and get my blog up to date. I did go out for a short walk later in the afternoon and it was still very pleasant.