A 12 mile hike with little Arthur in the carrier, from lower meads in Eastbourne to Birling Gap along foot paths and then back again via the coastal South Downs Way.
We start the walk from our flat in Eastbourne, we walk 10 minutes up the road past the univeristy and onto the footpath leading up to Warren Hill. This is our main route out of town on the downs, from this point we walk right up the hill to the trig point with a dew pond surrounded by benches.
This is just about he highest point of the walk at about 540ft above sea level, one of two trig points on the walk. This ascent is quite tough even without a toddler on your back, it's about a 500 foot climb but once at the top you can see the route all the way to Belle Tout (with Birling Gap being about 10 mins west along the coast).
We stop here and have a snack, Arthur looks at the frogspawn and throws a stick into the pond, waiting for the wind to blow it to shore.
After half an hour we pick up and Arthur chooses to walk to the road (B2103). Here we cross and follow the footpath down the valley between Crapham Bottom and Middle Brow, many sheep watch us as Arthur trundles down the hill with his crisps.
At the bottom we watch the sheep drink from another dew pond and Arthur jumps back into the carrier. We say goodbye to the sheep and continue along the path to Wigden's Bottom, when we reach a house have an option of turning south up the hill which can take us back along 'Long Down' if we want a shorter walk (~2 hours total) or we can continue south down Kiln Combe and across to the cliffs roughly halving the length of the walk.
Today we are going all the way so we carry on past herds of cows and wandering sheep in the bright (and surprisingly warm) sun until we get to Cornish Farm. Here you can see Belle Tout directly south, we follow the path, cross the road (you'll spot many tourists now) and work our way around and up the hill a little to get a good spot for a picnic.
The grass is slightly wet from much rain the night before, we layout our coats and eat corn on the cob with roast chicken, we spend half an hour playing here, watching the open top buses and shiny motorbikes coasting along the road.
We packup and Arthur walks down with me to Birling Gap, we hunt down an icecream van, spend a small fortune, stock up on water and sit on the grass for another half hour whilst Arthur very seriously shares the ice creams just right.
The walk back is significantly more strenuous along the South Downs Way, Arthur immediately jumps into the carrier and I hike him up to Belle Tout. From there we decend about 100ft to the small carpark and straight backup a longer climb, at the top of this one there is a smaller dip and then two further hills to climb before arriving at Beachy Head.
Finally we walk along the SDW and follow it into Holywell, we walk back through Meads, pick up some salami and cheese for an afternoon snack from Barley Sugar and make our way home. ~5 hours inc. two stops
