Christmas had come and gone in a bit of a blur. Dayne and Matt produced a new member of the family, baby Maya, on Christmas Eve. Kate and Kean were collected from Heathrow on Christmas morning. Christmas lunch was delayed by a day or two in all the excitement and then there was a bit of time to take a breather, so we headed off to Birling Gap and The Seven Sisters for the day.
Birling Gap is the entry point to the beach and only accessible by a galvanised steel staircase - designed to be moved, as a result of the constant erosion of the cliffs. (Between 1873 and 2005 the cliffs had moved 90 metres northwards). The spectacular cliffs are the Seven Sisters. Administered by the National Trust, there is lots of parking, clean loos and the ever reliable tea room for cakes and scones - an important (actually most important) part of any walk.
Lots of people around despite the weather but the further you walked, the more you felt you were alone and about to walk off the edge of the cliff! Easy to see why smuggling flourished in this area in bygone days.
Fairly regularly during the year you hear about people falling (jumping) off these cliffs. Selfies have accounted for a few. This was also the area in 2017 where swathes of coastline was smothered with a toxic cloud leaving many people needing hospital treatment. One idea is that it may have been a 100 year old WW1 corroded munitions shipwreck leaking poison gas. This is the English Channel after all.
Shades of Wuthering Heights?
The day wasn't warming up at all so time for that cream tea and then into the fog to find our way home.
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