Day 22: Seaford to Hastings, UK: 1066, or not

June 10, 2012

The group or teenagers with whom we shared the barn enclosure turned out to be a school group from Hastings. We were most impressed with their good behaviour. They were active and a touch noisy, but never rowdy and when they turned in for the night they actually went to sleep. They set up tents and cooked with very little guidance needed from their genial teacher.

The group was from Hastings, and their teacher was able to give some tips about what the terrain would be like and what to see. His number one recommendation was to hop a quick train to the town of Battle, the centre of 1066, and all that.

As we set off we met a walker who had just come from Eastbourne, by crossing the headlands. He explained that the Seven Sisters are hills, and he was sporting the sweat to prove it. He was 68 and though we had on parkas was only carrying a sweatshirt. British are tough walkers.

We proceeded along the indicated NCN 2 route (not NCN again!) and once again found ourselves on that rare treasure, a B road with little traffic and a chain of hyper quaint villages. When you can find a road like this, you fall in love with cycling in England (again). But these roads are usually only accessed by deadly busy narrow roads. Anyway, we found one, and this what we saw:

One other thing that popped up long the way was a sort of unique kids' attraction that used both animals (like lemurs) and famous British kids' TV programs. Usually any roadside menagerie is bad news, but we had to admit kids would love this one. It was bloody expensive, though, with entrance starting at 65 pounds!

At just the right moment, another attraction popped up, in the form of a tea garden. We have seen a lot of these along the way, and usually stop. There are normally outdoor tables and a good selection of baked goodies (though not technically the "Pastries" we need for power). This one also had some farm animals and birds to look at.

It also had pricing that reminded me of menus in Nepal, where you could buy tea, tea with milk, and tea with milk and sugar, all at different prices.

Here, you could buy pricey toast by the slice, or you could also buy jam to go with it. This sure isn't Montana!

It was a good thing we had fuelled up at the tea garden, because the NCN route now disappeared again. It did this by sending us on a cuckoo route. To its credit, it labelled the route "cuckoo". We found we were headed to nowhere, turned around (a few times) and seemed to be making a spiral sort of progress.

Only thing, the GPS could see no way out other than the A27, a two digit A road. (Fewer digits the worse!).

A local man on a mountain bike stopped and confirmed A27 was the only way. He had an Ordnance Map, but we all agreed any other ways out were too complicated. The fellow knew of Sustrans, and labelled it an embarrassment. Anyway A27 it was.

The road was dangerous, but we did find a narrow bit of shoulder that was an effective refuge. It was a bit like the old days in the US - big road, some shoulder, nothing much to be seen for a fair distance. There was the advantage that the A road brought us to Bexhill and the vicinity of Hastings fairly quickly.

We knew we were approaching Hastings where we saw this sign:

Of course, Hastings is famous for the 1066 Battle of Hastings, in which the Norman invaders defeated the Saxons. I guess it is normal that this will now be commercialized:

As we drew nearer to Hastings, through Bexhill and St Leonard's, we began to see sea side apartments, as occur elsewhere along the coast. However, some were downright ugly, and in one centre Tesco and other box stores had joined into the ugly fest.

On thing we did see was a beacon, like the one we had seen lit at West Dean. This reminds us of the beacons in the Lord of the Rings movies, which were used to signal from mountain top to mountain top.

Some buildings in Bexhill, were nice, though.

As we rolled through the western approaches to Hastings, there were the expected lines of elegant old apartments and hotels. However, these, unlike in Brighton, were decaying.

The promenade buildings look good, from a distance

The promenade has a bike lane for its whole length

One interesting Hastings promenade building

This large building is curved to match the cliff behind it

Towards the eastern end of town, seedy gave way to tacky:

This is entering the restaurant and entertainment precinct on the east eand of the town

Things get tackier and end with this degree of tacky

At the extreme east end are old fish net storage buildings. When you see these, you have already missed the NCN turn up the hill.

At the east end is an area of tall fish net storage houses. When you go this far, you have missed the unmarked NCN 2 turn to up the hill

We backtracked and began the push of the bikes up the hills behind Hastings.

We pushed our bikes up the hill, following Harold Road in part. Harold was the unfortunate loser in the battle of Hastings. Sorry Harold (my brother)!

Looking down on some of Hastings from near the top of the hill

We found the camping that had been indicated on our map. It was the Hastings Country Park, a large and all but deserted site. There are flush toilets, and lots of space, so despite the rain we are happy.

There is also a good 3G signal, so that's why you are reading this reportage, almost live, from the hill on top of Hastings, UK!

Today's ride: 58 km (36 miles)
Total: 674 km (419 miles)

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