
Barcombe Mills – Easy Walk, Picnic, Wild Swim, Go Boating and books on places to wild swim

G-EWGZMLLNG0
I should have known better, but I love the sun. I worship the sun.
Most summers in the last twenty years I have driven or flown hundreds of miles to prostrate myself before it. It makes me feel good. I love to have a suntan. I don’t understand why it gives me so much pleasure.
On 12 July we spent a good part of the day on Shoreham beach with our friends A and D. We got there at 10 am, chatted, lazed and swam in the sea, had our picnic lunch.
I always put factor 30 sun-cream on my face and neck and use factor 15 sun-cream on my chest, arms and feet when I think I’ll be in the sun for a long time. Usually two or three hours is about long enough before I’ll want a break but this day we just stayed and stayed.
We left the beach about 3 pm.
When I took off my shirt that night I was shocked to see that I was a glowing salmon pink. I went and had a cold shower. I think this and swimming in the cool sea probably saved my skin because in the next few days only a little skin on my forearms peeled. Over-all though I felt a bit tender and didn’t lie down in the sun again for a fortnight.
I know that too much sun can lead to skin cancer and that this is on the increase. I’m taking more care now.
David
davidrobertsblog.com 23 August 2020.
I’m now 76 (August 2019). For the last ten years or so I’ve run a little under two miles every other day, and on my off days I’ve enjoyed exercising with weights, nothing massive. About 7 kg in each hand: 10 lifts above my head from shoulder height, ten lifts from floor to above my head, 30 diagonal lifts (one at a time) from waist height to by my opposite side ear; then 30 press-ups.
In the autumn 2018 I watched a tv programme about fitness presented by the van Tulleken twins, Chris and Xand van Tulleken. One of them suggested that the more exercise the better and, I think, two sessions of 50 minutes vigorous exercise a week was what we all ought to be doing. “The only mistake you can make with exercise is not doing it.” They were supervising pensioner-age, overweight men running round a race track for quite a while and doing two or more sessions a week for 6 or 8 weeks. No suggestion of risk of heart attack or anything like that. At the end of the period the men declared themselves to be feeling much fitter and happier.
The message I took from this was that perhaps I ought to be doing more, so I tried to increase the speed of my jogging, the number of lifts I did with weights, increased the weights from 7kg to 9kg, and increased my press-ups from 30 per session to 50. The press-ups were becoming quite a struggle and I needed a number of pauses to get up to 50.
I felt very well, but then a couple of brief events happened which I thought were very minor but which I later learned could have been fatal.
A couple of weeks before Christmas, as I walked into Marks and Spencer’s in Brighton with my wife to do some Christmas shopping I felt my heart racing and I felt a bit dizzy. I didn’t want to alarm Julie so I simply said “I feel a bit dizzy”. I think I’ll just wait for you here by the door for a little while. I couldn’t see a chair anywhere to sit down on.
A few minutes passed and Julie suggested that I went up to the next floor where she knew there were some chairs. So I went upstairs and sat down for about ten minutes. After this I felt better. The palpitations stopped. I resumed normal life, although I think that after Christmas I noticed that jogging seemed a bit more of an effort.
One Friday morning in mid February 2019 I came back from a jog one morning and started to do some stretches (my normal routine after a run) when I felt a bit dizzy and my heart was beating very heavily, really thudding. I decided to lie down on the lounge floor. (Julie was out swimming at this time.) For a moment it felt as if my heart was throwing itself from one side to another. It quickly calmed down. After a few minutes I felt OK, got up and went to have a shower as usual. I carried on with my normal day.
During the following Sunday night I got up to go to the loo and felt a little dizzy and I was conscious of my heart beating rapidly. I went back to bed and instantly fell asleep. I felt perfectly normal when I got up.
After breakfast I decided I ought to phone the National Health Service advice line and ask if my experiences were serious. They said I should see a doctor urgently and they would phone my surgery to ensure that I had an urgent appointment. I was given an appointment at 10.30, had an ECG and a blood test.
At 7.30 that evening I had a phone call from the doctor covering the practice out of hours. He said I should go immediately to A&E at our nearest hospital, The Princess Royal in Haywards Heath. At 1.30 am I was in an ambulance on my way to the cardiac unit in Brighton Hospital where I stayed for two weeks. I now have a very high-tech pacemaker which will re-start my heart if it becomes too fast or erratic. I’ll write more about the follow-up experiences shortly. (August 2020)
David Roberts reposted from my Tumblr blog of 6 August 2019.
If you are in tip-top physical condition and exercising a lot you may be in greater danger than you realise. I thought I was super-fit but one day, at the age of 76, I unexpectedly felt faint and had a fast heart beat. I was later told that this “episode” could have proved fatal. It may have been caused by too much exercise. There is such a thing as “over-doing it”. There is a lot of evidence for this but it is not widely publicised.
This is a quote from an article in the Daily Telegraph. In spite of some risk I am sure it remains true that plenty of regular exercise is good for you.
From The Daily Telegraph, “ Abnormal heart rhythms. A long but gentle session on the treadmill can’t hurt, right? Wrong. Those who regularly engage in endurance sports are at risk of causing permanent structural changes to heart muscles which scientists describe as ‘cardiotoxic’.Such changes are believed to predispose athletes to arrhythmia (abnormal heart rhythms), making them more prone to sudden cardiac death.
For years, a handful of clean-living sports nuts have sat smug in the knowledge that tobacco, caffeine and recreational drugs are the main causes of an irregular heart beat. But studies released by the European Heart Journal in 2013 suggest that – especially for those with a family history of irregular heartbeats – overdoing the fat-burning workout can also contribute to poor cardio health.The study, which measured the heart rhythms of over 52,000 cross-country skiiers during a ten year period, found that the risk of arrhythmia is increased with every race completed, and was up to 30pc higher for those who competed year-on-year for a period of five years. Exercise intensity also affected results: those who finished fastest were at higher risk for arrhythmia.”
The cliff-top walk from Birling Gap to Cuckmere Haven is one of the best clifftop walks in Britain. It is the walk along the white chalk cliffs of a section of the “Seven Sisters” (seven white cliffs linked together) on the south coast of England, just west of Eastbourne. The full route would be Eastbourne to Seaford.
There-and-back, two miles each way with some steep slopes.
These cliffs feature in some of the most photographed scenes that “represent England”.
The popular starting point is the National Trust car park (free to members) at the tiny hamlet of Birling Gap, just over a mile seaward of the village of East Dean. Avoid peak times as the car park and facilities can be overwhelmed.
There is a visitor centre here, a National Trust cafe, and well maintained toilets.
A short row of terraced cottages remains close to the cliff edge, but since we were last there another cottage has fallen into the sea as the result of erosion.
We walked along the clifftop with wonderful views of the sea, the countryside, the sky, and the clouds. The turf here is naturally short and comfortable to walk on and walkers are not confined by fences which constrain their journey. You can walk freely, more or less choosing your own path.
As an alternative to keeping to the coast all the way you can use the paths inland towards East Dean, for example, which allow you to make a triangular walk if the idea of a there-and-back walk does not appeal to you. After rain the steep slopes become slippery.
Risking the water’s edge route
If there is an outgoing tide, and only if there is an outgoing tide, it can be safe to walk along the water’s edge from Birling Gap to Cuckmere Haven, a distance of about 2 miles. It is important to check the tide tables which are on display at the head of the steps down to the beach at Birling Gap, or check here: https://www.tideschart.com/United-Kingdom/England/East-Sussex/Cuckmere-Haven-Beach/ The official recommendation is to allow three hours for this walk.
This walk should not be undertaken after heavy rains as these often precipitate rock falls which are an ever-present danger when walking under cliffs.
Refreshments
Nearby choices include The National Trust cafe Birling Gap, The Hikers’ Rest (next to the Tiger pub) in East Dean, or the ancient Tiger pub itself in East Dean, situated on the village green. We chose the last of these. This is a genuine old pub with a log fire in winter and low beams. They serve real ales and good pub food.
There is a cafe and pub at Exceat on the A 259.
Walkers’ Map – Ordnance Survey, Explorer Series, No 123, scale: two and a half inches to one mile.
National Trust Birling Gap website: http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/birling-gap-and-the-seven-sisters/
Extending the walk
1. One we have done was to start at Exceat which is close to the Cuckmere river and just off the A259 west of Eastbourne. There is a paying car park, toilets, a cafe and a visitor centre. From here you can walk west through Friston Forest to the village of East Dean then south to Birling Gap, then along the cliff top to Cuckmere Haven. Having descended to the floor of the valley head north along the surfaced path roughly parallel to the river to Exceat. Roughly nine miles.
2. An alternative is to head west from Birling Gap, cross the river Cuckmere and walk along cliff tops to Seaford Head above the small town of Seaford.
Possibility A: cross at Exceat Bridge ( 2 mile detour).
Possibility B: at low tide paddle across the mouth of the river with no detour. Conditions vary. You may be able to cross without getting your feet wet or the river may be fast flowing and deep and unsafe to cross. You have to make a judgement but you can find tide times in advance. Check here https://www.tideschart.com/United-Kingdom/England/East-Sussex/Cuckmere-Haven-Beach/
Beachy Head walks
Beachy Head itself is just a mile and a half out of Eastbourne and two miles along the cliff top from Birling Gap. You can walk from Eastbourne to Beachy Head, to Birling Gap, to Cuckmere Haven or to Seaford.
There are several car parks close to Beachy Head on the B2103. These are extremely busy at peak times.
David Roberts, 20 July 2020