Coastwalk

Rye → Lydd

Distance: 10.4 miles
Ascent: 122 metres
Duration: 3 hours 43 minutes

Next stop: Kent
« Hastings | Hythe, Kent »

Time to polish off another county. Somewhere between the coast and Lydd I crossed from East Sussex to Kent, and with it began the final stages of the south coast.

(I chose not to walk the foreshore from Camber to Dungeness, scared off by unintelligable, inconsistent warning signs on the firing range noticeboards. Instead therefore of finishing today's walk in Dungeness, I had to start out on a long inland detour via Lydd where I stopped.)

Mum came with me today; she drove us down from Bolney and provided wonderful support services all day. She dropped me off in Rye, then we met up in Camber where we walked along the front together before having lunch a stone's throw away from the Hythe Range border.

It was a stunning day, perhaps the first glorious day of summer, a fact the line of stationary traffic on the road to Camber bore testament to. Approaching the mouth of the River Rother I was aware of a distant roar; perhaps a holiday camp or a sports match, I thought. I wasn't prepared for what greeted me when I crossed the dunes and turned east: the beach was packed with people.

I've found all the people who were lost from the 70s: they're all old men wearing leathery skin and too small swimming trunks. They're standing proud on the Camber dunes with their hands on their hips staring out to sea.

I was surprised at how few stares I received. I must have looked odd in my hiking boots and ruck-sac. Then I realised: everyone looked odd but everyone was relaxed. My impulsive desire to impose a beauty threshold on anyone wearing a bikini dissolved as I realised this was England at play, and England was happy.