Kent and Sussex Shoreline Walk

Walk 15 – Bexhill-on-Sea to Cooden Beach Hotel, Sussex

Home to modern motor racing and John Logie Baird (deceased), Bexhill is not just a south coast retirement home. With its easy to land shoreline, Bexhill-on-Sea was prized by smugglers while the innovative De La Warr Pavilion, was Britain's first building to be constructed with a welded steel frame.

With other secrets to tell, Bexhill-on-Sea was the start point for my 15th part of Kent & Sussex Shoreline Walks – Bexhill-on-Sea to Cooden Beach Hotel, Sussex.

Gay abandon

Starting at the outfall just below Galley Hill, the mud marbled sandy beach had already been undressed by the receding tide. Green slime gives a slippery dash of colour. Walking west towards the pavilion, groynes, symbolic of our coastline, are left high and dry while white flashes skim the waves.

Strewn with gay abandon are barnacle painted, rocky outcrops, with delightful names; My Lord's Rock, Lane End Rock and Bar Beach Rock are just three. Who names them and where do they originate from I wonder.

Horses thunder

Retirements homes are de rigueur along the horizon. Contrastingly, the De La Warr Pavilion stands proud, gleaming white, the 'Jack' flying high.

Slip sliding over crazy paving mud, two horses thunder past, one brave enough to hurdle the groynes. Fishermen try their luck for Bass. I don't call it fishing. In my case, it's 'non-catching'. But it's better than decorating…

Nearing Cooden Rocks and journeys half-way point, the wide sandy beach runs off towards Eastbourne. It's a beautiful July day but people are sparse. Probably stuck in an office somewhere.

Designer houses

Sitting on a public bench outside the Cooden Beach Hotel with my coffee flask and marmalade sandwiches, I watch the world go by. It's nice to appreciate the simple things in life.

Crunching over the shingle, a concrete walk way appears. It's on these sea walls that you realise how slow and tiring beaches can be. Passing colourful beach huts and designer houses, this really is a lovely stretch of shoreline to explore.

On this walk…