Nangle Natters: A fine day out

As the seasons are turning, autumn keeps dropping chilly days on us mixed in with the last of the blazing sunny offerings. With this in mind it’s with a real delight that I joined a group of friends in bundling into a car and heading down the coast for the day.

To be honest, when I took the bus ride along to Eastbourne in May I was captivated by the fields of cows and sheep and fascinatingly-shaped trees I need to try and climb. It’s so near and time just needs to be made for it!

Anyway, we rocked up at the Birling Gap National Trust car park and I fell in tranquil love. It’s just beautiful. It was lunchtime and we strode down to the beach with packed lunches, a guitar and no concept of when the tide was due in. It was due in then. Yeah, nothing says finding rock pools like seeing them hidden by rolling waves.

Nothing says finding rock pools like seeing them hidden by rolling waves

Luckily we were there for the duration – or at least until the sun set – so they soon popped up again and I was gazing hypnotized at seaweed and shells in no time at all.

The cliff is so crumbly there’s a metal kind of pier out into the air, where it meets a middle-of-the-beach stairwell we quickly descended and set up camp at the bottom of. At the top there’s a National Trust cafe – which was fab for fetching tea from, as the wind was really cutting in. For once I was grateful for my ‘Grangle’ (Granny-Nangle is always prepared) proclivities and the number of layers to wear I brought. Gotta love a massive poncho in Autumn.

As we left the sun had mostly disappeared and a couple of our number stripped off and ran laughing into the sea as the rain started to drizzle. What a metaphor for the changing seasons. Welcome you falling leaves. Love you.