I recently visited Beachy Head, East Sussex, with a friend and my two teenage children.
As we walked along the cliftop, we all agreed: Where in the world could we go that’s more beautiful than this?
Beachy Head, together with the Seven Sisters Country Park and Birling Gap are all protected by The National Trust and they are a short drive out of Eastbourne on the south coast.
I was born and brought up in Kent, and it was only thirty five minutes drive from where we lived to the south coast. Camber Sands was a particular favourite, and we regularly visited and ran over the open dunes, usually going on afterwards to the lovely old fishing town Rye, with its evocative fifteenth century Mermaid Inn.
On every trip, I felt the excitement of that first view of the sea.
And now, I say to my own children, just as my father said to us: “who’ll be the first to catch a glimpse of the sea?”
Everything depends upon our own inner state, as we contemplate such landscapes, which can then become sacred spaces.
For me, standing on a cliff gazing out to sea is a thing of beauty, a joy for ever.
scskillman.com 
I never lose that childish excitement about seeing the sea when we go away, and now I play the same game with my own daughter that my parents played with me; “First one to see the sea wins!” Those photos are lovely, and a part of the country I haven’t been able to visit yet (although Camber Sands sounds familiar, I might have been there as a child, maybe on a Haven holiday park). Lovely memories!
Thank you Catherine!
Great photos. Good to be reminded of the beauty of the English Countryside
Thank you Wendy!