When people think about a holiday in England, the first thing that comes to mind is usually London. I was one of them, until just after moving to the UK, I became conscious of the fact that, no matter where are you on this island, the beautiful coastline is never too far away. This is something I really love about living here and I take the opportunity to get to the coast as much as I can. There are many beautiful beaches not too far away from London, one of them being Camber Sands in East Sussex. Only about a 2-hour drive, Camber Sands is a great little beach get-away from London and it has been referred to as one of the 10 best beaches in Britain by Time Out magazine .
Obviously March isn’t exactly the time for tanning at the beach in England or in most other places in Europe, but I like the coast no matter the weather so when my friend Amy suggested to head south last weekend, I was really up for it. Thankfully, Amy isn’t as rubbish as I am with planning so she has already planned a really nice loop walk for us, starting in Rye. Rye is a charming small town in East Sussex, England with historic roots and buildings as well as many little cobbled alleyways. It’s two miles from the sea at the confluence of three rivers: the Rother, the Tillingham and the Brede.
We’re starting our hike in Rye, heading south along the east-side of the river Rother, passing through green meadows flocked with sheep. The weather is actually perfect for a walk although we could do with more sunshine, but it’s not raining and quite mild at 8 degrees Celsius. After a little more than an hour, we get to Camber Sands. The beach features over two miles of golden sand and it’s the only sand dune system in East Sussex. The dunes resemble topographically those seen in parts of Normandy and challenging desert terrain.
We meander along the vast beach covered in shells and colourful stones while the tide is out, enjoying the peacefulness of the scenery and collecting some plastic washed ashore from the ocean at the same time. In the far distance, horsemen are riding along the shoreline, and lots of other people are walking their dogs on this first Sunday of spring. The closer we get to the two beach cafes, the Marina Café and the Kit Kat Café, the busier it the beach gets. Kids are running about, building sandcastles as if it was the height of summer, some of them only wearing shorts and t-shirts. I sometimes think that English people must naturally have a higher body temperature than other Europeans, and I certainly have not acclimatised yet.
After enjoying our packed lunches in the dunes, we head back a little along the beach and then cross the dunes on our way back to Rye. Our walk zigzags through the meadows as we try to avoid little streams of water that are sometimes too wide to jump over, so we need to make sure to aim at the little wooden bridges to cross them. We’re back in Rye late afternoon, with plenty of time to make our way back to London.
