29th March 2025. Walking down the road to Jury’s Gap from Lydd in the early morning, with the sun rising over Romney Marsh behind me. Crossing the border out of Kent, and into Sussex. Then back on the coast itself, at low tide revealing the vast expanses of Broomhill Sands and Camber Sands. The curve of Rye Bay, stretching round to the Fairlight headland in the distance, behind which lurks Hastings still out of sight. Trekking along the beach, past Camber dunes, to the pier where the waters of the River Rother flow out into the English Channel. At low tide, it is a narrow outflow. The pier itself above the water. But signs that the tide is starting to turn, as channels in the sand begin to fill. There is no easy way across the river, forcing a long inland diversion to Rye, rising above the confluence of the Rother and Brede, then back down again, through Rye Harbour, and into the nature reserve. By this time, the tide was full and high. The previously narrow channel now swelled, and overflowing into the wetlands. The pier vanished beneath the sea, only its harbour entrance sign sticking out from the waves. While on the other side of the bay, all is endless sand, on this side it is endless shingle. The ancient groynes decayed, and so every year they have to transport tons of shingle, shifted up by longshore drift, back further down the bay. Past the Mary Stanford Lifeboat House, now standing as a memorial to the rescue that lost their lives, while attempting to rescue a stricken vessel during a storm in 1928. Walking the sea wall beside Pett Level Road, marshy land on the inland side, punctuated by the caravan parks of Winchelsea. And finally to Pett, Cliff End, and the southerly point of Rye Bay. 18 miles.
