Showing posts with label cuckmere haven. Show all posts
Showing posts with label cuckmere haven. Show all posts

Sunday, 24 May 2009

Lots of bees...and Seven Sisters



Yesterday, as some of you will know, we met some bees when out walking. Some of them tried to take up residence in my hair. This relocation did not meet with my approval, in fact I think it would be fair to say I was in a state of panic! Three of the little darlings had stung me before MrNifty had the presence of mind to pour our drinking wter over my head (not his usual way of endearing himself, but it worked a treat)

Today's walk was therefore NOWHERE near bees.

We went to look for a geocache at Cuckmere Haven. This is a fabulous spot where a river meanders down to the sea - I took class field trips there to look at longshore drift (and paddle!)



Annoyingly we'd walked the mile to the beach before our GPS announced we were on the wrong side of the river...so back we went. It was a gloriously sunny day though, so no complaints.





At the top of the cliff was a memorial to a wartime tragedy.



I'm not sure if you'll be able to read it, even after clicking to enlarge - so here's the gist. A Canadian company pitched camp in the field at the top of the cliffs in 1940, Corporal Leslie Edwards, a local man, warned them that the bombers used the area as a navigation point but his advice was ignored. Two days later, along came the bombers and everyone was killed.


I'm completely staggered that the officer didn't pay atttention to local knowledge - very "Black Adder".



The cliffs you can see in the photo are the Seven Sisters, each "sister" being one of the lumpy sticky out bits! It's a great place for wildlife, we watched two pairs of little egrets fishing. However, it's under threat. There's a scheme to reflood the area to take the pressure of flood plains that have been built on. The jury is still out.