Seven Sisters

Lovely walk

When ‘white cliffs’ are mentioned, most Britons think of Dover. This is probably thanks to Vera Lynn, who boosted the morale of British soldiers during the Second World War with her song *White Cliffs of Dover*.

The Seven Sisters, situated slightly further west between Seaford and Eastbourne, are, however, much more picturesque. This Easter Sunday, we took a walk there. The weather was sunny, the walk wasn’t too long, and we ended up at a pub on one of the most scenic squares in the country, The Tiger Inn in East Dean. The only downside was that the local medieval church, built of flint, was closed. You can’t have everything.

Until I moved to the neighborhood, I didn’t associate Seven Sisters with hills, but with oil companies. It was the name of the cartel of oil corporations that formed a powerful force between the 1940s and 1970s. It involved BP, Shell, Gulf, Exxon, Mobil, Chevron, and Texaco. If the rumors about the merger between Shell and BP prove true, there will soon be only three of these companies left.

Nowadays, there is talk of the Seven Sisters in the big tech world: Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Meta, Microsoft, Nvidia, and Tesla. It is inconceivable that it would be acceptable to let these companies merge – breaking them up is more likely – but wait fifty years and who knows what will have happened.

Back to nature. We walked between sheep to reach the coast. Once here, we saw a beautiful view of a few of the Seven Sisters. When you actually walk over them, the seven peaks are less defined. Over the stretch of a few kilometres, we counted at least twenty-seven Sisters. Apparently, some are less important.

It is a breathtaking walk. This was further enhanced by the fact that Storm Dave from the night before was still catching its breath. At one point, our daughter’s hat blew off her head. She ran after it, but soon found herself close to the dangerous cliffs. Fortunately, the hat settled down just in time.

The official path – now part of the King Charles III Coastal Path, Charles himself came to open the Seven Sisters section a few weeks ago – runs a few dozen meters from the edge of the cliffs. It is remarkable that you are not warned every five meters about the danger you are facing. Mind you, the wind almost always blows from the sea, but some of the walkers walked right up to the edge to take the best photos. We held our breath.

In addition, the cliffs are fragile. Pieces of the chalk face are constantly being loosened by erosion. Just a few weeks ago, this was the case at Birling Gap, the lowest point of the Seven Sisters, where a popular café is located.

I’ve been told that the chance a piece of the cliff will crumble off just as you are enjoying the view is small. That is good, because the walk leaves you wanting more. The entire trek is about twenty kilometres long. It is advisable to walk from Seaford towards Eastbourne. Then you usually have the wind at your back. That makes a difference, as we observed last Sunday.