Belle Tout

This is Belle Tout lighthouse. It was decommissioned in 1902 and is now a bed & breakfast. It sits at the top of Beachy Head and is next to Birling Gap.

As you might know Birling Gap and Beachy Head are on the coast famous for the chalk cliffs. These cliffs reach more than 500 feet in places and were built by badgers a while ago. This might come as a surprise to some of you but I'm certain in this knowledge because I've been on the beach here with proper rock fondlers. These are men and women who get excited by a well turned piece of schist and to whom a London bed isn't somewhere to crash out in Shoreditch. These are people with doctorates on stones, PhDs in pebbles. Anyway, your badger can be a bit slapdash as a builder and these cliffs just aren't staying up the way it was claimed they would when the head badger quoted for the job. Now Birling Gap is a different place. No. 3 Coastguard Cottages is being lopped off to save the sea the trouble and the terrace next to the National Trust cafe, the place I've sat and eaten ice cream, has also been taken. The stairs to the beach are closed and one of the reasons given is that the beach is so low now that when the tide comes in it is entirely covered. The reasons didn't include the very real danger of being clipped by a few tons of chalk and flint falling from the cliff face which, on balance, would look like posing a more abrupt and unpredictable risk - one can see the tide rolling in but not a rock fall - but I don't work for the council so what would I know? At this rate of erosion Crawley might boast a viable trawler fleet soon so if you fancy staying at Belle Tout get in quick while it's still there. And the moral of this story is that if you need any 500' chalk cliffs building you should get in the professionals or buy them from Jewsons; don't let cowboy badgers do a bodge job.

Good day today and I passed the Cuckmere Meanders on the way to Birling Gap but the light was weird. The sun never really came out, we've had this overcast and mist which the weather man tells me is smog rolling in from the Sahara or something.

Check this out in loud for the detail and stuff.

Edit: I've just checked and falling rocks is actually given as a reason to close the stairs.