Squinting in the sun I walk past the colourful beach huts at Hove, a few souls swimming in the creamy surf.

The walk then continues along the sea wall, the landscape becoming more and more industrial – thank goodness the sun is shining. Later I stop for directions and an old gentleman tells me the path “elbows to the right” into the ugly wharfs and wastelands of pre Shoreham.

Distance: 6 miles

Wide promenade of Seaford giving way to industrial wastelands around Newhaven. Pleasure boats where once the ships brought in massive blocks of ice from the inland Baltic lakes. Recurring images of cormorants, real and otherwise. Then Peacehaven where the vertiginous steps cut into the crumbling cliffs and lead down to the bright smack of the sea against its concrete defences.

Distance: 12 miles