England 1.-Coast

In April, I was in England for more than three weeks.  Most of  the time I took

care  of  my little grandchild, 

 I cooked, I washed, I was shopping   so  I had little  time to look around 

and  to travel.  I managed to travel by car  one day with my son and I saw 

two events, which were interesting for me.

Beachy Head is found next to  Eastbourne, in the southern part of  county Sussex 

on the coast. Here are Britain's highest coastal cliffs, 162 meters above the sea level.

Beachy Head's  name comes from the French word "Beaucheif '  which means a

nice piece on the waterfront. ( Nothing to do with the English word " beach"  )

The area developed in the late Cretaceous period , about 66 to 100 million years

 ago , when it was all over the sea . Later, after the last ice age  the sea level rose,

 and formed the English Channel and limestone cliffs were born of the Sussex

 coast .  The ocean takes away one meter from the cliffs  every year, so it's

dangerous to approach the edges of  the cliffs.  At weekends the coast guard

watches over the shore  to avoid the tourists taking away the white stones.

Beachy Head is one of the most notorious suicide locations in the world ( on

 average there are 20 suicides a year )  The earliest records of suicides are  from the

sixth century . The beautiful countryside was the favourite place  of the German philosopher and thinker  Friedrich Engels. According to his  last wishes,  his ashes

were scattered  in the sea here.

A sight  of the coast is  the Belle Tout lighthouse. 

The original wooden tower was  built in 1828. There were 30 oil lamps, that lit for vessels.  There was often dense  fog, the seamen didn't see the tower because of the low light, so in 1902  a new, 43 meter high lighthouse was built. The seaside was crumbling because of erosion, so  in 1999  the tower was lifted, and was moved 17 meters further back.

( to be continued )