My husband and I had both heard from different people that Rye was a nice place to visit. I wasn't entirely sure what to do there but decided that I would find out how far it was and what to see, and it was not all that far and seemed like a quaint little town to visit for picturesque townscapes, and I also discovered there was a nearby nature reserve where I'd be able to see some interesting birds. So off we went on a Saturday morning for a day by the sea.
I had wanted to leave early enough so that I could spend the morning for birdwatching and then the afternoon could be used for walking around. When we arrived, the train station had not only the name of the town on the sign, but also an additional marker of "Ancient City" underneath the name. In a preliminary search, I didn't find much to learn why cities are awarded this classification, but given that Rye is a medieval city where there are buildings still in existence from the 15th Century and earlier, I guess it's just a well-preserved really old place, so it gets to be called an Ancient City.
Our first step was to determine how best to get to the nature sanctuary. There are buses, but they didn't run frequently, so we decided to walk since it would take the same amount of time to walk there as wait for the bus. Following our GPS, we walked into the little coastal village of Rye Harbour, and we were directed to go down this pathway outside the town that led us through some green fields with a lot of shrubbery. It seemed rather remote and didn't look like what I had initially pictured when I was looking up the sanctuary on Google Maps, but we trusted it. When we finally reached the end point and the GPS said we had arrived and that the sanctuary was on our left, we were quite confused. We saw a small collection of cottages on our right, and just a field with a long ridge through it to our left. My husband looked at the map again, and it seemed that the sanctuary, which is right on the beach, was just over that ridge, and we had seen a staircase going over it, so we walked a few steps back to a pathway we had seen through the shrubs and indeed, saw a sign saying that was the nature sanctuary. There was a gate to get through, and sure enough, it was locked. We didn't know what to do. To turn back would have been a long walk back without knowing if we could still get to the sanctuary, so we decided to hop the gate. I must emphasise that this not something I would normally do. But I knew that the sanctuary was open to the public, and I just wanted to be able to see over the ridge to figure out if we could actually get in that way, hoping the other side would have the open entrance. When we go to the top of the ridge, we confirmed we were in the right place, only that we likely really weren't supposed to be in that part of the sanctuary. We saw two additional sets of gates, this time attached to electrified fences and hoped for the best. And in fact, there was a human-made pathway through to each gate, so we really did think maybe we were okay. Then the next gate was unlocked, so we thought maybe we were actually allowed there, and when we got to the final gate next to the pathway where we should have been, we discovered yet another locked gate. Thankfully it was also scalable, so we hopped over, but I really felt self conscious as there was a family sitting on a bench nearby with their dog, probably wondering what we were doing and why we were in there. Fortunately, they didn't say anything. As my husband says, "Boy, the things you'll do for birds!" OK - as I mentioned, that's not something I'd normally do, especially as it's breeding season, and those gates are probably closed to protect the nests. Fortunately, because I do love birds, I would never hurt them or the nests, but I'd rather not make a habit of doing things like that!
Once we were on the right path, we went to the beach - an interesting mix of pebble beach and then sandy beach right at the shoreline - and while it was a nice, quiet beach, there were no interesting birds, just gulls, the same gulls I see back in London. I must admit, I was pretty disappointed; to have trekked across the sanctuary in the way we did, only to discover some distant gulls that are so common was not the result I'd been hoping for. So we sat for a while to rest; I mean after all, it's been a few years since I've hopped the fences at my grandparents' farm to get to the creek or the pasture on the other side of the creek! We regained our strength, and decided to follow the path back, only to discover that there were a few hides along the route. Hides are little shelters made for people to sit in and look out windows with binoculars and/or cameras, enabling safe watching where birds aren't feeling threatened by human presence. So I went into one and discovered where all the black-headed gulls that normally hang out around our place go for breeding season. They all leave us around early April and come back in July. There were dozens and dozens of them there, many sitting on nests, and I saw several birds that were new to me, which was really exciting. Of course, I will detail those much more on my bird blog, but suffice it to say that after stopping at a couple of the hides, it cheered me right up after my initial disappointment. As we neared Rye Harbour, the nearest town to the sanctuary, we ended up right by the convenience store where I'd got a snack before we walked out onto that lonely pathway that took us to the back of the sanctuary. Had we just gone straight, we would have saved ourselves all that commotion, and a lot less walking! We also learned that there were several WWII pillboxes along the route. Rye has been a defence town for several centuries. The photo I posted here shows one that's still intact, and you'll notice cutouts in the corners. These would have allowed the soldiers inside to have and 180º line of sight to the beach without being able to be seen, and it was the perfect shelter for them from which to attack.
Before catching a bus back to Rye, we decided to stop and eat lunch at a local restaurant. We figured we'd get some good fish and chips there, and we were right! The fish seemed as fresh as advertised, and the batter was perfectly crispy and not too thick. It was a well deserved meal after our morning adventures. We hopped on the bus back to town and walked around a bit to enjoy the sights. There are many things to do there, but I think we've been so many towns and cities with interesting churches and castles that we aren't as excited to go up and see things as we used to be, so we were just content to walk around the historic town centre and take in the views of the old buildings. When I had researched what to do in town, the iconic photo looking down on Mermaid Street is what I had wanted to see the most, and it was as pretty as the photos show - the photo I put at the top of this post. As the description says in the link I shared earlier, the buildings are a mix of Tudor and Georgian style buildings, which is quite evident. Before we read that, we had noticed the same and were actually remarking on it while we were walking.
By the time we went home, we felt we'd had a really lovely day out. The temperature was a bit cooler than it had been in London but was still comfortable and not too cold or windy, and we had some time in nature as well as some time in town, so we had a range of enjoyable views and experiences. The only thing we didn't like was that the place is highly touristy, so there were tons of people on the train and around town. The nature sanctuary was actually fine, but Rye itself was busy with tourists. That's the one thing we miss about Covid days is that few people were out and about, and we could enjoy our experiences without the crowds. We got spoiled with that!
On a side note, you might wonder if the name Rye is where we get rye bread from. You would be forgiven for thinking that, given that Earl Grey, cheddar, sandwich, and Bakewell tarts are all named after a person or place in the UK. But in this case, it not the case. Rye bread comes from Germany, though I find it noteworthy that the town name of Rye does have West Saxon origins (from the word ieg, meaning island and not related to roggo, which is the Old Saxon word for rye grain), so it is still German, but it is just a coincidence that the town name became Rye in English as did the name of the grain.