Day 43 – Sunday 10 June 2001 - Herne Bay to Margate

12 miles walked today

535 miles walked in total (average 12.44)

Sam and I were ready to walk this morning just before ten thirty.  The weather wasn’t too good to begin with so we had tee shirts, sweatshirts and coats!  I love British summers!  We hadn’t gone too far before it started to rain and we hoped it wouldn’t last all day.

The first stretch took us along the prom from the pier up to Bishopstone Glen and we were in a sheltered, wooded area before heading out through fields to get to Reculver.  The rain stopped and the sun came out and we started to gently steam!  According to our guide book, the Romans built the fortress Regulbium in the third century to guard the Wantsum Channel which cut off the land to the east.  (This land makes up the Isle of Thanet – now Margate and Ramsgate – which is now well and truly joined to the mainland!)  In AD 669, King Egbert of Kent founded a monastery and church within the walls of the fort.  In the nineteenth century, the sea washed away the fort and most of the church was demolished.  However, the towers were so important as a navigational landmark that they were restored by Trinity House.  They certainly are very imposing and could be seen for most of our walk today.  After a photographic session and a fried breakfast, we continued on our way – this time, minus our sweatshirts, but still with coats.  Just in case!

As we made our way along the prom to Birchington – today’s been all promenade walking – we discovered we were walking the Viking Coastal trail, a brand new cycle route opened today!  We saw a few cyclists and it was quite sad that so few people had turned out for the inauguration.  At Birchington, we’d watched some kites being flown and couldn’t work out why they were so far out to sea.  As we rounded the bay, it all made perfect sense.  This was the new sport – windsurfing but with a kite.  Not sure of the technical term – kite boarding perhaps?

We made our way up to the grassy slopes along the top of the cliffs to walk along, but could have carried on along the lower promenade.  We followed this all the way along to Westgate where we stopped for a breather – by this time, the coats were off as it had turned very warm indeed.  We kept looking behind us though and a big black cloud followed us all day.

It wasn’t too far now to Margate – our goal for the day.  Quite a major milestone actually, as, at Margate, it was a right hand turn down to Dover!  The further around the coast we got, the more people we saw and the less peaceful it all was.

As we strode into Margate for postcards and sticks of rock, it started to rain quite heavily so we legged it up to the station to catch the train back to the car at Herne Bay.  It’s been a fantastic weekend – I feel like we’ve really achieved something now – it’s great to be on straight stretches of coast with few geographical diversions.  Excellent!