Day 46 – Sunday 2 September 2001 - Walmer Castle to Dover

9 miles walked today

567 miles walked in total (average 12.32)

After breakfast at the Rose and Crown in Elham, Vicky and I started walking at about ten o’clock.  We were on footpaths immediately alongside the beach and then up on to the cliffs at Kingsdown, where the white cliffs start.  I’ve never seen anyone climb a hill as fast as Vicky and I was soon put to shame by her striding ahead, leaving me lagging behind.

I had already reminded Vicky to look out for bluebirds over the white cliffs of Dover, but the nearest we saw was the Bluebirds Café up by the Dover Patrol Memorial.  Just past the Memorial on top of the cliffs, the path turned into a lane which descended into St Margaret’s Bay, where the tide was crashing against the sea wall.  We climbed back up the lanes to a tea room which was covered in pictures of Noel Coward.  It was then that I remembered vaguely that I’d read in one of Sam’s books that he lived on this stretch of coast.  We’d practically walked past his house and had missed it.  Vicky and I decided that Sam had been very remiss in not reminding me to look out for the house.  My guide book had failed to mention it too, so Sam had failed in her duty to tell the authors also.

St Margaret’s Bay is the nearest point to France, being only twenty-one miles distant, and is traditionally the start/ finish point for cross Channel swimmers.  I had already ascertained how near we were to France though as my ‘phone had transferred to a French mobile ‘phone network!

A short distance along the cliffs we found the South Foreland lighthouse.  There were lots of people around and it was good to see so many people using the footpaths.  Coming into Dover, we stumbled on a group of people wearing badges inscribed with their name and UNE.  We spent a while trying to work out what UNE stood for, before I gave up and asked Jean – apparently they were all from the University of New England in Australia and were on a bit of a jaunt to catch the sights.

From the cliffs, the Port of Dover looked very small, but very well organised, with orderly queues being formed and lots of ships entering and leaving the harbour.  The path meandered vaguely into Dover and we were soon into the town centre trying to find the station.

It’s been a great weekend – we’ve hardly needed to use the roads at all and it’s good to be on proper footpaths.  The weather’s been good too, sunny on Saturday and mild today, although we needed our waterproofs for just an hour at the end of the day.

Vicky has said that she’s going to give walking a bit of a rest and will only consider coming again when I’ve got past Brighton and we’re back onto level surfaces again.  Unfortunately, I can feel a few hills coming on!

Day 45 – Saturday 1 September 2001 - Sandwich to Walmer Castle

8 miles walked today

558 miles walked in total (average 12.4)

Vicky and I started walking at twelve o’clock and, after a few hundred yards’ stretch through an estate and across a golf course, we decided to sit on the beach and eat our lunch!

The path followed a shingle bank beside two golf courses and Vicky and I had a good gawp at all the very smart houses en route.

We soon reached Deal, two thousand and fifty-six years and seven days exactly after Julius Caesar reached the town.  The sun had already worked its miracles and the delirium that ensued brought up such conversational gems as body piercing, tattoos, Roman roads and part time undercover pirates.

We liked Deal very much.  It was a well cared for, non touristy little town.  We had a sit down outside the King’s Head and watched the world go by for quite a while.  We could clearly see the pier, a very odd structure, exactly a thousand feet long.  It didn’t have all the metal and wooden beams underneath, but just two columns, one at each side of the pier, so that you could have an unobstructed view of the sea underneath.

We didn’t need to go too much further before we found Deal Castle, a Tudor rose shaped castle built by Henry VIII in 1540.  About a mile down the coast, we found another of Henry’s castles at Walmer, a very elegant looking castle covered in ivy and Virginia creeper, as opposed to the workmanlike ramparts of Deal Castle.  When it was built, the sea came right up to the walls, but now it’s separated from the Channel by a massive shingle bank, a road and a cycle path.

It was at Walmer that we gave up for the day before going off to find our B&B at Elham amongst the North Downs.

Day 44 – Saturday 11 August 2001 - Margate to Sandwich

15 miles walked today

550 miles walked in total (average 12.5)

I awoke this morning at six o’clock and was surprised to note how enthusiastic I was.  Considering I haven’t walked for two months, except for a week’s trekking in the French Alps, I’ve been looking forward to starting up again with some trepidation.  On checking the weather forecast before I left, it would appear that Margate was the wettest place in Britain yesterday – marvellous!

I  left Portsmouth at six thirty and was striding out along the sea front at Margate just before nine.  Before too long, I’d left the amusement arcades and sound stage of Invicta Radio behind me and headed out to quieter beaches and the Thanet Way Coastal Path, a very well signposted path with lots of information boards.

My first sit down was at Botany Bay on the cliff overlooking the chalk stacks on the beach, which had become separated from the cliffs.  There weren’t too many people around this early and the peace and quiet reminded me a lot of family holidays from years ago – sunshine, sand, seaweed and seagulls.

From Botany Bay, I was on roads, footpaths and prom to Broadstairs, a really pretty little town with many Dickens references.  In fact he lived at Bleak House, a fort like building overlooking the town, where he wrote David Copperfield.  I had a pit stop at the Pavilion, a café/ pub with seating outside on the beach.  I’d arrived slap bang in the middle of the Folk Festival!  I couldn’t miss out on an ideal opportunity like this, so I listened to a couple of bands, watched some Morris dancers and a hundred tiny tots doing the hokey-cokey, had a mooch around the folk inspired craft fair and just sat and soaked up the sun.

Ramsgate was bustling and, after a quick drink in the Royal in the harbour, I cracked on again – on proms, roads, old toll roads, through a nature reserve and through an industrial estate to Sandwich, where I stopped at the Fisherman’s Wharf for a cream tea.  Sandwich is another pretty town and obviously caters for a lot of tourists – I asked four lots of holiday makers the way to the station before finding a local who knew the way!

I really enjoyed this morning, but, from Ramsgate onwards, it was a real slog and I found it quite difficult.  That’ll teach me for sitting around and doing nothing for ages!

THE DIARY OF SAM J - 10 JUNE 2001

We set off this morning from Epsom in optimistic mood – we were wearing shorts!

We started walking from Herne Bay station at 10.30 am and, by the time we reached the sea front, it was raining.  Our first landmark of the day was three miles away, but it was in view straight away – the twin towers of Reculver church.  This spurred us on and we marched off along the prom, past a dozen or so camper vans parked up, watching two or three people windsurfing.   The rain came and went as we passed dog  walkers wrapped up (sensibly) against the weather.

Reculver vanished from view as we had to head inland, briefly, through Bishopstone Glen and then up to the top of a meadow.  Sweeping before us was a fantastic view of the Isle of Thanet way off in the distance.  We strode on and passed a large group of “walkers”, but, after passing them, we decided they weren’t proper walkers as NOT ONE of them acknowledged us!

I’d been looking forward to doing this part of the coast for ages and when we reached Reculver church, I wasn’t disappointed.  A fantastic landmark.  We were so excited that we had to sit down and have lunch – a huge fried breakfast each!

After lunch, we set off along the sea wall that we could see stretching all the way to Birchington.  The area is a huge nature reserve and we saw lots of interesting birds including shelducks, oyster catchers and what we thought were either sandpipers, dunlins or redshanks!  If only we had Bill Oddie with us!  The rain had given up by this point and we were walking in sunshine.

We reached Birchington which was very pretty with its rows of yellow and blue beach huts.  I was tempted to have a paddle – the beach was lovely and sandy – but we might have had to stay for the rest of the day.  We had seen four kites being flown from quite a way back and wondered why they were being flown over the sea.  It was only when we drew closer that we saw the chaps that were in harnesses, attacked to the kites, and their surf boards.  There weren’t many people out and about and we decided that Birchington was like Bexhill – full of retirement flats.

We continued past the town along the top of the cliff until we could find a way down to a prom that continued all the way to Westgate on Sea.  There must have been a job lot of yellow and blue paint because all the beach huts here were identical to the ones we had seen earlier.  We had discarded our coats by this time and the sea was all sparkly in the sunshine.  We sat down for a well deserved drink on the front.  All along this part of the coast are chalk cliffs, but nowhere near as big as the ones at Dover.  Houses seem to have been built right up to the edge of them and plants in the gardens could be seen overhanging the cliff.  In the cliffs themselves were man made tunnels and bunkers – obviously defences built during the wars.

Off we went again on the final stretch into Margate.  We started to speed up as the rain clouds behind us were gathering again and, as we reached the town at four o’clock, it got cooler and the rain began to fall again.

I had a brilliant day and it made a change to be actually walking by the sea – something I haven’t done when I’ve joined Susan for previous days.  I can’t wait until the next time!