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.
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