Sabbatical Diary – Day 34

Looking over the shoulder of the lone airman at the Battle of Britain Memorial above the white cliffs at Capel-le-Ferne, between Dover and Folkestone.

The statue portrays an airman who has returned home, looking out to sea for other flights to return. You get the impression that he has been sat there for some time and that there are some flights that are not coming back. It is very powerful and moving.

There is also a memorial wall and a replica Spitfire and Hurricane. Well worth a visit if you are ever in the area.

Great day again. Bright and dry. Left Whitstable and travelled through Herne Bay, Westgate, Margate, Broadstairs, Ramsgate, Sandwich, Deal, Dover, Folkestone, Hythe, Dymchurch, Dungeness, and round to Hastings. Many of these places were familiar to me having spent time travelling around Kent over a few years from a holiday base near Canterbury.

The big decision regarding the route was whether to follow the main road (A256) from Sandwich to Dover or pay a toll on a private road along the coast which is much slower, but beautiful. So, basically, Deal or no Deal.

Deal Castle. (Look at Wikipedia for a photo from the air. Very interesting. And impressive.)

I chose Deal and had a good chat with the toll guy who was interested in the trike. At this point Sebastian walked past. I asked if he wanted a lift. He was reluctant at first, which was reasonable enough, but then agreed. He was planning to walk over 5 miles to get home after a Chemistry exam (that he thought had gone well). I think he enjoyed the ride home.

Drive from Hythe to Dungeness was particularly good. There is a little railway that runs down the same way, which I went down years ago. But the road was better. Generally closer to the sea.

Dungeness is weird. Looks like a post apocalypse setting for a movie. A couple of randomly placed lighthouses, two nuclear power stations, a couple of tourist pubs, and dozens of single story, generally wooden, small beach holiday style homes, with acres and acres of empty space between them. It looks like a small holiday town has had 99 out of every 100 homes taken away or destroyed at some point in the past. Very odd.

A lot of the ground is just loose shingle and cannot be built on. The two lighthouses are the fourth and fifth that have been built there as the ‘coast’ keeps moving. I don’t know how some bits are obviously stable for building and others aren’t. (Maybe they’re not, and stuff just falls down.) The whole area is very eerie, but well worth visiting.

God bless,

Mike