28/6/24 Littlestone , Hythe , Folkestone , Fort Tanner , Dover and St Margarets Bay

 

     A much nicer day today , so we head back down to the beach again - same old pebbles , different day . 

    We were a little to the east of where we'd gone yesterday , and the beach stretched out both directions for quite a distance ,

    Hmmm , have to watch out for Mudholes ???? , nothing mentioned about sharks or rips or currents .

    There would be plenty of underwater obstacles at high tide though !!

     Going down the road a bit further ( what is described as a road is a bit of a stretch - the landcruiser would have been more at home on this track , with potholes up to a foot deep ! ) we came across this strange looking house . It was an old water tower that someone has converted into living space .

    Off for a drive toward Dover and we come across this quaint town . Hythe isn't a small town at all , but has a very old High St . Streets & railings and roundabouts are decorated with planter pots , giving it a more loved appearance .

    There are plenty of old shops , tudor style buildings , old churches , and pubs , all jammed in beside a very narrow street .

 

    Planter pots also adorn some of the handrails .

    Further up the road we get to Folkestone , where it seems they have built a hotel right on the beach , this is at low tide as well .

    On the other side of town is a section of chalk cliffs , Dover is at the right of photo .

    This part is called the Folkestone Warren , there's a series of gun placements , observation posts etc . The sea walls and expanses of concrete have been constructed by the railways to protect the rail lines from landslides .

    This is looking back at the harbour and the large hotel on the beach .

    A closer look at the harbour to see it at low tide - these boats are not going anywhere for a few hours .

    We got to Dover at lunchtime and found a fish & chip shop , got some cod & chips and headed off a back street to stop and eat . It wasn't remarkable tasty , but maybe that was us as well - we dined in the car because it was cold outside . The terrace houses seemed to be sliding down the hill , parking at a premium , but no charge here - Yay .

    Venturing further down the road , we came to the town of St Margarets , and decided to follow a road to the coast . The street led us down a single lane road between houses , hairpin bends and finally down to the beach . It did take a lot longer than it normally would , because we were caught behind a garbage collection truck - no-one could pass in either direction . The beach wasn't overly wide either , but we did get up close to the white cliffs . The suns out , but the wind was cold , we rugged up again and went for a stroll . Just out of shot to the left in this photo are 3 double storey apartments - talk about uninterrupted ocean views .

    This was the view in the other direction . We could see the ferries coming & going from Dover with regular monotony , there's one going at the left of photo .

    And with that we headed off , back to our accomodation , here's map link :- https://www.google.com/maps/d/edit?mid=1xrj97eU2rYc5Yok0AwgXEVOrgidcBHI&usp=sharing

27/6/24 Dungeness , Lydd , Camber & Rye

 

     After a reasonable nights sleep , we got up to grab some helpers ( cold & flu tablets ) to help stop the nose from running . After some food and motivation , we headed out . The weather wasn't like yesterday , cold & windy and low cloud . Heading down the road to the beach was a great idea , no parking anywhere near it for about half a mile ( notice that , we've converted again 😂 ). Then we found some parking in a gravel bed - sorry that would be a shingle bed !! These beaches are called Shingles .

   Of course there were the obligatory beach huts of different styles & colours .

     The tide must rise and fall over 2yards here , as the water was a long way out - nearly couldn't see it due to the great visibility .

     The shingle beaches here have their own wildflowers , which makes an interesting scene .

   Down the road a bit further is Dungeness , where there's an old lighthouse , as well as it's successor - a newer one - apparently this new one is lighthouse number 5 !

     The older one about half a mile away is usually open to paying visitors , but there was a sign up today saying it was closed due to having school buses arriving . The gentleman running the shop & entrance let us in for a look and a chat before the buses arrived ( we had to pay of course ) . The circular white house to the left of the lighthouse used to be number 3 - there was lighthouse on top of the building .

    Then there was the view out the other side of the lighthouse to the Nuclear Power Plant .

    Back to the lighthouse self guided tour , you get to climb 5 storeys high . These lenses were used to warn shipping of the dangers .

   Looking through the salt covered windows was like looking back in time as a steam train came chuffing down the tracks - looked like an episode of Heartbeat 😂 Then you realise it's a smaller version of the real thing , used to ferry passengers down to the lighthouse . The fence it's going to is a normal post & rail type fence at the station .

    Here's my lovely wife coming up the stairs in the middle section of the lighthouse .

    I am presuming this is the control rooms for the power plant - plenty of people employed there it seems.

    Back down and out before the school kids got to go in , and we found a radiation warning sign - not you're everyday occurrence !

    Heading off , because it was cold , we took some back roads and ended up at a pretty small town called Lydd , where we got some more cold & flu tablets .

  The cathedral seemed large for a smaller town like this , but was interesting to have look at . The cemetery around the church had recently been mowed - must have known we were coming 😆

    The cathedral was open to visitors , so we had a look .

    The spire stood out no matter where you were in town . Always a pub close by .

    We had parked beside a hedged area , and discovered it was a war memorial . There were some newer features here as a tribute to the airforce .

   To the army .

     And the royal navy as well .

    This cottage had the only name it could have - Ivy End Cottage .

     Heading off again , we got to Camber and found a spot to have some lunch , it was still windy and cold , but at least the sun was breaking through .  This photo shows one of the ramps down to the beach , it can be shut off with the large steel gates , to block off storm surge or king tides ??? The area to the right of the seawall is an area called Romney Marsh , and it's all land that is below the high tide mark - hence the reinforcement rocks and concrete wall to slow the water down . If the seawalls are ever breached , there will be thousands of people & towns going under .

    One of our diversions was down a road into a trailer park to turn around - there were hundreds of these here .

     Out of the trailer park and into the large town of Rye . There's an interesting one way road system in Rye , it takes you all round the streets , we found a parking spot near this old gate / entrance . Parking paid for , we had 2 hours to get around and have a look .

  This is the other side of The Landgate , with some interesting buildings either side .

    Making our way down to the river where the tide was coming in quickly .

   Coming back towards town , we found a set of steps that led to a pub dating to 1892 . There were some more steps and we found ourselves at The Rye Castle , complete with cannons .

    The castle was okay , but nothing too exciting , but there were a lot of houses inside the walls , streets covered in stones . This looks great , but is hard to walk on , many trip hazards if you're not watching .

      Through to the main road , down another alleyway and we came out at this phone box and across the road was a micro pub - apparently they are very popular .

     We'd had enough , so back to the car and head for home . Here's a map link :- https://www.google.com/maps/d/edit?mid=1semR8Q1pIOoEb3PJcCEHXbRES8wtago&usp=sharing

26/6/24 Woking , Worthing , Littlestone

 

     We've hired a car and heading off for the week , first thoughts were to go down to Brightin , but we detoured a bit , taking back roads as much as possible - mainly to get away from traffic and to see some countryside , but some fool invented hedges , and the only way to see over them would be a double decker bus - which they have here by the score , but wouldn't fit down some of these lanes .

  We arrived at Worthing , a seaside town west of Brighton , and found and paid for parking - this is one of our biggest bugbears , everywhere you go , it's £1.80 for an hour here £2 there , some are more , some less , you can be in the middle of a forest and still have to pay for a patch of dirt . Rant over for today , we wandered around town , and to the pier , streets decked out with banners giving a festive feel to it . People were out & about because the sun was out - it was a pleasant day . The old shopfronts and buildings look great .

    And of course when you're a seaside town , you have a pier with an amusement park on it , next door was a ferris wheel .

    Not much surf to speak of ( but I don't think there ever is ) , plenty of pebbles on the beach however , and there was the occasional bit of sand as well .

    They do like these timber walls , not sure what they're for - probably trapping the sand / pebbles .

    This is one of the seaside buildings , probably all holiday apartment rentals .

     It's a mix of Art Deco and the older designs here .

    Pedestrian malls are very popular in what was an old street .

     There mustn't have been many architects here when they built , it's same old , same old , same old .

    Heading off , we arrive at Brighton and decide to go down the promenade . Well that was fun , miles of traffic driving beside miles of apartment buildings and parked cars everywhere - not a space to be found ! Again , because it was a sunny day , everyone was out and about - they do take advantage when it's a fine sunny day - says a lot about the weather here !! 😂

      This is the Brighton i360 , you can purchase tickets for a ride . You get in at ground level and the glass donut rises slowly to 138m above the city . When we first saw it , it was only about 20m off the ground - that's how long we were in traffic for 😂

    Continuing eastwards along the coast toward Dover , we came across more white chalk cliffs - Telscombe Cliffs at Saltdean . We also stopped and had lunch at the Saltdean Tavern .

    Continuing after lunch , we found somewhere to stay for a couple of nights , it was only 61 miles up the road and took us nearly 2 hours to drive . You forget how far a mile is after you've been used to kilometre's for so long . 

  One of the towns we drove through , it was definitely bin night .

   Traffic was slow and the roads weren't exactly freeways either , more narrow roads going past houses built right to the gutter . One house we passed was built right on nearly a U bend - would be great fun at night , watching cars wizz by all the windows in the house , not to mention the noise ( they do have double glazed windows to keep the noise and cold out ) . 

    We found our accomodation and checked in - we both needed to stop , as we'd both caught a cold from Justin , who caught it on the train to or from London . The Littleton Hotel was our accomodation , and had a pub next door , a small supermarket 30m away , and a takeaway cafe , Chinese & Indian takeaways as well were about 50m away , winning !! 

  Shopping done , we had some dinner and collapsed for the night . Here's a map link :- https://www.google.com/maps/d/edit?mid=11w0C13bNnoX-qNRaB5ds4mAZMHr0Iew&usp=sharing