30th July – 3rd August 2023
Introduction
Last year, in the middle of the hottest spell of weather on record, David
and I ventured onto a newly opened section of the England Coast path, from
Woolwich to Grain. This took us over the county border into Kent and got us
started on the Kent Coast Path. The section beyond Grain has not been
officially opened and, from various progress reports, access to some sections is
not even close to being agreed with landowners. Targets dates for completion
are well passed and I am getting the impression that the wonderful concept of a
signed and marked national trail around the entire coast will become yet
another governmental fiasco. For the time being, I am limiting myself to bits
of the coast path that have been successfully launched. The obvious section of
the Kent coast path that meets that criterion is the Ramsgate to Camber stretch
so beautifully covered in the guidebook published by Kent Ramblers. A start
from Margate would add a few miles on and would provide a worthy addition to my
project of the England Coast Path. Train strikes don’t help with travel
arrangements. Getting to Kent in late July was fraught with risk, so we made
hotel bookings for the first days of August. A Sunday start and Thursday finish
avoided the problem for battling home through London on a Friday evening.
Sunday 30th July 2023 Margate - Ramsgate
The Viking Coastal Trail
It was a Sunday morning train immediately following a strike day that took us to London, taking a devious route through the Midlands to avoid engineering works on the main line. Time for a coffee and cake at St Pancras and then the Southeastern fast train to Margate at nearly 140mph. The station toilets introduced us to another verse of ‘The Waste Land’ and the fact that an anagram of T S Eliot’s name is ‘toilets’. We emerged from the station into a gloomy afternoon, with Margate looking strangely quiet in what should have been the height of the holiday season. Perhaps it really is a waste land. Pausing briefly for photographs at the Standing Stones on the station approach, we quickly moved along the sea front and left the town via the bleak-looking Turner Gallery which is on a low rise overlooking the harbour.
An Anthony Gormley sculpture emerging from the sea continued the artistic
theme before we strode off along the Thanet Coast Path into merk and drizzle,
passing Botany Bay and rounding North Foreland, the eastern tip of Kent. We
entered Broadstairs via Bleak House, Charles Dickens’ holiday home where he is
said to have written a couple of his novels. A detour inland through the olde-worlde
streets and alleyways to Viking Bay were the highlight of the day’s walk. The
rain settled in as we continued on to Ramsgate with views of the harbour and
marina opening up before us. Turning onto the sea front, the vista opened up of
magnificent old houses around the steep hillside overlooking the old harbour. There
in the centre of all this, on a raised terrace above the harbour road stood the
yacht club, our accommodation for the night. The staff were just closing up as
we arrived, but showed us to a super room overlooking the marina where we were
left to our own devices.
Margate dep. 15.16, Ramsgate arr. 18.10
GPS 8.63 miles in 2hr 50mins 52secs.
Stayed at the Royal Temple Yacht
Club, Ramsgate. Found a fabulous ale house,
the Hovelling Boat Inn, where I indulged in a couple of pints of Citra (4.5%)
from Kent Brewery, Birling, near West Malling, gravity fed from the barrel.
Paradise.
Il Tricolere is a lovely Italian
restaurant where I ordered Murluzzo Stufato (cod) and a Black Forest Gateaux. A
bottle of Agriverde Piane di Maggio, Montepulciano d’Abruzzo, completed a long
and enjoyable day.
Monday 31st July 2023 Ramsgate – Deal
A Sandwich for Lunch
Letting ourselves out of a deserted building, we went into Ramsgate town centre in search of a breakfast. The Modern Boulangerie was open and welcoming so I started the day with a stack of pancakes and maple syrup. Then rucksacks were packed and we climbed up onto West Cliff above the now disuses ferry port. The Hands and Molecule sculpture provided an unmissable pause for photographs. The Viking ship was our next feature and then along the road to Pegwell Bay country park and nature reserve. Two birdwatchers pointed out some Roseate Terns. The official route then ran beside a busy main road passing the now defunct Richborough Power Station and onwards for three miles into the old town of Sandwich. Not the most pleasant walking of the day. Entering the walled town through an old gate, we turned off route for a brie and bacon toastie in the Pit Stop Café.
Leaving Sandwich in the sunshine on a riverside path with boats moored in parkland, the route turned north into the marshes and went all the way back to the estuary opposite Pegwell Bay country park. It was five miles and two hard hours of walking before we were back on the coast opposite Ramsgate where we had started the day. In deteriorating weather, the path ran for five miles south between the dunes and the various golf courses. As we approached Deal, it was raining quite hard. From the first of the houses, it was almost two miles to the dilapidated pier. Deal is one of those towns that is spreading in a ribbon development up the coast. We found our hotel just where its name suggests, on the waterfront. It wasn’t providing food; Monday is the chef’s day off. Neither did they know of anywhere else that was cooking. Deal seems to be closed on Monday’s.
Ramsgate dep. 10.09, Deal arr.16.50
GPS 17.39 miles in 6hrs 08mins 02secs
walking time plus 40 mins in the Pit Stop Café in Sandwich.
Stayed in the Waterfront Hotel, Deal,
had a quick pint of Spitfire (4.2%), Shepherd Neame, at the Kings Head before
searching out an Indian restaurant in a car park, Dine India. Here I ate a
spicy sea bass dish and assisted in the emptying of a bottle of Klippenkop
Pinotage.
Tuesday 1st August 2023 Deal
– Folkestone
The White Cliffs of Dover
With a full English breakfast inside, we ventured out into morning
sunshine. The cottages on the seafront looked a picture with the flower baskets
arranged on brightly painted walls. A long suburban section took us past Deal
and Walmer Castles on a long promenade until further progress was over a pebble
beach. To avoid this, we turned inland and walked up a quite lane parallel to
the shore. As this lane turned sharply uphill, the coast path was indicated up
some steps and out onto a glorious high level grassy clifftop. Wild flowers
were everywhere and we spent a few minutes photographing some sweet pea-like
plants. This section terminated at a huge war memorial, the Dover Patrol
Memorial. We found ourselves on a road of houses and had to cut left back onto
the coast path which then descended down hundreds of steps into St Margaret’
Bay. What goes down has a tendency to go back up, as did our path out of the
bay and up to the lighthouse. Rounding the National Trust Estate, we came onto
a made-up path of the highest quality which ran for a couple of miles over the
white cliffs with views of the port of Dover gradually opening up. After passing
another National Trust property, complete with car parks and café, the route
descended a long and straight stepped
path under the A2 and into Dover. Hundreds of vehicles were queuing for ferries
below us but we passed down a quite back street and out onto the sea front with
its white coloured Regency terraces. At the end of this we turned into a modern
shopping mall and found a Costa Coffee for lunch.
Road works made for difficulties in finding the correct exit road but a
coast path sign was finally spotted leading us up to and round the old military
forts overlooking the port. I had failed to find this when I walked the North
Downs Way two years before. But we got it spot on this time and were soon on
the Western Heights and in the tunnel under the A20. The good weather held as
we climbed the steep and muddy path
bypassing the eroding cliffs and out onto an open ridge and onto more white
cliffs. Air condition units for the Channel Tunnel could be seen below. Then
onto Abbots Cliff and downloading poetry at the sound mirrors. After a long high-level
afternoon, just as a heavy shower of rain came through, we emerged from a
thicket onto the manicured lawns of the Battle of Britain Memorial. Then it was
down into the outskirts of Folkestone, passing several Martello Towers, two of
which had been converted into residences. In brilliant sunshine we came round
to the magnificent beach and paused at the little mermaid. Today’s sojourn on
the coast path was at an end (17.66 miles). Now for the uphill slog
Deal dep. 09.10, Folkestone arr.15.40
GPS 18.27 miles in 7hrs 31mins 25secs
walking time plus 40 mins in Costa Coffee in Dover. We stayed in Kentmere Guest
House, Cheriton Road, Folkestone. There was a nearby ale house, the Firkin,
where I sampled Tropic Ale (4.9%) from Kent Brewery and Citra Bliss (4.7%) from
Twisted Oak Brewery near Wrington, Somerset. Found a lovely Nepalese
Restaurant, Annapurna, eating pork belly chilli for starters and a main of lamb
thali. The wine was a 2021 bottle of Don Aparo Malbec.
Wednesday 2nd August 2023
Folkestone – New Romney
The Teeth of the Storm
A good breakfast and a poor weather forecast, a breezy but dry morning and everything look reasonably for the walk back down the hill to the harbour. It was not until we turned onto the seafront that we realised how strong was the wind. The exit from the town was along a straight promenade passing a line of beach huts stretching into the distance. The prom was deserted, the huts were all unused and locked; it was just like a winter visit to the seaside. And as for the weather, it could well have been winter. The wind was getting stronger by the minute and we were walking into the teeth of it. Sandgate castle is the only memorable feature before the urban sprawl of Hythe. Such was the intensity of the storm that we were glad to turn inland and follow the diversion around the shooting ranges. It was more sheltered on the tow path of the Royal Military Canal, a defence line constructed to block a possible invasion by Napoleon. The Vintage Tea Room at the Hythe terminus of the narrow guage railway was perfectly placed for a morning coffee and toasted tea cakes. The activities with steam engines were an antidote to the struggles with the stormy weather.
The second part of the day started calmly enough with a delightful walk along the canal pausing only so say hello to a dog called Bentley. As the route turned away from the canal into a housing estate, the rain came in. Little did we know that it was set in for the day. A dreary section along a main road led us back to the sea-front and here the fun really started. Rain was driving into our faces and the wing was threatening to blow us off our feet. Progress was so difficult that we came off the promenade and dropped down to the coast road below. The land, part of Romney Marsh, was below sea level and this gave us some protection from the storm above our heads. David searched for his childhood holiday home as we traipsed through St Mary’s Bay. A return to the war zone was unavoidable for the last two miles to Littlestone-on-Sea, I staggered on virtually blind with the rain lashing against the glasses I had to wear to protect my eyes. What a relief to turn off just after the water tower and go in search of our hotel. As we fell through the door, the owner said that we looked like two drowned rats. Drying our kit would be one of our problems, another being that the hotel was not providing food. So, after a shower and change of clothes, we had to venture out once more in search of a meal. That had been quite a day.
Folkestone dep. 09.39, New Romney
arr.15.45
GPS 15.36 miles in 5hrs 28mins 37
secs walking time plus 40 mins in the Vintage Tea Room at Hythe Station.
Stayed in the Captain Howey Hotel,
opposite the railway station in New Romney. Before we went out, I sunk pints of
Marsh Mellow (3.6%) and Best Bitter (4.0%) from Romney Marsh Brewery, neither
of which was impressive. Just down the road was the Cardamom Indian Restaurant,
where I had a lovely Cardamom Special Bhuna. Not being licenced, David had to
pop into the shop next door to fetch a bottle of Malbec.
Thursday 3rd August 2023 New Romney – Camber
A Power Station at Last
The rain had stopped, it was still breezy so not really August weather. A
full English saw us on our way before we put on wet boots and returned to the
sea-front at Littleton. The promenade, so long our companion on this walking
holiday, came abruptly to an end and we were cast out onto shingle and pebbles.
Fortunately, the tide was out revealing a beautiful firm sand beach stretching
as far as the eye could see (or at least to the nuclear power station). Tucked
down below the bank of shingle, we could only judge our progress along the
beach from our digital maps. At a point that we estimated was beyond Lydd on
Sea, we scrambled back up the bank of steep shingle and onto the coast road. At
the Pilot Inn, the coast path is signed inland over the level crossing and along
a series of roads leading into the Dungeness Estate. Here we fell into step
with a local rambling group out for their weekly walk. We asked them to point
out Derek Jarman’s house and we paused for photographs. Then it was a race for
the café to get our order in before a queue formed. The End of the Line Café
was a pretty little building set next to the other terminus of the narrow-gauge
railway. A quick coffee and Eccles cake and we were moving again on the very
last stage of our journey, this stage featuring one of my beloved power
stations.
Leaving the café, we circumnavigated the nuclear site on a concrete
walkway right up against the security fence. This continued onto an access
track heading towards the electrical substation. The coast path suddenly
disappeared and we were faced with a traverse over shingle towards a gravel
road full of construction work. There was no alternative but to take to the
vegetated shingle of the nature reserve, picking up a right of way emanating
from the substation. Beyond the construction site, the wide track went inland
towards Lydd, around the fence of an army shooting range. The route back to the
sea followed a cycle way running beside the busy road. At Jury’s Gap, the sea wall
was regained and the last two miles into Camber were on a busy promenade. This
finished at the village and the last few yards of our journey were over pebbles
above Camber Beach. I expected some indication of the end of the trail but no
such thing, just a sandy track off the beach up to some public toilets. Totally
underwhelmed, we wandered through a car park to the road and the bus stop. The Kent Coast Path was behind us; we were
now in Sussex.
New Romney dep. 09.03, Camber arr. 15.05
GPS 16.34 miles in 5hrs 48mins 19secs walking
time with 30 mins in the End of the Line Café at Dungeness.
Conclusion
A bus finally trundled up the road
and took us to Rye. A café opposite the station provided sandwiches for a late
lunch. Our train was running a few minutes late and our connection at Ashford
pulled away as we ran towards it. Such is our integrated transport system.
Luckily a later train got us into St. Pancras in time to make a swift walk to
Euston and our train north. A faithful and generous wife was at the station to meet
us and take us home.
76 miles of walking in five days,
almost 74 miles on the England Coast Path. There is still a missing gap before
we can claim a complete traverse of the Kent section. A walk from Grain to
Margate awaits us when the authorities get round creating an official route.
What does the future hold for
walking the England Coast Path. Do I wait and hope that someday an official and
fully accessible route will be finalised? Should I just pick off the bits that
have been finished? Or should I just make it up as I go, taking to roads for
sections where access has not been negotiated? Meanwhile there are many more
long-distance footpaths away from the coast in far more attractive parts of the
world.
