Weather: fine
Distance: 25.5 km ( 15.8 miles)
Total Distance: 2030.5 miles
This was an eventful day - full of
incidents. The first was not too
pleasant when I was driving down early in the morning. I was almost in Hythe
when I made a mistake and cut across another car on a difficult junction. The
two young men in the other car were not too pleased to say the least.
I found where I had stopped walking
last time and parked the car off the main road in a quiet street and started
walking, cutting trough a park and some housing down to the beach. Hythe front did not look too bad a place. I walked past an area where they were busy
reclaiming the beach by pumping up pebbles from the sea bed using a large
suction device on a ship and pumping them back onto the beach. It was evident that the beach had worn away
over the years leaving a very large drop off the promenade.
Just before coming into Folkestone I
stopped at a cafe next to the sea. The
price of things was high and I almost changed my mind however when the £1.20
flapjack arrived it was very nice - warm and topped with grated orange peel. No wonder the sparrows had become so tame - not that they had any of mine. A number of us were sat there looking out to
sea when someone spotted a canoe coming closer to the shore without apparently
anyone in it. As it came closer however
it was apparent that it was being pulled along by a swimmer. The Coast Guards arrived soon after, siren
going but the swimmer was strong and needed no help in getting to the shore or
lifting the canoe out of the water. How
he came to end up in the water without a paddle, a long way from anywhere, I am
not sure.
Folkestone was bustling and after
making one failed attempt to get into it (the way via the beach onto the pier
blocked) I backtracked and went in via a fun fair. People were eating sea food at a rate of
knots. Out of Folkestone the road
climbed up a hill and I then cut down to the beach again and soon picked up a
pathway at the bottom of the cliffs. A
couple of young lads on a motorbike sped past and hit my hand in the process. I am still nor sure whether it was on purpose or whether their apology was
heart-felt.
After the path ended it was back onto
the pebbles. I passed a very strange
shack at the bottom of the cliffs, surrounded by barbed wire complete with
barking dog and weird looking character.
It was then past a sign saying “no entry - nature reserve not yet open,
vegetation still growing” or words to that effect. As it appeared the way ahead
was a concrete monstrosity I saw little hope of any vegetation ever growing so
went ahead anyway. It was quiet to the
point of being eerie.
At the Dover end
of this it became apparent what was going on. This was reclaimed land built as
part of the channel tunnel development recently opened. The service tunnel entered underground at
this point. The tide had come in meaning
that my way forward was now blocked and the way into the chunnel service tunnel, which included a small tunnel through the cliffs to Dover was surrounded by
fences and cameras. This meant I had to
backtrack all the way to the no entry sign which should have read “no entry -
there is no way out”!
I was very worried
that I would have to backtrack even further in order to get up the cliff but I
spotted a narrow steep path going up Abbots
Cliff which appeared very seldom used.
Although I feared that it was now unusable because of a cliff fall I
decided to chance it anyway. So steep was it that it needed to use the ropes present for long stretches.
Fortunately it did lead to the cliff top. By the time I got there my heart was pounding -
I don’t like the sight of sheer drops for such long periods.
The cliff top walk into Dover was very
nice and used by mountain bikers. The
decent into Dover was down a steep path, over a railway bridge and along a
beach. I ended up in a dock area just
before three o’clock so decided to watch the European Championship match
between England and Spain on the TV in a pub full of fisherman. I had a roll and a couple of pints of
Guinness but only stayed till the end of normal time. England eventually won on penalties. The rest of my walk into Dover was along busy main roads. I tried to catch a bus to Folkestone on the
main road but a driver of a little bus that did stop told me the bus I wanted
did not come that way and I would have to go into Dover itself. I had a fair wait for a bus there and in
Folkestone bus station too .
I stayed in Canterbury YHA (plus the
usual contingent of school children - Gibraltan this time!) on the outskirts of
the city, since Dover YHA was full. I
walked into Canterbury that night but
failed to find anywhere nice to eat so had a meal in McDonald's.
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