Weather: fine, warm, still
Distance: 24.0 km ( 14.9 miles)
Total Distance: 2099.5 miles
I had
gone to bed on the early side so I could get an early start. I heard noises outside and peeped out to find
a group of youths smashing the lock on the Calibra over the road. They saw me
looking and could not stand the sight of me in my pajamas so took off. I
dressed went out to check and informed the poor couple opposite about the
damage to their lock. Getting to sleep
after that was not too easy.
Gareth
still wakes at the slightest sound so I had decided not to get up till he was
awake, but today of all days he decided to have a lie in. I eventually got away at just gone 7 and
after quite a long time scrapping the frost off the car headed south. It was to be a cold and clear day.
I got
to Leysdown and was walking by 10 o’clock.
I has feared that I would be spending the day on minor roads but soon
discovered that I could get down to the beach and as the tide was out and could
keep to it all the way to Sheerness. Low
clay cliffs were crumbling all the way meaning that much of the morning was
spent walking on clay or clay covered rocks - a bit slippery at times - it
looked like someone had poured chocolate sauce all over them. I met the usual array of strange individuals
miles from anywhere either digging for worms or looking for unspecified items.
Once I
got to Minster I started to look for somewhere for lunch. What was marked as a hotel on the map turned
out to be a uninviting pub. Back on the
foreshore I kept walking till I got to a chip shop/cafe - cafe being a bit of
an exaggeration because it had one table and no offer of a knife and fork
together with hard chips. The shop was part of a hotel type building and there
seemed to be plans going on in the background to prepare for a wedding
reception or something. The mind boggles as to what meal would be served
there.
For a
couple of hundred yards entering Sheerness things looked up. A nice promenade
and a park but soon I was led on a pointless walk down to the harbour only
having to double back and go inland via the roads and rough areas of the town. I should know better. Never trust a town with a dock - the foreshore always
runs out without warning.
Heading
south now out of Sheerness, initially along the main road and then along a
concrete slabbed path fenced in on both sides one side by concrete walls and
the other by wire protecting huge car storage areas. It made me think how old is a new car when
you buy it? I ended up on the foreshore
in Queenborough and again for a couple of hundred yards it was quite
nice - sort of oldy worldly. Cutting
into the village itself I called in on a B&B to book a room for the night -
what a mistake that was!
Through
an industrial estate led me to the housing estate of Rushenden and then into
their industrial estate which I took a bit of escaping from to find the path to
Kingsferry Bridge. I worried about this
path because it looked from the map to go across a river without a bridge. When I got to the crossing point it was a mud
embankment which must have had pipework going under it somehow to let the
waster through. Up onto the road and
over the bridge and that was the end of the Isle of Sheppy and my days
walking.
Now,
how to get back to the car? I looked at the train timetable and found I still
had a fair wait for a train so tried hitching.
I got a lift from a London couple who drove an old Rover and had moved
down to the Island a number of years ago.
I opted to be dropped at the roundabout a mile or so on but it turned
out this was a bad decision - hitching was bad and it was getting dark. I walked into Queensbourough and ended up
getting a bus all the way to Leysdown which took about an hour via Sheerness
and even the prison at Leysdown. I
stayed on the bus a while once in Leysdown expecting it would go to the place
where I caught a bus on my last visit but the driver came up the stairs and
informed me he did not go up to the other end of the village these days because
of “trouble”.
I
drove back to Queensborough, it taking most of the journey for me to warm
up. I got to the B&B as the children
and grandchildren were leaving, The Proprietress showed me to the room and apologized for it being small - an
understatement. I had to breath in to close the door. I did not grumble
though because it was the only room with any heating on and I thought at least
there was a chance of it getting warm at some stage.
The
local pub looked promising for food. They even ran a minibus service to bus
people in and home. Oh, how I was
disappointed with the chicken curry - one of those out of a curry sauce packet
you still occasionally get served. The
next pub, down towards the harbour was a lot more promising and after a couple
the locals were chatting to be and enjoying the Saturday evening. I however wanted to be up early so headed
back by 9.30 for an early night in the fridge.
The one good thing was that the minuscule radiator in the room did stay
on all night so I did stay reasonably warm.
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