As I always do when I’m leading a walk, I arrived early at the station (St Pancras) ready to meet my fellow walkers. For a long time I was the only Poly Rambler there as far as I could see and I feared my ‘big beautiful’ walk along the Kent coast may not be as appealing to others as it was to me. However, my fears proved unfounded as a flurry of walkers arrived before the high speed train departed and by the time we assembled at the other end outside Dover Priory station we were a very respectable group of 16 walkers.
It took us a while to get going as the train had been full and there was a very long queue for the ladies. But thanks to the generosity of a publican across the road, allowing us to use his toilets, we managed to ensure we were comfortable before we set out.
The day was dull and cloudy with a fresh breeze and although it was a shame we did not have the blue sky and seas to show off the magnificent views we would have had from the top of the white cliffs, at least it was a comfortable temperature for walking.
The first part of the walk took us through the somewhat shabby looking Dover town centre, to a more splendid looking seafront, where rowing and swimming races were taking place. However, we did not linger. Soon we crossed a busy road taking traffic to the ferry port and it was’nt long before we were toiling up a steep stepped path to get on to the top of the white cliffs made famous by the Vera Lynn song. The early section of the path was busy with day trippers and there was a constant drone of noise coming from the port below. Looking behind us though we were compensated by the wonderful sight of a magnificent medieval castle, first built in the twelfth century by William the Conqueror. This was a reminder, seen in several spots on the walk, of how important defensive structures have been down through our history. Although the port may have been noisy and not scenic, it was fascinating out at the constant toing and froing of ferries across to France and Ireland.
We were a little slow to get into our stride and I was concerned we would be late arriving at our lunch time spot. However after several water breaks and a toilet stop at South Foreland Lighthouse, now a National Trust café, we made our way into St Margaret’s Bay. Here we ate our packed lunches sitting on a bench watching the ebb and flow of the tide below and ate ice creams (my first of the summer!) from beachside kiosk.
‘What comes down must go up’ rang true in several places on this walk as after lunch we were confronted with a steep stepped climb back up on to the white cliffs. Once up on the top again, we had a very pleasant airy walk along a reasonably flat path in front of large houses with magnificent channel views and lovely open countryside. It was not long before the view of the walk stretching along the coast into Deal opened up as we began the descent down from the cliffs. After an annoyingly busy short stretch of road without a pavement we turned down a stony lane fringed with characterful white washed (someone suggested they might be former fishermen’s cottages) cottages leading on to a tarmac path. This path, that was separated into a cycle lane and footpath ran parallel with the beach for 2 to 3 miles in virtually a straight line into Deal. Although a bit hard on the feet, there was plenty of interest to look at from two castles built by Henry VIII, an RNLI lifeboat station, and large graceful Victorian mansions (indicative of more prosperous times) set in large gardens on one side to magnificent marine wild flowers and beach huts/rusting fishermen’s boats on the other side of the path.
As we got closer to Deal two Poly Ramblers realised they might just get on to the next train back to London if they made a dash for it. I thought this was hugely optimistic but was proved wrong when I later received a text to say they made it because the train was two minutes late.
The rest of us either decided to have a well earned drink at a seafront pub or go to the station and wait for the next train.
The latter part of the afternoon, saw a return of the blue sky and bright sunshine that had been missing whilst we were walking on the cliff tops. But it was a very pleasant and fitting way to end the walk.
Mary King
Leader.
Photos by Mary and Chris
