Day 163 – Dungeness to Rye: 16.5m: 5.4h

Gary arrives for 7 a.m. breakfast feeling none too chipper and announces that he will not be joining the walk today. His intention is to catch a bus to Folkestone and take an early train back to London from there. However, as the  brekker and a couple of cups of coffee take effect, a degree of chipperness returns which indicates that perhaps he was simply feeling the effects of getting practically no sleep during the course of the night. Accordingly, when the team reappears to check out shortly before 8 o’clock, he’s changed his mind and is ready to be driven with John, Ben and Mike back to the Pilot by Helen who is planning to stay in New Romney for much of the morning before a lunchtime rendezvous in Rye – or at an earlier bale out point if the weather becomes too challenging. She will also be transporting our luggage, thus ensuring the availability of dry clothing which all the weather forecasts suggest will be needed.

However, the initial challenge when we set off from the Pilot at 8:15 is the wind. As we continue our walk south towards the Dungeness headland, it is very strong and directly in our faces. Fortunately, having ticked off an extra hour from New Romney yesterday, we only have to endure the headwind for around 30 minutes. We then turn west to walk along the southern boundary of the Dungeness nuclear power station. But as we reach its western end, the rain sweeps in and, even when it isn’t too heavy, the continuing strong wind makes it feel such. We trudge across a stretch of land which is essentially shingle interspersed with occasional clumps of grass, before reaching a small construction site near Jury’s Gap where work is being carried out to a jetty. The route along the coast comes to an end here and we have to turn inland and follow a series of paths past another set of rifle ranges and a large watersports area to arrive in Lydd which subsequent research reveals has the distinction of being the most southerly town in Kent. We’ve been walking for just over two and a half hours, and any restorative effects of Gary’s morning coffee must have worn off because he is now feeling distinctly weary and rather cold. A phone call is accordingly made to Helen asking her to meet him in Lydd whilst the other three continue along a roadside path towards Camber where they’ll hopefully meet up with Helen and Gary and decide whether to continue on to Rye.

Helen duly collects Gary from an accommodating post office in Lydd where he’s been able to shelter. The rain is getting heavier and, a mile or so along the road to Camber, they spot three familiar and bedraggled figures on the adjacent path. Conveniently, a lay-by is available at which to stop and confirm that the walkers are going to continue at least as far as Camber. John also takes the opportunity to get into the car and change his walking boots – a process which takes nearly 15 minutes and, by the time he sets off again, Ben and Mike are a good half mile further along the path. Helen and Gary arrive in Camber shortly after 11:30. Having established that nothing is open near the beach, they drive to the Camber Sands Holiday Park which, despite its name, is on the north side of the coast road. Among the various facilities available, at the back of an amusement arcade, is the Boat House café and bar which provides a very welcome and warming cup of coffee. Gary is also able to retrieve his rucksack from the car and change into some dry clothes. Helen notifies the others of our whereabouts, and Ben and Mike appear just after 12 o’clock. However, a few minutes later, we hear from John that he’s at the beach. Helen goes to collect him and the team are briefly reunited at the Boat House where the walkers indulge in a bit of drying off (and Ben indulges in a glass of red wine) before announcing that they will complete the remaining few miles to Rye.

We drive back to the beach where John, Ben and Mike set off along the sands, and Helen and Gary continue on to Rye. When they arrive, it’s still raining so any ideas of a sightseeing stroll are quickly shelved. Instead, they park at the station and spend quite a bit of their waiting time completing Helen’s Sunday Times crossword. The others appear not long after 2:15 and, during a short break in the rain, are able to effect a goodly measure of clothes changing in the car park. John and Helen then begin the long drive home while Ben, Mike and Gary buy some sandwiches at the station and catch an earlier train than originally planned to Ashford International. The resulting longer wait there for the service back to St Pancras enables them to complete the walking year with a couple of small bottles of wine each in the platform café.                      

Day 162 – Folkestone to Dungeness: 17.5m: 5.8h

Helen is a very welcome addition to today’s starting grid. She and John drove to Kent yesterday and stayed with friends overnight. This morning, they make their way to Folkestone, leaving their car en route at The Captain Howey in New Romney which will be our resting place this evening. In the meantime, Ben, Mike and Gary return to Folkestone Central from St Pancras – and incredibly find that the distance between the station and the esplanade seems to be considerably shorter than when we trudged the other way five weeks ago.

We rendezvous at a café near the bandstand and wend our way down through Lower Leas Gardens to the sea front with John sporting a very smart new jacket. He spent part of yesterday near Dover attempting, without success, to trace the one which was attacked by the brier on our last walk. It looks as though the waterproof qualities of the new model will be put to the test tomorrow which is due to be a day of heavy rain and strong winds. The weather today, whilst cloudy, is dry with just a gentle breeze.

We set off along the sea front around 11:10. As we approach Hythe, we meet Wendy, a friend of John and Helen who also knows Ben and Gary. She lives near Canterbury and has travelled to Hythe to join us for at least part of today’s walk. Shortly after passing Hythe Golf Club, and just over an hour after leaving Folkestone, we have to divert away from the sea front in order to get round the Hythe Rifle Ranges which stretch for a couple of miles or so along the coast. For around 30 minutes, the diversion follows a very attractive tree-lined route by a canal. We then have to walk along a couple of residential streets before reaching a point where paths diverge. One leads south to a road which borders the western end of the rifle ranges and is signposted as being the England Coast Path. The other continues west along the north side of a small lake and, according to John’s map, should rejoin the official coast path at the end of the ranges where the road gets back to the sea front. John, Helen and Mike decide to trust the map and take the lakeside path so as to avoid the road, whereas Ben, Gary and Wendy take the official route which is, in fact, slightly purer. It also transpires to be about 5 minutes quicker when we are reunited on the sea front with neither trio having encountered any navigational (or any other) difficulty. Indeed, the lakeside group has witnessed a maintenance train on the Romney Hythe & Dymchurch Light Railway and the road group – or at least the one member of the group tall enough to see over the fence – has witnessed squaddies firing very proficiently at distant targets.      

The shoreline now turns gradually southward, and we’re able to follow it through Dymchurch and St Mary’s Bay to New Romney where we arrive shortly before 4 o’clock. This marks the end of the walk for Helen and Wendy. Helen walks half a mile or so inland to the Captain Howey, and Wendy catches a bus back to Hythe. It’s less than half and hour until sunset, but the rest of us want to get a bit further along the coast so as to reduce the mileage in the anticipated bad weather tomorrow. Our aim is the Pilot pub in Dungeness which is just over an hour away, but the final section should have the benefit of street lights so we hope the gathering darkness won’t be a problem. And our hopes are realised. After a bit of beach action through and beyond Greatstone-on-Sea, we walk over the shingle to the road where the illumination is such that the head lamp which John has brought with him is hardly needed. As we approach Dungeness, John phones Helen to let her know our ETA at the Pilot so that she can collect us there, and also to take her drinks order. Our arrival time is just before 5 o’clock and, despite the relatively early hour and the remote location, the Pilot seems to be doing a reasonable trade in both drink and food. We restrict ourselves to just the one drink before driving to the Captain Howey and having another. The bar there is nowhere near as popular as the Pilot but, when we reconvene for supper later, the food is good, wine (and stickies) are available at reasonable prices, and the service is efficient and friendly. We learn from one particularly chatty waitress about her adoption of stray or injured animals, to include cats, tortoises and birds. An entertaining evening.

Day 161 – St Margaret’s at Cliffe to Folkestone: 13.7m: 5.4h

Almost all of today’s coastal walk will be along cliffs, so once again Ben will be taking an inland route with Gary for (alleged) company. The Parkdean has certainly exceeded expectations, but it doesn’t serve breakfast until 9 o’clock. The four of us are therefore making an early start, and aiming for a breakfast rendezvous around 8:30 in Dover which is about 4 miles away. For John and Mike, early means 6:30. However, they first need to return to St Margaret’s Bay so Ben and Gary (whose route starts immediately outside the holiday park) feel that they can delay their departure time until 7 o’clock. Both sub-teams leave on schedule and so are able to witness a beautiful sunrise at exactly 7:11. (We spent several minutes at the Smugglers last night establishing that this was probably one of the joint earliest sunrise times in the country today.) The French coastline is also clearly visible. Indeed, as was the case yesterday afternoon, John and Mike are sufficiently close to France that the clocks on their phones move forward an hour and Mike receives a message from his service provider informing him of conditions of continental data use.

The first couple of miles of the inland route take Ben and Gary directly westward along a minor road/cycle path which fortunately isn’t very busy. It goes past Swingate Down (which was used by the Royal Flying Corps at the start of WW1 as its final landing ground prior to crossing over to France) before reaching a point which gives views of Dover Castle to the right and Dover Ferry Terminal to the left. Also to the left, the cycle path leaves the road initially in the direction of a Coastguard Station but then, it would appear, down into Dover itself. Given that this is towards the Dover side of the National Trust entrance to the White Cliffs, it’s a reasonably safe bet that following the cycle path will involve no cliff tops, and so it proves. The path zigzags gently down the hillside and eventually goes under the elevated main road into the ferry terminal to reach a narrow lane which leads into the town and, at a junction with the Marine Parade, a Premier Inn. It is quickly determined that this provides an “unlimited cooked breakfast” for £9.50 and this news is immediately communicated to John and Mike. From messages exchanged earlier in the morning, it is assumed by Ben and Gary that the cliff duo’s arrival will not be long delayed, but it transpires that they have encountered a few problems finding a route from the cliffs into Dover. These have included narrow paths at the edge of steep drops, signs warning of danger and closures ahead, attempts to navigate areas covered in briar, and reaching a point very close to the elevated ferry terminal road where the path has come to an end with no route under, over or across the road. They eventually join Ben and Gary at the Premier Inn around 8:40 and we settle down for a relaxed breakfast.

But although the breakfast is relaxed, it’s clear that the navigational problems which John and Mike have just faced were anything but. For example, their attempts to get through or around the briar have resulted in one or two scratches and also in the briar effectively pulling open John’s rucksack. Indeed, as we prepare to leave, John discovers that his jacket is no longer in the rucksack. After a few minutes thought, he decides against retracing his steps in an attempt to find it, and we set off for our next and final rendezvous point today, the bandstand in Folkestone. John and Mike haven’t been deterred from continuing along the cliff top, whereas Ben and Gary walk along a couple of streets, past Dover Priory station and then, via a narrow residential lane, to a long and steep path which takes them into some fields and woods above the north west edge of the town. There are hardly any direction signposts but, on a track through the very aptly named Long Wood, reassurance is given by a couple walking in the other direction that “civilisation” will soon emerge in the form of a field with the village of West Hougham on the other side. From there, it’s just under 5 miles to Folkestone via Capel-le-Ferne and a brief stop shortly after Capel-le-Ferne at the Battle of Britain Memorial.

The road down into Folkestone leads to the harbour, and thankfully it transpires that John and Mike have encountered no further problems and are only 5 or 10 minutes away. Ben and Gary resist the temptation to wait for them in the Harbour Inn and instead continue along the sea front, past a non-operational funicular to a small amphitheatre in Lower Leas Gardens where a zigzag path leads up to the bandstand on the road above the gardens. John and Mike duly emerge from the zigzag path a few minutes later. It’s almost 1:15 and our intended train back to London doesn’t leave until 3 o’clock. However, we decide to get the 20 minute walk to Folkestone Central out of the way before finding a pub, and fortunately not much searching is required. Almost opposite the station is the Park Inn where John initially spends almost as much time considering whether to take an earlier train as he spent in Dover considering the jacket retrieval question. Once again the decision is no, and we have a couple of refreshing pints and packets of crisps before purchasing sandwiches from the nearby Co-op (or in John’s case from the station) and then catching the train to St Pancras.