25 May 2016 - Canterbury Club Site, Kent

Despite this wonderfully peaceful camp site, Chris woke early still feeling a bit crook as he had when he retired last night. Unfortunate to say the least because we had a big day’s out planned requiring major input from him as principal driver; in fact, he is The Driver. I had driven the seven and a half miles to Margie’s from our Woolpit camp the night of the Pork Roast, but apart from that, I have deliberately avoided the activity. However he is staunch, as they say in these modern times, and he was not one to allow a little abdominal discomfort stand in the way of a day out, so we were up early and out on the road at about 8.30 am, joining the Canterbury rush hour traffic across to Canterbury Caravan Sales, with the intention of purchasing a clothesline, now demanded by yours truly. We found this treasure trove of all things pertaining to caravanning and camping on the north east edge of the city at the village of Sturry. The proprietor was so friendly, helpful and chatty; we could have spent the whole morning with him, but the south coast called and as I have said on numerous occasions, there are only so many hours in the day, or at least in the daylight hours we wish to be out in.

I had heard rain through the night and dawn did not bring much improvement. The day remained bleak, cold and drizzly, not really suitable for sightseeing but one cannot sit around in England waiting for Mediterranean weather.

Canterbury to Dover is only a half hour trip, and we were there sitting outside the castle entrance before the opening hour of 10 am, along with half a dozen others. This major tourist attraction is administered by English Heritage, another of the outfits we subscribe to, so entry was free, which is just as well as the entry fee is otherwise more than £20 each. We did fork out for a souvenir book which was a bit silly on two counts: 1) Our older son and his wife have a copy of the same and it was reading that in New Zealand which prompted us to place a visit to Dover Castle as a must-do, and 2) yet another book to add to the weight in our suitcases when we eventually head back to the other side of the world. 

The imposing Castle

I had been to Dover once before, or maybe twice; surely it was here we returned to after our Trafalgar trip around western Europe eight years ago? But arriving by coach for the trans-Channel crossing is hardly “seeing” Dover. The castle dominates the area if one can distract oneself from the port area, constantly busy with arriving or departing ferry cargo.
The Strait of Dover is the busiest seaway in the world, according to a series of facts carved into wooden railings set high above the cliffs. Other gems of interest revealed in the same manner included the facts that over four hundred vessels pass through the English Channel each day, that it is just twenty two miles from here to France, and that the cliffs are 110 metres tall at their highest point. 

Views of Dover port

The castle site was first occupied by the Romans when they erected a “pharos” or lighthouse above the harbour chosen for their northern fleet, to guide the vessels into the river mouth. The Saxon church of St Mary-in-Castro, which cunningly incorporates the remains of this lighthouse into its structure as a bell tower, has been there since the seventh century. However it was Henry II who upgraded this fortress to a palace from which he entertained important personages passing through, many of whom were heading on to Canterbury on pilgrimage to pray to the spirit of canonised Thomas a Becket, his drinking mate whom he had removed rather finally. Starting in the Castle, we were both entertained and informed of the fascinating life of this Henry and given a better understanding of how parts of France, Spain and the UK were melded into the one kingdom and the subsequent dissolution as sibling relationships changed history.

The castle has been decorated in the style of those times, and not just with copies but with recreations using the same materials and “manufacturing” methods of the time. It was all most impressive and well worth visiting even if only to see the castle and the church which is still in use. But there is so much more to Dover Castle; while it did fall into active disuse for some years, downgraded to a storage facility from time to time, it was an important strategic fort during the Napoleonic Wars in the early 1800s, and then again during World War II and the Cold War that followed.

Views of Dover town from the Castle

There are three layers of “secret tunnels” carved into the hill high above the port and within the castle walls. We took advantage of the tours of “The Underground Hospital Annexe” fifteen metres beneath ground level, and the other “Operation Dynamo: Rescue from Dunkirk”. Both these tours are included in the entry price (or the price of membership in our case) but do require a little strategic planning to be at the right place at the right time for each tour as numbers are limited.

The first tour was really just a walk through accompanied by a guide to check we did not get lost in the labyrinth of tunnels, and full sound effects of imaginary workers, medical professional and patients of the time, and while very interesting, may have proved disappointing had we had to shell out mega-pounds for the privilege.

The second tour, twenty six metres underground was a full history of the build-up and cause of the Second World War and the lead up to the retreat of the Allied forces from Dunkirk. It was brilliantly done, and must have been particularly informative for the younger members of the tour who have not learned of this during their lifetimes or read a great number of books on the subject as I have. By two thirty we had seen most on offer, so we returned uphill to the car park and exited the precinct. We were glad to have had our raincoats and sturdy walking shoes on; the site is quite hilly and the weather had not let up. 

St Mary-in-Castro

It is not far back up the road that one finds the entrance to the “White Cliffs of Dover”, the National Trust administered area where one can walk along the top of these famous cliffs and from where there are wonderful views out to sea, along the coast and down to the port. We set off on a short walk to take advantage of the elevation but did not linger; there were still places to see. We did however pause long enough to learn that the site had had two previous lives before becoming a mecca for walkers and landscape appreciators.

In 1884 the spot was the site of a convict prison, and later, between 1901 and 1909, the site of the Broadleas Military Prison. Most of the buildings were taken down in 1925 with the bricks being recycled in the building of the military barracks down on the castle site. By the time the property came into the care of the National Trust in 1988, most of the buildings had already been demolished and their stories buried.

In 1906, nearer the sea and cliff edge, a coal mine which proved to be uneconomic was opened, and finally abandoned. In 1954 the ropeway was broken up and sold for scrap.

Here above the white cliffs, one could walk for days and days, miles and miles, but if we are to walk more than our token steps of today, we will have to return some other day.

Back out on the road, we drove down into the town of Dover, soon joining the streams of “lorries” just off the ferry, and found our way westward along the A20, pulling off into the signposted entrance to Samphire Hoe. The narrow road took us through a long curved tunnel emerging on the edge of the coast and onto a Pay & Display car park (surprise, surprise!)

I had read of this spot and was keen for us to call in should we find it accessible and if time allowed. So what is this? Well, when the Channel Tunnel was built, massive quantities of soft Chalk Marl were gouged out from under the sea and Eurotunnel was faced with the problem of disposal. Slightly less than half of it went to France and after looking in detail at over seventy possible British sites, it was decided that here was the best spot. As a result, there is now a new piece of land, making England about thirty hectares larger than it was before, made up of about 4.9 million cubic metres of tunnel spoil.  During the tunnelling works, this new land area was used as a construction site. Tunnel cooling and ventilation facilities were then built at the eastern end. Interestingly the Eurotunnel entrance here in the UK is not at Dover, but on inland a little from the Folkestone coast.

Walking along the White Cliffs

I was fascinated to learn that this Eurotunnel completed in 1992 was not the first attempt at a trans-Channel tunnel. In 1881 the submarine Railway Company had bored a mile out to sea from this site using the Beaumont-English boring machine. In 1882 tunnelling was ordered to stop by the Department of War as the Government feared the tunnel would “fatally weaken Britain’s national defences”.

Then again tunnelling started again in 1971 when the British and French government supported a new scheme to build a twin rail tunnel, again starting from this point. The British government withdrew from the project in 1975.

So that started in 1987, after over 100 years of false starts, and eleven fatalities during its construction, was nothing new.

Samphire Hoe

This site was also that of yet another mine. Both coal and iron ore were discovered in 1890, but by 1912 only 120 tons of coal was lifted. The Shakespeare collier was never a commercial success and abandoned in 1921, after flooding and low grades of coal were mined. It seems that the shoreline at Dover and nearby was never to yield commercial quantities of the coal hidden inside.

Today this is celebrated as a place for wildlife. The thirty one types of seed sown have now increased to 180 types of wildflowers, twenty four types of butterflies and 130 varieties of birds have been recorded. Here too are miles of walks and it invites more time that the half hour allowed by our 50p parking ticket. 

Following the A20 we arrived at Folkestone and drove along the waterfront finding rather shabby has-been grand structures. Heading directly north through the town we changed our mind, but the day was late, the traffic horrendous and the pull off places non-existent, so we found our way onto the A260, then the A2 and soon back at camp.

Chris was still not feeling great, so we settled for soup and bread for dinner and an early night. Hopefully he will be feeling better when the new day dawns; we have much planned for the day!

Interestingly, the local news tonight reported that great chunks of the chalk cliffs further west of Dover fell into the sea today; we shall have to be careful when we walk along cliff tops as we wend our way along this southern coast.