lk along the busy beach and watched the local yacht club have races on the sea while having a picnic, then walked a little way back on the promenade and had ice creams from a Mr Whippy! Back at the van, we went for a walk from the site into the Highwoods woodland park. This is a privately owned wood that’s open to walkers and horses, there are 3 walks through the woods and a horsey trail, it was quite busy as it was Sunday and a lovely sunny day , we saw some mad horses who were charging around their field with spring fever and some people who were out bird watching.
The next day we had decided to go to the battle of Hastings site and Battle Abbey after picking up a leaflet. It is a very grand entrance to the site, and we were welcomed by an English Heritage man who gave us a German guide leaflet by mistake due to a flock of German students
who had gone in before us! We waited until they had gone on ahead before continuing our walk around the battlefield site while listning to our free audio tours. It was a beautiful sunny day and we really enjoyed a very slow walk around the site before going into the walled garden where we sat on the grass to eat our picnic. On to the abbey ruins where we saw Harold’s Stone, the place where the abbey alter was and where king Harold fell in 1066. After a walk around the on-site museum we went back into the village for a pint outside The Abbey pub before heading across the road for an ice cream!Next was a trip to Beachy Head and the Seven Sisters. We drove through Eastbourne and headed up past Beachy Head and parked in the National Trust car park at the East side of the Seven sisters. From there we took the footpath that runs along the top of the cliffs which has a lot of steep ups and downs as the sisters roll away in front of you. At the tops of all the peaks we had fantastic views of the white cliffs on both sides and on a few occasions we both risked a look over the edge of the sheer drop to the sea below! In some places you could see where the top of the land had slightly separated ready for the next landslip into the sea. It was quite quiet on the Seven Sisters compared to the number of people we had seen on Beachy Head on the way through but we did see a few walkers to say hello to. It was a beautiful clear sunny day, so we had our picnic on a bench on the 3rd sister, with a great view of Beachy Head and out to sea, after which we carried on to the end of the Sisters before turning and heading back. After a quick stop at the car we headed up to the disused Belle Tout lighthouse (which is now replaced by the one on Beachy Head), on the way back down the hill was a fantastic view of the white cliffs, but we could also see a wall of white mist out to sea which was rolling in towards us.
Because we were so high up we were looking down on it, and we sat on a bench as it hit the land and watched it rush in up the cliffs and over our heads until we were engulfed in mist and no longer had a view! We then headed back to the car, we didn’t stop at Beachy Head because of the cloud, but as we came around the headland we could look down on Eastbourne and see the mist out to sea about to engulf the town in a white blanket.
A little bit cloudier today, but not raining so we decided to head to Rye, as recommended by Linda’s dad. After driving past Camber Castle (you can only access it on foot and it was closed at the time) we headed for Rye Harbour where we had a little look around the tiny harbour village and the nature reserve, there is a Martello tower by the car park, a simple, round defensive tower made of
solid masonry which could withstand cannon fire. Between 1804 and 1812 103 Martello towers were built along the coast of England to guard against possible invasion by France and we have seen a number of them on our travels but never this close.
Rye is a charming medieval town with lots of narrow cobbled streets and period buildings. We had a walk through the town and to the Ypres tower (Named after John de Ypres, its owner) which was built in order to defend the town from the French in 1249, unfortunately it wasn’t open when we visited but we did have a little walk around it and into the gun garden which surrounds it, this is where the huge cannons sit and look out to sea in defense of the town, and where we now had a view of the wind turbines on the Romney levels and Rye Harbour. We then headed out to Camber Sands, a massive, flat sandy beach where the dogs had a good run around and we watched a couple of kite b
oarders having fu
n. Recently we had seen an article in the caravan club mag about Dungeness, with its lighthouse and pebble beach. It turned out to be quite an eerie place, with little shacks (houses) dotted about, some of them made out of old railway carriages and most made out of wood. The new lighthouse was built in 1961, and had to be built to replace the old black lighthouse, built in 1901 because the new nuclear power station blocked the lighthouse from boats on the western side! The old lighthouse is still there and is now a tourist attraction.
We have now moved to a site in Canterbury and on the day after arrival Phil went biking on a 37k ride that took him through Canterbury centre and out through the university to Thornden Wood where he had a bit of a play on the singletrack before heading back. Meanwhile Linda took the dogs for a 4 mile walk over the golf course (having to ask the golfers where she was!) and back through fields on some indistinct footpaths. Later we took the laptop to Wetherspoons where we had a couple of drinks while using their painfully slow broadband.
We have also been to Whitstable since arriving here. The town is famed for its oysters, and is know locally as ‘the pearl of Kent’. We had a walk around the harbour where the fishing, and particularly oyster trade is in evidence with lots of fresh fish on sale. While we were there a load of lambretta’s rolled into the harbour and parked on the front, their riders trying very hard to look cool!
We walked through the lovely town centre stopping at the butchers and greengrocers, as well as a hardware shop. The town had a lot of small alleyways which the fishermen used to use to reach the beach, we had a walk down “Squeeze Gut Alley” famed for being so narrow some people have to go through sideways! Luckily neither of us did!
A little bit cloudier today, but not raining so we decided to head to Rye, as recommended by Linda’s dad. After driving past Camber Castle (you can only access it on foot and it was closed at the time) we headed for Rye Harbour where we had a little look around the tiny harbour village and the nature reserve, there is a Martello tower by the car park, a simple, round defensive tower made of
solid masonry which could withstand cannon fire. Between 1804 and 1812 103 Martello towers were built along the coast of England to guard against possible invasion by France and we have seen a number of them on our travels but never this close.Rye is a charming medieval town with lots of narrow cobbled streets and period buildings. We had a walk through the town and to the Ypres tower (Named after John de Ypres, its owner) which was built in order to defend the town from the French in 1249, unfortunately it wasn’t open when we visited but we did have a little walk around it and into the gun garden which surrounds it, this is where the huge cannons sit and look out to sea in defense of the town, and where we now had a view of the wind turbines on the Romney levels and Rye Harbour. We then headed out to Camber Sands, a massive, flat sandy beach where the dogs had a good run around and we watched a couple of kite b
oarders having fu
n. Recently we had seen an article in the caravan club mag about Dungeness, with its lighthouse and pebble beach. It turned out to be quite an eerie place, with little shacks (houses) dotted about, some of them made out of old railway carriages and most made out of wood. The new lighthouse was built in 1961, and had to be built to replace the old black lighthouse, built in 1901 because the new nuclear power station blocked the lighthouse from boats on the western side! The old lighthouse is still there and is now a tourist attraction.We have now moved to a site in Canterbury and on the day after arrival Phil went biking on a 37k ride that took him through Canterbury centre and out through the university to Thornden Wood where he had a bit of a play on the singletrack before heading back. Meanwhile Linda took the dogs for a 4 mile walk over the golf course (having to ask the golfers where she was!) and back through fields on some indistinct footpaths. Later we took the laptop to Wetherspoons where we had a couple of drinks while using their painfully slow broadband.
We have also been to Whitstable since arriving here. The town is famed for its oysters, and is know locally as ‘the pearl of Kent’. We had a walk around the harbour where the fishing, and particularly oyster trade is in evidence with lots of fresh fish on sale. While we were there a load of lambretta’s rolled into the harbour and parked on the front, their riders trying very hard to look cool!
We walked through the lovely town centre stopping at the butchers and greengrocers, as well as a hardware shop. The town had a lot of small alleyways which the fishermen used to use to reach the beach, we had a walk down “Squeeze Gut Alley” famed for being so narrow some people have to go through sideways! Luckily neither of us did!
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