We started the day at around 8:40am for the drive over to Deal. Sandwich was about halfway to Deal, it was early and there didn’t appear to be a lot to see so we cut Sandwich out. ?
Deal has an impressive castle that looks similar to a cloverleaf when viewed from overhead. It was built as an artillery fort, and so has canons strategically placed around its perimeter. Unfortunately for us the castle was closed today. But at least we got to see it. It had been raining all morning so we didn’t hang around for too long.
We drove on down to Dover, famous for the White Cliffs, Dover Castle, war time tunnels, cross channel ferries and the “Chunnel” ( Channel Tunnel). As we came into Dover we turned off near the Castle and tunnels, the rain was still coming down and it looked like 4 or 5 buses of school children had just arrived. Not our idea of fun so we decided to leave it this time and maybe do it all on another visit.
We drove through town and down the coast a bit south of the ferry terminal to a place called Samphire Hoe down on the waters edge. To get there we drove through a 500m one way tunnel. The Hoe is a term used to describe a place where waste materials are dumped. In this case it was where half of the material dug out to make the Chunnel was deposited. They built a seawall about 150m or more from the White Cliffs and then filled in the area with the excavated materials. In a roundabout sort of way it seemed to be a good idea, the White Cliffs are protected from any further sea/ocean erosion, and a new habitat was formed for the local birdlife. (And they got rid of a huge amount of waste material, 4.9 million cubic meters to be exact! The rain eased off, and we went for a walk along the coast in front of the cliffs. The cliffs are so protected here that they ar7e being covered in vegetation (soon to be renamed the “Green Cliffs of Dover”). We really enjoyed the walk, very peaceful.
Back in the car we drove down through Folkestone and a few other smaller villages ending up in Rye. We decided it was time for lunch, Deb picked a few places out, and although we found them (with a lot of help from google maps, we could not find a park anywhere near them. It was raining pretty heavily at this stage and we didn’t want to get drenched, so we drove on. In our attempts at getting lunch in Rye we managed to drive out to the old Port area and up Mermaid Street (famous for its cobblestone surface). We eventually got lunch in a small cafe called HM!HB (Half Man Half Burger)opposite the pebble beach in St Leonards. I had Beef Chili Cheese Fries and Deb had Devil’s Fingers. They were both surprisingly very tasty.
From there we drove to Hastings and then out to the town of Battle and the scene of the 1066 Battle of Hastings. It is all a British Heritage site. We paid to go in and it was an enlightening, if very wet, afternoon. In my understanding, the encounter between the invading Normans led by William the Duke of Normandy and the English ruling Anglo-Saxon forces led by King Harold was going to decide the fate of who ruled England. Both sides had up to 12,000 troops each, and even allowing for the blood thirsty nature of these times, this battle went down in history for its ferocious man to man conflict. It is said that the 2 forces were in hand to hand battle for over 7 hours and the carnage was like that never seen before. Through a number of strategic errors by Harold and smart tactical moves by William, the Normans won the day and Harold finished up with an arrow through his eye, slain by a sword and dismembered. Like I said, a brutal battle. This was part of the Norman Conquests, and William went onto London and took the crown to become King William, aka, William the Conqueror.
After soaking up all the history and feel of the grounds we headed a short distance away to our next stopover, Eastbourne. We are here for 3 nights. Our BnB room overlooks a pebbly beach and the English Channel.
Dinner at a local pub sealed a great day, I even had a pint of Carlings to toast Cliff. Cheers all.
