Putting a bank holiday to good use!

The Bank Holiday weekend was the perfect chance to give the tent its first outing of the season - and after a bit of debate we loaded the car up on Saturday morning and whizzed off down to Kent. As usual we'd used the ukcampsite.co.uk website to pick our campsite, it's a great site because the reviews generally give a really honest impression of what you can expect to find on the site, and also help you to find out the little bits of information that come in handy. (On this occasion, that the shower cubicles are a bit small, so take a carrier bag for your clothes!)  We ended up at a site just south of Herne Bay - Southview camping - and were extremely impressed - friendly, lots of space, and every pitch has its own picnic bench which was a really nice touch!

We're well practised these days so setting up didn't take long, and just an hour later we were headed for Westgate On Sea, along the coast. We started by wandering along the seafront to Margate - a good old fashioned tacky seaside place with all the trashy arcades you could want! We found a very odd Air-Hockey table - a sort of curved one, which was a bit odd, but did make for a couple of excellent and close games - we're ferociously competitive and as a result have to make sure there are no small children in the vicinity first - it could be dangerous otherwise! The other machines we can never resist in the arcades are the "penny falls" - the ones that take 2p pieces - we allow ourselves £1, and then see how long we can play for just recycling the winnings - as we usually average about a 60% return that can last us quite some time! The walk back to Westgate was a little brisker as it had started raining - but the prize at the other end was a good incentive as we were planning to visit a "Micro Pub" - yes, that is precisely what it sounds like - look...

...I posted this picture on Twitter and lots of people all asked the same question - was it in someone's front room?! No, it wasn't, this is a real, proper pub, listed in the current issue of CAMRA's Good Beer Guide, and serving excellent beer! It has seating for around 18 (standing space for a few more), and is one of the nicest, friendliest pubs I have ever visited.We thoroughly enjoyed our visit and would happily return if we're in the area again. (or we might even explore some of the several other Micro Pubs in the same area - who knew, eh?!) Saturday evening was completed by fish & chips eaten on the seafront - can't beat that, eh?

Sunday dawned beautifully hot and sunny - which fitted in perfectly with our plan of heading to Dover to get some value from our National Trust Membership. We parked as planned at the "White Cliffs" car park - right at the very top, as it turned out, it was rather busy! Once we got down onto the main level (a long walk down!) we set out to walk East along the coast to the South Foreland Lighthouse a couple of miles away. The harbour was as busy as ever - you can get an idea of the scale from the picture above by checking out the size of the cars! There was a huge cruise ship in too - you can see it in the background of that shot.

It's a beautiful walk along the cliffs - especially with the weather we had for it - there are several paths you can take - one quite level along the top and then a couple that involve a bit more huffing and puffing up hills and sliding and skidding down them - yes you've guessed it we didn't go for the level option!

 There is a constant stream of shipping going in and out too - ferries, containers ships, and even that big cruise ship left while we were walking along.  Eventually after a couple of miles of walking (and constant stopping for photos to be taken...but that might just be me!) you see this just ahead...

South Foreland Lighthouse - built in 1843 to safeguard ships from running into trouble on the infamous Goodwin Sands, this was reckoned to be the first Lighthouse in the UK to be changed to operating on electricity. It was also the Lighthouse where Marconi received the first ever ship-to-shore radio message (hence the radio masts to the left of the picture!) They run guided tours of the lighthouse every 20 minutes or so when it's open - lasting half an hour or so you get to explore thoroughly and get an excellent view from the top of the tower too - look...

Once the tour was over we decided it would be only right and proper to do some more exploring - this time of the tea and cake possibilities...

...yes that apple cake did taste every bit as good as it looks! All served up on beautiful mis matched vintage crockery too - all sourced from local charity shops apparently! The tea room is in the old Assistant Lighthouse Keeper's cottage and is fantastically decorated in 1950's style.

As we walked back the weather suddenly took a dramatic change...from the blue skies and bright sunshine to a sudden sea-mist descending. By the time we got back to overlooking the docks it was really starting to close in...

Thankfully we were just a short (ha ha!) climb back up the cliffs to the car - and by the time we got to the top we were back above the fog again and the sun was shining!

Robyn