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Dover

My lovely guide book of historical walks in the UK has a walk along the white cliffs, which inspired me to make the effort to go all the way out to Dover on a cold and blustery day. Actually, it was crisp and sunny when I left, by the time I arrived it was absolutely freezing.

I arrived in Dover with absolutely no idea how to get to the starting point for the walk, and discovered that the tourist information office had no door, or none that I could find. I looked on my sketchy map, figured it looked like where I wanted to be was near Dover castle, which I only had to look up to find, so to Dover Castle I went.

I had no intention of going in, I really didn't. The thing was, the castle is at the top of a very steep hill. I couldn't face becoming even more lost in such a hilly area, so I figured that the shop inside the castle was bound to have an area map. Stephen, my house mate, had enthused about the war tunnel tour, and it was rather an impressive structure, so I went in.

I arrived and went straight on to war tunnel tour. Over a number of centuries, caves were dug out in the soft chalk of the cliff face. These tunnels became the focal point for a number of attacks, defences and rescues across several wars. The heritage society have done their utmost to recreate rooms in the tunnels as they would have been during the second world war. All in all it was a very interesting tour, but photography wasn't allowed, so you'll just have to believe me.

Once that was over, I decided to do a whistle stop tour of the grounds then be on my merry way. Simply not possible, the castle and its history were all too absorbing and fascinating. If I had stayed any longer I would have gone all the way out there, and never actually seen the cliffs !

 


This one of the views you get from the top of the Keep. The Keep was basically the house. When King Henry the 8th came to Dover, he lived there. By this time the weather had turned from being crisp to freezing. The wind was so bitter I thought my skin must be bleeding under my clothes. But, I took photos of Dover and the castle grounds from every available angle, despite my eyes streaming with tears. I wasn't being a baby, I think the bitter wind was taking all the moisture from my eyeballs with it.

I must have been a bit of a spectacle though, all alone at the top of an old stone castle, morbid weather and tears streaming down my face.
  Colton's Gateway. Medieval, beautiful, had to take a picture.

 


This is a view of Dove from the cliffs. Eventually I realised that I was running out of time, and I tore myself away from the castle. Little did I realise how far away I still was from the starting point of my walk. I did get there eventually, and I started the walk, but the sun was disappearing rapidly, and I found myself being very unsure of the directions I was reading. In the end I decided that it was probably not terribly smart for me to wander along a cliff edge in the dark, with no credit on my phone in case of emergencies. Instead I took a rather convoluted route, which spat me out on the main road to Dover harbour. On my way there I took in some amazing scenery.
This is one of the cannons in the canopier, which is part of the medieval tunnels.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

   

25 October 2003