I’m going to finish Kent! I should be able to finish it in two days although my planned second day is a bit of a monster. It does seem like I’ve been taking it easy with lots of sub 30 km days so perhaps I’m due a bit of a challenge. A long second day means a relatively easy first day, although it’s* a long train journey to Dover. I got to the station in time for the 8:54 train, which I can normally travel off-peak. However, the off-peak return (as opposed to the off-peak day return) means I can’t travel until 9:30. This gave me the prime oppertunity to try breakfast in Burgess Hill, which isn’t something I’ve tried before. Brunchies, in the old butchers shop, provided a good cooked breakfast and a nice coffee.

I think I needed the relaxed start as I had been awake quite early, or late (?), listening to the USA vs Belgium match on Radio 5 live. I must say the commentary was excellent, and I really enjoy Clinton Morrison’s style of commentating. It was followed by Dotun’s World Football Phone In where, between the presenters and callers, they found the perfect term to describe Trump’s interference with the USA’s Red Card. “Sportssoiling” the opposite of “Sportswashing”. No wonder I was feeling a bit tired.

It was a fairly long, but relaxing, journey to Dover Priory. After only five trains, and I started walking by 1pm. Initially I retraced my steps from my last visit through the town centre. Until this year I’d never visited Dover its self, just bypassed through to the port, it’s not a bad little town. I particularly enjoyed the water mist tunnel, which was cooling on a hot day, but a bit over the top for the other 364 days. Although, with our new climate, perhaps Dover is ahead of the game!

The signage, for all the main long distance footpaths in this area, led up a really steep hill to Dover Redoubt. This is an impressive fort, built in the 1860s, to fend off the french. I must say, today France looks really close. I don’t think I’ve ever seen it so clearly. I can now understand all the defences along these coast here! Looking inland, I  realised I was right above the railway tunnel, and the tracks are only above ground for the station, before heading into another tunnel.

After the Redoubt, the path dropped down onto a small road which headed up hill. The “official” Coast Path then headed off to the right, but I could see it rejoined the road a few hundred metres further on. It was still early in the walk, so I took the path which instantly plunged down almost to sea level, and then headed back up a series of steep steps. I thought that I’d made the wrong decision, but the path went past a very impressive WW2 gun emplacement, and great views over the Dover yacht harbour. There was no sign of “Echos”, the cross channel passenger sail boat, and I will continue to sing its praises. www.saillink.co.uk

The path headed up onto the White Cliffs, with great views of the coast, but also the main road snaking up behind the cliffs. As what will become a common occurrence, the path then plunged back down and crossed under the road. It was a very hot day, and the underpass provided a nice bit of shade. It was very exposed on the cliff top, and frequent re-application of sun-tan lotion was required.

Looking at my map, I passed over the channel tunnel. On a foreshore below I could see the plants for cooling, and pumping out the tunnel. With France in clear view, it was interesting thinking about trains travelling all that distance. It is a magnificent piece of engineering, but you just can’t see it. I have walked down parts of the tunnel, many years ago, during a site visit to the construction site. Very memorable!

It was really nice walking on the cliff top, I had thought (feared) that the path may just follow the cycle route, that I took on my ill fated cycle ride earlier in the year, but it was its own dedicated path. I joined the cycleway for a short distance before Capel-le-Ferne (which is in England!) just at the Sound Mirror that I wanted to see. I could get up close, and it was really well preserved. I tried listening, but couldn’t hear any enemy aircraft (Trump attacking Belgium, maybe!). It’s fascinating that this was “radar technology” less than 100 years ago. I’ve seen, and used, setups with two dishes in various science museums and the distance you can communicate clearly is really impressive.

I’d earmarked a cafe at about halfway and I really felt like a nice lunch and a cold drink, and a hot drink. It was a really nice spot, and with the weather this was beginning to feel like a holiday. I should say at this point, I had looked for an independent bakers in Dover without success. So to make sure I wouldn’t starve I had stocked up with a Greggs Meal Deal. The Cliff Top cafes, ham and mustard sandwich was great and the Greggs can wait.

Just past the cafe, I came to the Battle of Britain Memorial. I visited this when I cycled past on my Heading East tour, but the footpath approached from below which gave a better view than from the cycle path and road. The lone airman looking out across the Channel, with the building behind having the profile of an aeroplane. It is a fitting monument to “the few”.

The path wandered it way down into Folkestone. It passed (at least) two martello towers, one really jazzed up onto a fancy houses, and another completely original in the middle of a golf course. I also passed an archaeological dig on the cliff top. A quick Google shows it to be the excavation of a Roman Villa. They certainly picked a nice spot.

Soon I was down on the promenade into Folkestone. There were plenty of people on the beaches and swimming. I was very tempted to stop, but I still had over an hour of walking to my destination. Folkestone Harbour seems to still have a fishing fleet, with quite a few boats in the harbour and what looks like a fish market on the quayside, alongside pubs and restaurants. Folkestone looks like a happening place.

There are quite a few pieces of art around the town, and when I visited friends here a few years ago I learnt these are leftovers from an annual art show. I could see the inverted tea cup across the shingle, and was disappointed to find I had to leave the road and wade across the shingle towards it. Luckily there was a nice boardwalk next to the tea cup, which is actually called the “jelly mould pavilion”.

I didn’t walk too close to the sea, as when I visited last time, we spent ages in trying to return beached dogfish back into the water and I didn’t fancy doing it again. I think it may have been a seasonal or tidal thing, but it was certainly a strange occurrence with dozens of beached fish. From this point the walk would be completely flat on the promenade, all the hills were behind me.

As I headed towards Hythe, Dungeness Nuclear Power Station was much closer, but still looked like it was on an island and not connected to the land. It really does show how flat the land is here and I will have no hills on my walk tomorrow.

When I was planning this section, I knew there would be no public transport links that would easily split it into multiple days, so I planned for an overnight stop. Initially, as its the height of summer, I looked at camping but there were no obvious campsites in the right places. I then thought that I would just wild camp, or use my bivvy bag on a beach (or hedge) as I do need to improve my confidence in wildcamping for future sections. However, after looking on Booking.com I decided that I had walked past so many grand, yet faded, sea side hotels that I owed it to myself (no, I owed it to you, the reader!) to a stay in one and marvel at the old world opulence. So I checked into the Hythe Imperial Hotel, Spa and Golf, for a very reasonable price.

It turns out that it is not so faded and is a really fancy hotel. I got a good room, with a sea view which was perfect for eating my Dover Greggs meal for dinner. I couldn’t let it go to waste, and I was considering spending the night in a hedge!

I’ve got one of my longest sections to walk tomorrow. Hopefully getting to Rye, in Sussex, and completing the Kent section. Breakfast is served from 6:30, so I should be able to fuel up and get away at a good time. Tomorrow should also see me complete 1,000 km (620 miles) of the coast path, joining Central London all the way to the Dorset/ Devon border.