Staycation 2021 - Dungeness
Another trip to Dungeness. The weather was iffy but we decided to have another drive out and a walk on the shingle away from the train station and the nuclear power station.
It was of course very windy. So we had jumper and waterproof coats on. We have been a few times recently and the difference was quite amazing.
A few weeks ago we were the only people in the café garden alongside the tracks. The trains weren't running. It was windy then and we sat with Reggie on a bench on the platform letting the building shelter us.
Today though. The Government had relaxed the Covid lockdown on May 17th and the trains were running. The car-park was full. The café and the two pubs in walking distance were able to have inside customers. Business looked to be back to normal.....
We had a cup of coffee and a biscuit we rook with us. Cheapskates!
We drank up as we wanted to be away before the train. Reggie has lived with us for six and a half years. The Romney Hythe and Dymchurch railway runs right behind our back fence, and he barks at at every train that passes! Still! he just has never got used to them!
We had just got into the disabled car park and I saw a guy on a Scott motorcycle. As we were chatting the train pulled out and Reggie ignored the whistle. I didn't get a photo of the bike, and I know I should have.
We walked around the station and past our car and onto the shingle between the station and the power station, sort of inland. The shingle stretches for miles from the sea. Dungeness is growing every year as shingle is brought up from the sea and is deposited on land. It is also the only "desert" in the UK.
The shingle is home to many different species of desert plants and gorse bushes. In places the shingle is quite deep and hard work walking across it. I took a few photos.
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| Shingle Bank |
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| Nuclear Power looms over the trees |
On the way back we passed the Polish War Memorial to two pilots of 303 Squadron killed nearby during the Battle of Britain. The last time we came the information boards had been removed from the stand. I was glad to see that it had been replaced with a new one. I hope this is weather proof.
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| Polski pomnik wojenny poświęcony pilotom Dywizjonu 303 |
From here it looked as though the weather was about to change for the worse. We had already had a week almost of heavy rain and hailstorms and it looked this was going the same way. Also I wanted to be home to watch the last Arsenal Premier League game of the season on TV.
If you are ever in the area then Dungeness is not just the Railway, the Britannia pub or even Derek Jarman's cottage and garden. It is about the remoteness and the shingle.
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