Steam Train trip to Dungeness

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Glorious weather today. Blue sky all day. Wind still pretty evil but not quite as evil as it has been.

Bob unloaded the scooter and we found our way up out of the campsite on the single track, very bumpy road then down into Folkestone, along to Sandbanks and on to Hythe. Not far and an easy ride to get us back into the scooter swing of things.



We caught the 10.30 train on the Romney, Hythe and Dymchurch Railway. We were in an open carriage so kept our fleeces well zipped as advised by someone getting off who said she was frozen.



At New Romney we alighted and visited the impressive model railway exhibition. Then we caught the next train along and stayed on to the end of the line at Dungeness, having crossed the barren and quite chilly, with the wind blowing off the sea, Ronney Marshes.



Dungeness is odd. Very odd really. Everything covered in shingle with sparse vegetation popping up here and there but no trees or bushes or anything like that.

There is a nuclear power station, two lighthouses (the power station blocked the view of the original so they had to build another) and a ramshackle collection of peculiar buildings which appear to be dwellings. Not a lot of planning permission has taken place here as they seem to be scattered willy-nilly and built in whatever style someone fancied, in most cases like beach shacks,

It seems that many got here by someone dragging old railway carriages into place in the early 1900s and they developed from there.



We cannot imagine why anyone would want to live here. To us it was the end of the earth. It was also pretty cold despite the blue sky and full on sunshine. The wind was mightier than all of that and we kept our jackets firmly zipped and attempted to keep our hair on.



We had rather good fish and chips in the only pub then walked across the shingle on the boardwalk to the sea. Not a beach for sandcastles or sunbathing or doing a lot of anything really.



We returned to the station and caught the next train back to Hythe and got off again in glorious and lovely warm sunshine. Stopped at Sainsburys on the way back to the campsite for a few bits and pieces – just enough so they fitted into the scooter’s two boxes. Then stopped at Folkestone harbour for an ice-cream before finding our way back to the campsite.



Magic moment on the lane down to the site. We saw 2 foxes, peeking out from the undergrowth. Managed a not very good photo but I can just see what it is.



Fun and games back at the site. Two caravans had arrived directly opposite us – on this, a motorhome only site because of the access road. They were Irish travellers and they had a big motorhome further along as well and we had no idea if more would be arriving. We were not at all happy and were wondering what to do when the travellers returned back from wherever they had gone.

We decided we really couldn’t stay and went to reception to try to phone the chunnel to see if we could switch our train to tonight. Hung on phone for 5 minutes and ran out of money (mobile signal is intermittent).

Returned to Tandy and Bob and I decided to leave and started to pack up just as Traveller leader hitched his caravan and said we could all stay (a lot of campers were leaving) as they were going. To our astonishment they did.

Thanks to the superb negotiations of the campsite management.



They managed to leave a lot of debris behind especially considering they had only been on site 30 minutes – using the grass as a toilet in lieu of the loo was just awful and that was a woman not one of the many children !



So we stayed, had dinner and will leave as planned for France first thing tomorrow.

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