A Day Trip Around Kent Part One

We planned to visit a place called All Hallows today-very near to Upnor, so not far away. We had no idea what to expect, apart from a holiday camp and an old church. The landscape is flat and a little spooky around there, the name of the village is also quite supernatural, and as we were driving, one of the lane names made me think of the Wicker Man film-Cuckold's Green Lane. Then a Nick Cave song came on-the first lines of which are 'Through the windswept coastal trees, the dead come rising from the seas'. Spooky jokiness aside, All Hallows was just a little village-where we would have made odd torists I think, so we drove around it, then through. The next place along that part of the Thames Estuary is Grain-where we drove to the beach-a desolate stretch of land with a carpark and a well kept concrete path with numbered steps leading down to the beach. We stayed for a photo shoot-more on that tomorrow or Monday-then left and headed back through the national grid power stations to Rochester-wanting breakfast-by now at lunchtime.

An unpleasant sandwich, but a pleasant meander through the shops later, we were in a dilemma-to continue the day out or to head home. We decided to continue.

Above is a little film of our arrival at The White Cliffs of Dover which are kept by the National Trust. We could hardly hear what the woman at the kiosk was saying as we went in, due to the torrential rain. We sat in the car for a bit, listening to the football, until it stopped. There was a family in the car next to ours. They were still there an hour and a half later-I asked the lady if they had got out at all-"No" she said, "It was raining". Yes-for about ten minutes! English people do seem to like to drive to the seaside, then sit in their cars facing it to enjoy the view.

Photos tomorrow if you like.