I decided to get two days walking in along the Kent coast before the month end. There’s no way I am going to catch-up with all the lost time over the lockdown period, but a few extra days here and there will help. I decided on a single night stop-over and chose a B&B in Margate, at a reasonable rate of £40. After booking online I later noticed that they wanted a £200 deposit for breakages – I would certainly never agree to that given I was only in the room for 10 hours and the furniture value in the room was less than £50, should I go on a wild drunken wrecking spree!
I left Shropshire very early, eager to beat the early morning commuter traffic on the M1 and M25. With speed restrictions on motorway roadworks raised from 50mph to 60 mph I made swift progress. I even got over the Dartford Crossing before 06:00, saving the toll fare, although I still have about £14 credit on my Gov.Uk Dartford crossing account. Having an account saves the hassle of remembering to pay and you save 50p on the normal £2.50 crossing toll.
I drove to and parked in the small seaside resort of Birchington-on-Sea. It was as far I would have liked to walk for the day, while saving myself for the following day’s walk. I parked in the Parade which had free all day parking. I made my way along the coast a little before heading inland through residential streets to the train station at Birchington. The train was virtually empty, mind you it was 06:30!
I walked through the empty streets of Faversham calling in at a cafe to buy a latte ‘to-go’. Like a few weeks ago I was very impressed with Faversham and its buildings. I headed out along Faversham Creek, on the opposite bank to my last walk. I passed through boatyards and past a large sewage works. When I reached the hamlet of Nagden I followed a footpath across Graveney Marshes, although it was actually through a field of barley. I noticed signs against a plan for a large solar farm on the Marshes. Most of the ‘marsh’ appeared to contain crops, so was agricultural land, not natural marsh.
I eventually re-joined the Saxon Shore way on the sea bank which formed the southern shore of the River Swale. The Isle of Sheppey was still visible a short distance across the Swale. The morning was glorious sunshine, with just a sprinkling of clouds being driven by a stiff breeze, which was at my back for most of the walk. As I made my way along the sea bank, the Swale widened and Sheppey began to be left behind and views back across the Thames Estuary revealed a distant Southend-on-Sea.
I passed into the residential area of Seasalter and then into the town of Whitstable. The town was very busy with people outside cafes and bars. I did not linger and passed the historic harbour onto Tankerton Beach on the eastern side of Whitstable. The promenade was very busy with many families cycling along the sea front or paddling/swimming from the shingle shore. It was not long before I arrived at another seaside resort, that of Herne Bay. For some miles a rather isolated structure situated about a kilometre offshore had caught my eye. Looking at my map is was soon apparent that the offshore structure was once part of a long pier. In fact this was the third pier at Herne Bay. Back in 1978 after large storms the central part of the pier collapsed into the sea, weakened it has been claimed, by the WW2 intentional destruction to prevent a landing stage for any German invasion.
I continued out of the town towards Bishopstone where the sea wall promenade stopped and I followed a rising path up onto the cliff-top and emerged into Reculver Country Park. The path along the top of the cliff was a lovely springy grass turf, which made for very easy walking. I was heading for two large towers, the remnants of St. Mary’s church, which was actually part of a monastery built on the site of a Roman fort – Regulbium, abandoned around 400AD. I read an info board describing what would have been seen from this elevated position 1800 years ago. The shoreline would have been very close to the eastern side of the fort with the Wantsum Channel creating an island called Thanet. Still known today as the Isle of Thanet it was the area I was heading for and the towns of Birchington, Margate, Broadstairs and Ramsgate.
I dropped down to the sea wall which ran for over 3 miles as the Thanet Coast Path into Birchington. The resort of Birchington was quite busy with holiday makers on the shingle beach and the play areas surrounding the beach. I reached my car, my feet were hurting and I’m glad to have finished this long stretch.
Distance today = 21 miles
Total distance =6,024 miles
Walking the Coast of Great Britain 
Wow, that was quite a walk, and sounds quite crowded in places. Whitstable seems to mark the beginning of the proper coast again after miles of estuary and marshes.
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Hi Ruth, like you, I noticed a small insignificant plaque saying that a chap called Dereck Hart had died at a spot a few miles from Birchington back in in 2003, on his favourite bike ride. I racked my brain thinking I know of this chap, I could picture him in my head. But I was wrong, after many hours of racking my brain I found out that it was Adam Hart-Davis I was thinking of. Adam is actually an English scientist, author, photographer, historian and broadcaster and is still very much alive today.
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