May Bank Holiday Weekend

Needless to say the first thing I did was have a little shopping splurge to buy some new lightweight trousers (plus a few other items !) Although not as much as Geoff bought in Covent Garden, we had a great day out, does that count as walking too ?

My Sunday walking outfit:

The fleece wasn't needed and the sun came out after lunch so shorts would have been better.

We meet our friends Karen & Mark in Weddington near Ash and had a lovely stroll through the country lanes through Richborough & into Sandwich, stopping for lunch at The Bell, nice wine but the food wasn't great (sorry).. we were very chilled out on the return stroll, so much so that Karen & I missed the £10 note laying in the field (!) Geoff however, do not... This was roughly an eight mile circular walk.

Monday was a Bank Holiday (yipee) so another walk on the cards this time with Mark & Linda, we decided to continue where we left off last time and walk along the beach & cliffs from Deal to Dover.  Not to be caught out a third time with the weather, we wore shorts, but hey, thank goodness we took long sleeve tops, bracing wind on those cliff tops. I also wore my old walking sandals as I knew they would be comfortable (ha!!)

 



The view from St Margaret's Bay back towards Deal, the camera phone doesn't do it justice.

First event of the day, we met in the car park on the seafront, £7.50 to park for the day !!!

Then we set off along the edge of the pebble beach, various plants growing through the pebbles, people walking dogs, lots of cyclists and generally people out enjoying the weekend.  People are very friendly when you walk, everyone says hello to each other.

Then I thought must stop soon my sandal is coming loose, eventually stopping to find my sandals had perished inside the soles and were falling apart, what a nightmare, at this point we were too far from any beach type shops to even buy a pair of flip flops. (There was no hint of this when I put them on earlier)

Geoff got out his first aid kit and taped up the soles, good job he'd been on the first aid course, not sure he thought he would be repairing shoes though.. we walked on although with some difficulty for me, we eventually reached St Margaret's and stopped to rest my feet and have our sandwiches, the sandals had fallen apart even more... the next possible shop was an hour and a half away on foot.. so this time Geoff taped my feet into the sandals.. the lady sitting near us said I looked like a Pilgrim.. it did look funny.

I made the decision not to go on to the shops but to turn around and head back, the sandals felt very secure and comfortable even as the were depositing their insides everywhere.

Its a tough walk anyway, very up and downhill, it feels much longer than the 5.5 miles each way.. luckily no-one we passed laughed at my feet. The last mile was hard knees and legs aching from having to walk slightly differently, however, they got me to the end of the walk, back in Deal Car Park (just), we had to go in the rear of the pub, the others thought I looked like a donut..

Finally home, sandals cut from my feet, my feet and legs were black from all the dust of the track being kicked up, a few blisters, no surprise really.  No-one can say that I didn't wear these sandals to death, they have been to a lot of places with me around the world.  Now they are in the sandal graveyard.

Its a great walk, we will do it again and get all the way to Dover.  If you would like to see the route click the link.

http://www.walkjogrun.net/routes/current_route.cfm?rid=EA59BA7E-CC02-E1DD-3303BD79C7008229&success=1