28 May 2016 (Saturday) - Back to the Western Heights

"er indoors TM" had an alarm set. It woke me this morning. 8.30am !! Over eight hours asleep. Having done a full five days at work I must have been tired.

I got up and had a little look-see on line. Not much had changed in the big wide world. The European in-out argument continued all over social media. Pundits have been complaining on the radio all week about how ill-informed the public have been for this up-coming referendum and how right they are. So many facts and figures are being bandied about as reasons to stay in or leave. And pretty much all these so-called facts are unprovable speculation, and pretty much all these figures have been shown to be wrong.
But I remain convinced that facts and figures will have little (if any) bearing on the final result. I am sure that the "out" vote will win purely because the average Brit hates foreigners.

We drove down to Folkestone to collect Jimbo and Stevey and made our way to the Western Heights. The Western Heights is somewhere we go at least once a year. It has the most wonderful views across Dover and the English Channel. The wildlife is up there with the best you'll find anywhere in England; today we saw slow worms and a rather huge hawk.
And if you are prepared to go past signs saying "No Entry; Keep Out" there are some amazing places to see. All sorts of underground tunnels and bunkers. Not that I would dream of going past such a sign.

We parked up in somewhere that I describe as "The Dogger's Car Park"; I have no idea what it is really called, but when I say "The Dogger's Car Park" everyone knows where I mean. We wandered round admiring the views of the harbour and walked round to the Drop Redoubt where we looked at the hard work which the geo-gang had done at the CITO of a few weeks ago.
We found a rather pleasant spot high behind the redoubt and had a picnic overlooking Dover. And with lunch scoffed we then walked up past the detached bastion taking great care not to go past any signs which said "No Entry; Keep Out". Unfortunately dogs can't read very well (or that's my story) and so we had to go into the grounds of the bastion to look for my dog. (Or that's what I would have said had we been caught). It was a good place to go noseying... it was a shame that the holes through which I'd previously scrambled to get into the North Gate and the detached bastion had all been sealed closed.

We carried on walking and (finding two geocaches and quite a bit of fox poo on the way) soon found ourselves at an old wartime gun emplacement. There was an interesting hole in the ground under this fortification... I climbed in.
"Climbed" sounds rather graceful, doesn't it? Perhaps "splatted" might be a more truthful description. I scrambled and skidded about down into the darkness and soon came to another hole. I shone a torch into this hole. It looked interesting, but it was a hole which was less than a foot high and the ground here was muddy and sloping away at a forty five degree angle. I could *easily* have got into that next hole. Getting out however... I clambered out.
There was another such hole under the next gun emplacement. I scrambled into that one too. However the first hole had quite a few bolders inside which helped me climb. This one was just mud. I skidded in very easily. Getting out took some doing.

We came back past the Western Outworks. This place had some *serious* fences around it. Eventually we found where a hole had been cut in the fence. We were remarking on just how foolish it would be to go inside when a certain dog again shot off where he shouldn't have gone (or so the official story goes).
I'd not been in this place before. It was quite amazing. And criminal that such a place is just being left to decay. We spent quite some time looking about in all sorts of places that we really shouldn't have been.

But time was pushing on. We made our way back to the car and set off homewards; making a slight detour to Samphire Hoe for ice creams.

Once home I got the lawn mower out and had a go at the lawn. It hasn't been done for over a month, the lawn mower struggled. I shall have to have another go in the week. I then tried to do the monthly accounts and wasted an hour fighting with the PC. Somehow it had lost its start menu. Eventually I found it, and did the accounts. They could be better; they could be a whole lot worse.
I'd taken a few photos earlier. I then put them on-line for the world to see, then prepared "Hannah" for tomorrow's outing.
I might have an early night. I feel tired for some reason...


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