9 August 2015 (Sunday) - Samphire Hoe

I suppose its hardly surprising I slept well last night. "Furry Face TM" sneaked upstairs in the night and woke me when he had a sneezing fit shortly after 5am. I then dozed on to 7am when I finally got up. Over brekkie I watched "Dad's Army"; today's episode was really dated by its beinng all about red telephone boxes. Who uses them these days?
When it finished there was some crackpot American religious nonsense on the telly. I gave it five minutes and then turned it off. I watered "er indoors TM" tomoato plant, fed "Furry Face TM" and we got ready for the day.

Some time ago Stevey had planned a walk along the coast for today. Over the years we've often tried to walk from Folkestone to Samphire Hoe only to be thwarted by the tide. Stevey had checked the tides...
Four of us (and two dogs) met up by the drive to the Little Switzerland camp site and soon were on our way. We walked down past the camping site and were soon on the sea wall. The beach by Folkestone Warren really is one of the county's (if not the country's) hidden treasures. There is a firm path for about three quarters of the way from Folkestone to Samphire Hoe, and the scenery at the foot of the White Clifs is spectacular. Being a hot day it was rather hazy and so we couldn't quite see over to France; neither did we see any adders or seals. But as we walked we saw slow worms and lizards on the rocks, and house martins nesting high up on the cliffs.

It took us about an hour and a half to get to the Hoe; and once there we had a very quick geocaching session. By one of those odd co-incidences a geo-meet had been arranged at Samphire Hoe today. We didn't actually go caching as such, but finding ourselves arriving at the far end of Samphire Hoe from everyone else (who had driven there) and finding ourselves only seventy meters from a geocache which had only gone live twenty minutes previously it would have been daft not to have chased the FTF. We did; we got it.

We then walked up to the visitor centre where Sarah was waiting for us; we sat with the geocachers and chatted. We got given tea, we had our sandwiches, we had ice creams. After about an hour we decided that if we didn't start walking back we never would. Leaving the rest of the geocaches for another day we set off through the Hoe back to the beach and home.
As we walked we came back through the nudey beach. On the way there we'd only seen one bloke and his "junk". On the walk back there was another bloke laying back, legs gracefully (!) akimbo holding his willy up so as to allow the sunshine to get to his "bits" and we even saw a nudey lady without any clothes on. Both dogs went and made nuisances of themselves around the nudey lady (which was something of a result).

At one point along the beach there was quite a serious campsite going on. About half a dozen tents, with quite a lot of camping gear, and the closest road over a mile away. How on Earth did they get all their kit there? Perhaps they brought it all in by boat; a little later we saw a small boat landing supplies for picnicers.

After a couple of hours we were back where we started; it had been a lovely walk even if a warm one. Having driven people home I then bathed "Furry Face TM". He had been in the sea, was covered in sand, and had been rolling in something which was either an extremely dead fish or seal poo.

With dog bathed I gave him his tea then popped up the road for some KFC for myself. I had earlier formulated a vague plan to invite myself round to "My Boy TM" for dinner, but we'd had (nearly) a ten mile walk in very hot sunshine. I felt as though I needed a rather quiet evening. I'd taken quite a few photos whilst on today's walk; more than I usually do. I put those on line then I spent the evening watching drivel on the telly.

Last week's "Dark Matter" was quite entertaining. "Star Trek V" might not be everyone's favourite film, but Star Trek is Star Trek after all. "The Last Ship" is a series which over the last few weeks seems to have lost its way; tonight's episode seemed to favour the concept of having things exploding over having a plot. I was also disappointed by the latest episode of "Dominion" which again seemed to be making very little sense. When "The Sky at Night" proved to be little more than hot air I turned the telly off and went to bed...


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