Folkestone

Went for a long weekend in the campervan for a late season weekend near Folkestone in a little campsite in an area called Little Switzerland. The beach below the campsite is a very strange place indeed, covered as it is by concrete, in some places flat, in others divided into squash court sized sections, where apparently they used to service submarines. Eerie atmosphere, now deserted but with a sense of much past activity.

J's cousin and her husband stay each year in The Gun Emplacement, a curious little holiday cottage on top of the cliffs at St Margaret's Bay just beyond Dover, previously owned by Peter Ustinov (it was where he was stationed in the war apparently) and now by Miriam Margolyes, the actor from Harry Potter etc etc, and we went to see them for lunch.

It's no thing of beauty, with thick walls and small rooms, but the location is astonishing, hunkered down but overlooking the sea which is 3/400 ft below.

Suffice to say it would be a good place to be if Dungeness B nuclear power station went critical.

Had a very nice lunch at the funky, all wood steel & glass contemporary cafe at the end of Deal Pier. The cafe is new, but the pier was built in the '50s to replace an older one. I was quite interested in the pier so checked it out on Google when I got back home - said it had originally been designed by the architect to have 3 levels at the end but "due to a mis-calculation of the tides, the lowest deck remains permanently submerged"!!! That really is a mis-calculation.

Did much walking with the dog, and climbed the cliffs to the Battle of Britain monument, celebrating all those who took part.

Also visited Samphire Ho, a rather odd place in itself, but very beautiful. Accessed via a tunnel through the cliffs just off the M20 coming out of Dover, it is where they dumped the spoil for the Channel Tunnel, and is surrounded by miles of concrete retaining walls.