The day started overcast and humid and ended up a lovely balmy day with sunshine and a bit of wind but a comfortable temperature then a solid downpour once we were home..…before we brought in the washing..…Murphy never rests!

We managed to track down a bed in Faversham for the night we return from France with the bikes (06/10) which was a bit of an exercise as there is a wedding that night and the hotel and guest houses were booked out so a friend of a guesthouse owner will let out her spare room to us and we had to go to pay a deposit. So, all sorted now, got the hair dressing appointment as well for the afternoon we return with English speaking people so hopefully with my note from my own hairdresser it will be a less scary outcome than it may have been in France…...we’ll see.

Since we were already in Faversham we decided to check out some of the town and discovered some ancient, beautiful, stately and quirky buildings……sometimes a combination of all that. Overall it was quite a beautiful old town and we found the market in full swing so had a yummy lunch before we headed off. It was a lovely friendly and relaxed atmosphere and we even ran into Phil and Jean’s daughter and her young man. Who would have thought! When we got back home here we discovered Phil and Jean had also enjoyed a cup of tea in the cafe next to where we had lunch without seeing their daughter or us!



Faversham - Looking towards the market place

After lunch we stowed the leather vests and neck warmers and headed for Dover Castle. It was a beautiful ride between leafy glades, green fields, orchards, market gardens and newly turned soil complete with opportunistic birds feeding on the buffet the farmer had provided. It just felt good to be alive and being part of it. The temperature cooled a little and the wind picked up as we got closer to the coast but the sun stayed out and it was lovely.

We really enjoyed the Dover Castle experience. This has been a place of fortification and defence for centuries all of which is well documented. We climbed Henry II’s tower to view Dover from the roof and noticed how much calmer the ocean was compared to a few days ago when we saw it. Ships and ferries were streaming in and out of the harbour instead of lining up and wondering about how or if they would enter.

The fortifications at the castle were preserved and presented well but what interested us most was the tours of the Secret Wartime Tunnels where some were used as a Wartime Hospital during WWII. It was a dreadful shock to see the same sort of surgical instruments, enamel kidney dishes and other paraphernalia which was in the Nursing School when I started my training in 1968……really, they should have had ‘old stuff’ instead of modern items like that! The other tour we took in the secret wartime tunnels was of those used as the base that ‘Operation Dynamo’ was managed from. The phone rooms had the exact same switchboards as were used in the local exchange at the Post Office where I had my first paying job after school in 1967. Again, the credibility issue with historical artefacts! But..…back to Operation Dynamo which was abut retrieving just over 338,000 troops and allied forces from the beaches of Dunkirk before the Battle of Britain in WWII. This was a massive undertaking which started out planning to rescue 45,000. What a tribute to the guts and determination of the Brits. I found the tour quite moving and I’m extremely grateful I have never had to experience such scary times.



One of the views from the roof of Henry II’s tower across old Military Barracks to the Roman lighthouse (on the right) and the Church of St Mary-in-Castro

Bits and Bobs:
We are enjoying observing heaps of quirky and clever names for shops and businesses throughout England. The favourite bar (a franchise I think as I saw a couple in London) was ‘All Bar One’, but the best was ‘Herman Ze German’ which was a café and the signature dish advertised on the window was ‘Hot Curries'…… cracked me up!

We set out from the hotel this morning and headed to the Embankment Pier and caught the Thames Clipper to Tower Bridge where we had a look at the Tower of London then struck out to find St Paul’s Cathedral. Our walk confirmed for me again that I like low rise cities; they somehow (for all their movement and congestion) seem less cold and more personal than great high canyons of glass, stone and steel.



London Bridge from the Thames

We both loved exploring St Pauls Cathedral including the 528 steps (85metres) up to the top of the Golden Gallery and checked out the Whispering Gallery and Stone Gallery on the way. The view from the top across London was great. It is a truly beautiful building and I can see why the Londoners worked so hard in the Second World War to ensure it wasn’t destroyed. We spent a long time walking and sitting and listening to the audio tour which was excellent. I suspect my thigh, shin and butt muscles will be screaming at me tomorrow, thanks mainly to all those stairs but I will do my best to ignore them!



St Pauls Cathedral

We finished our day off with a lovely dinner with Phil and Jean and Gareth and Dawn at a little Italian Restaurant (Gozzi’s) in Minster. It was lovely night and thoroughly enjoyed getting to know everyone better and enjoyed the synergy between the group. It was a treat to spend some time with the UK connection which has made our trips possible.



L – R Phil, Nola, Norm, Jean, Dawn and Gareth

Last nights’ accommodation:
Charing Cross Hotel
The Strand
London GB WC2N 5HX
http://www.guoman.com/hotels/united_kin ... index.html
Wonderful stately old building beautifully maintained, great location, delicious dining room with yummy breakfast, very friendly and helpful staff.

The morning was grey and cold so we donned the waterproofs for our ride to Faversham on the bikes to keep the cold out then hopped on the train and headed for London where we planned to catch up with some of the troops from Women in Logistics UK (WIL UK). http://www.womeninlogistics.org.uk We checked into our hotel which was lovely and located next door to the Charing Cross Railway Station and set out to explore.



Looking to the London Transport Museum from Covent Garden Market

We were amazed at the scale of things in London. My dear old Mum used to say being at my house was like living on an ants nest with so much activity and I was reminded of this with the level of movement and people as we tramped about London. We enjoyed walking through the Covent Garden Markets with a basement, ground and first floor level under the big glass ceilings very reminiscent of the Melbourne Victorian Markets though a much grander scale.

We also enjoyed our dinner with the WIL UK troops and the chance to compare notes of the intensity of traffic, population, congestion and the logistics needed to manage all that. The differences between the UK challenges and ours in relation to the smaller population and remotness we experience in Australia was both different and yet the same when it came down to customers, freight and bringing it all together.

We also heard about Transaid, the charity they sponsor which sounds very impressive and Clare Bottle is about to head off on a sponsorship exercise to Madagasgar. You can find out all about it at www.transaid.org



Dinner with WIL UK L - R Gary Forster (Transaid), Norm, Nola, Clare Bottle (WIL UK)

A quiet kick back day today for us……Phil has pointed out that he in fact drove all day so it was NOT a kickback day for him. We explored Hever Castle with Phil and Jean and then drove back to Marshside via Faversham and checked out Phil and Jean’s boat at its berth in Oare Creek then dined at the Shipwright’s Arms Pub which sits beside the boat yard. It was a very quirky ancient building with many rooms which we needed to keep our heads bowed so as not to lose the top half of our heads…spare a thought for Phil who is 6 foot 5! We finished the day at the Gate House Inn as part of a local team at the weekly Pub Quiz which was a bit of a hoot….even got a couple of the answers right, YAY for the Aussies!

Hever Castle and grounds was a really nice experience. This was the childhood home of Anne Boleyn who ultimately became the second wife of Henry the VIII (poor thing…lost her head literally) and mother of Queen Elizabeth I.



Hever Castle

After deciding on some more exploring today the rain set in overnight so all we did was ride into Maidstone to sort out the Road Tax for the bikes then headed straight back. The wind was ferocious and both tested out the waterproofs which worked well and we remained warm and dry so a good outcome. We are hopeful any rain tomorrow will be patchier so we can do some more exploring but it was nice that we didn’t have a set destination we had to get to by a certain time today.

PS: Since originally posting this we have learnt that the winds today were between 8 – 10 gale force. To this non yachty that sounded big and it had certainly felt big as we had ducked and weaved in the wind on the motorway amongst the shredded foliage on the road surface so we asked him how that is measured. To quote him (more or less) If you’re out on the water in Force 8 you are scared sh----ss, Force 9 you are too scared or sick to know how scared or sick you are and Force 10 you wonder who it was who sent you to your certain death ……….. didn’t feel so woosy after that!

After a doubtful weather forecast we set out for Minster to catch up with Gareth (Dawn was called into work) and daughter Emily and headed off on our bikes to explore. We enjoyed a day of balmy sunshine, a little ferocious wind, beautiful scenery and a combination of blue and threatening grey skies somehow missing the rain which finally arrived 10 minutes after we got back to Marshside.

Much of the countryside we rode through today was once marsh land and over the centuries has silted up providing rich soil for agriculture which is abundant in the area in many forms.

Broadstairs was a delightful seaside village, actually probably more a large town than village and among other things is famous for the fact that Charles Dickens was once a resident and penned several books as he looked out to sea from his home on the bluff overlooking the beach and harbour. It used to be open to the public but has been a private home for a few years now.



Broadstairs with the Dickens house on the bluff in the distance

Dover Castle was an impressive sight perched solidly on top of the cliff and we nearly got blown off the cliff top as we overlooked the huge ferry terminal where the ferries and other boats and ships were struggling to negotiate the breakers and so getting in and out from behind the sea wall. Apparently it is not uncommon that in rough weather the ferries moor outside the seawall for several hours to wait for the seas to calm. Hate to think what that must do to the schedules of the transport companies, drivers of the semis lined up and the delivery of the thousands of containers which move through there every week.



The Dover Ferry terminal

Sandwich was just an absolute delight and we wound our way through tiny streets, many of which were one-way due to the minimal distance between ancient old buildings. So very quaint, we just loved it. Found an ancient old hotel ‘The Bell Hotel’ so had to take a pic for all the family connections. Beautifully looked after. Check it out on the web at www.bellhotelsandwich.co.uk



The Bell Hotel

Our trip for Father’s Day was to Leeds Castle known as “the loveliest castle in the world” which was just beautiful. As luck would have it there was a ‘Bentleys and Balloons’ event happening as well as a display of heaps of other Vintage cars, many of which we had progressively passed on the Motorway and also some awesome Steam Tractors plus operating scale model replicas so a bonus for Norm. There were no balloon rides happening as the wind was a bit unfriendly but there were some awesome kites flying instead.



Leeds Castle

The Castle was just beautiful and maintained well. Easy to see why so many of these Castles have been left to the state…their upkeep bill would be massive! Leeds castle however is owned and managed by a charitable trust whose aim is to preserve the castle and grounds for the benefit of the public forever. There was a real carnival atmosphere today with huge numbers of up-market type stalls and families picnicking on the lawns. The lists of events in the coming months was impressive to say the least.



The Culpeper Garden

We particularly enjoyed the Culpeper Gardens which used to be the kitchen garden but was changed to an English Country garden as a memorial to the Culpeper family who owned the castle in the 17th century. The flowers herbs and vegetables throughout were reminiscent of the gardens we were familiar with as we grew

God bless the local pub (The Gate Inn) they have free WIFI so I will use that for updating the blog while in the UK. The pub nestled on the edge of a little stream is a combination of a pub and the original village bakery complete with massive oven built in the 1700’s. It is about to be repainted complete with hand painted sign writing as it was 60 or so years ago.



The Gate Inn - Marshside Kent

But to today. After a solid 12.5 hours sleep we managed to convince ourselves we should probably get out of bed, had some breakfast and ‘in theory’ got ourselves organised (a big and somewhat misleading statement that one!) Eventually we set out again through the rolling golden fields of post- harvest grain stubble, fields of vegetables and tidy apple orchards to explore more of this south eastern tip of England. The day has been quite warm and it’s taking a bit of time to get the combination of protection and comfortable travelling temperature to come together. Some more experimenting needed.

We lunched in Ramsgate where we wandered through their market enjoying the comings and goings of the locals and wound our way around the coast for a bit looking at ferry marshalling yards, yachts in marinas, even a 65 year old steam driven tug boat (The Cervis) children swimming and also some beautifully colourful bathing boxes on the beach at Minnis Bay then back to Marshside for some chill time, dinner and sleep!



Ramsgate from the marina.

Well our travel time was just short of 24hours from Australia to the UK with a couple of hours break in Kuala Lumper and then a strong tail wind landing us 25minutes early at 5.25am this morning at Heathrow. From there we took the Underground to Kings Cross St Pancras station passing through a number of Monopoly board stations along the way then on to Faversham where we met up with Gareth at the Bike Shop and after a lot of reorganising luggage and bike bits and changing into our bike gear we headed off to Marshside near Canterbury. It was a tonic to see my little bike looking a lot better than I left it after the accident in France last year except for some significant scrape marks on the exhaust where it slid down the motorway.

It’s been a nice balmy day here today and after we stowed our cases we headed off for a short ride to get a few groceries and do a little exploring. Back home now and are looking forward to a good tramp along the lanes before we head to the local pub for dinner then bed.

Not sure how often I will update the blog. It will depend on where I get WIFI service and how committed I am but even if it is loaded sporadically I will keep track of the days so if you want to check out particular legs of the trip it should be easy enough to do so. Can’t believe the adventure has begun!



At home at St Kilda