New Caravan Club Site Opens + other news

On the 23rd September this new caravan site opened its gates. We had a look around on Sunday afternoon, the facilities are super, but we were surprised that there was little in the way of energy saving in the toilet block.

The Centenary Garden. This year is the Caravan Club's centenary.



On Tuesday evening Sue and I went down to the 'Bikes on Poole Quay' for the final get together of 2007. At the same time was there was the final of finals for the best bike of the year. This was won by an old BSA Gold Star. Here are one or two of the contenders.


Scarey stuff!



Sorry about this one, but I thought it was funny.



The whole of the quay is blocked off except to the bikes taking part. I estimated about 500+ bikes, on a very good night in the summer it has reached 1000+.



Everyone who takes part has to pay £1 (I think) and most of the proceeds go to charity.



I was on a ramble in the north of the New Forest on Wednesday and spied this old building with this picture in a frame attached to the outside. An interesting photo I thought. Oh well!

Part 5 - Other Photos

View from the hill above the campsite. Lympne Castle was nearby.




Hythe beach, where the fishing boats are pulled up after each trip.



A new use for a martello tower.



Did I mention that we made a day trip to Calais to top up the cellar.

Part 4 - Rye

We had never been to Rye so it was a pleasant surprise to find such a lovely picturesque town. We walked around all the sites and made a visit to Lamb House, a National Trust property.

Novelist Henry James lived at Lamb House, Rye, Sussex, from 1898 to 1916 and wrote several of his books there, in the green room in the winter and in a garden pavilion during the summer. Unfortunately the pavilion was destroyed by a bomb in WWII.




In the back garden of Lamb House.


The Mermaid Inn built in 1156.



There were many interesting front doors throughout Rye, here is one (two) of them (read the names).





This is one of the guns used to repel the French. However they did get through occasionally.

Part 3 - Hythe and Its Surroundings

Staying on the outskirts of Hythe we just had to have a trip on the Romney, Hythe and Dymchurch Railway (RH&DR)
When it first opened to the public the line only covered, in double track, the eight miles between Hythe and New Romney — the railways main terminus. Owner Captain Jack Howey soon had his eye on extending the line and in 1928 double tracks carried the trains to Dungeness via Greatstone. A fantastic main line ride of 13.5 miles.
As you can see it is not a full sized train.

When the train arrives at Hythe it has to be turned round - by hand!


Close to Dungeness there are a few wooden cabins built on the shingle. Instead of gardens many of them have decorated their surroundings with 'found' objects washed up by the sea. In amongst the one below, which represents a ship, were many types of flip flop. We wondered if the one CarolW lost to the sea in South Africa was amongst them?



Here I am with a sundial on my right.



Close to the caravan site was the Royal Military Canal (RMC). The RMC stretches for 28 miles along the old cliff line that borders the Romney Marsh from Hythe in the north east to Cliff End in the south west. It was built as a third line of defence against Napoleon, after the British Royal Navy patrolling the English Channel and the line of 74 Martello Towers built along the south coast.

The first sod of the RMC was dug at Seabrook, Kent on 30th October 1804. The canal was completed in April 1809 at a cost of £234,000 (£10 million in today's money).

I thought that there was a cycling track all along the RMC, but was mistaken and there is only a short stretch from close to the campsite to Seabrook, about 4 miles. It is possible to walk the 28 miles.

Part 2 - Heritage Weekend

From Canterbury we moved to Daleacres Caravan Site near Hythe. We wanted to be here for the Heritage weekend so we could see the sound mirrors at Denge. As a bonus the The Grand shaft was open in Dover on the Saturday. It is only open three times a year.

The shaft is an ingenious construction of brick measuring 26 feet (8 metres) in diameter and 140 feet (42 metres) in height. It was built between 1806 – 1809. It has three staircases of Purbeck limestone which wind clockwise one above the other down a central brick light and ventilation shaft lit by an occasional window. At the bottom the three staircases meet in the sloping corridor which leads to Snargate Street. There are 200 steps in all separated by several landings.

Here we see Sue on the steps leading to the top entrance of the shaft.



This is a view from the bottom looking up the centre of the staircase.




A forerunner of Radar, acoustic mirrors were built on the south and northeast coasts of England between about 1916 and the 1930s. The 'listening ears' were intended to provide early warning of incoming enemy aeroplanes and airships about to attack coastal towns. With the development of faster aircraft the sound mirrors became less useful, as an aircraft would be within sight by the time it had been located, and radar finally rendered the mirrors obsolete.
Here you can see the 30 foot mirror.




The mirrors did work, but the development of faster aircraft made them less useful, as an incoming aircraft would be within sight by the time it had been located. Increasing ambient noise made the mirrors harder to use successfully, and then radar rendered acoustic detection redundant.
This is the 200 foot mirror which when you are close to it looks huge.




All 141 people listening to the talk from our leader.

Part 1 - Canterbury

When school goes back in September The Buchans go caravanning. The first caravan site was a mile away from Canterbury. It is a lovely site, but it is used by many people in transit to the continent.


Here you can see Canterbury Cathedral, we spent about 2 hours visiting the inside and the outside. As you can see it was a lovely day for the visit.

Canterbury Cathedral is one of the oldest Christian churches in England and it continues to play an important role in English Christianity.
Dating from 597 AD, Canterbury Cathedral still functions as the cathedral of the Archbishop of Canterbury, who is the Primate of All England and leader of the worldwide Anglican Communion. Canterbury is also a major pilgrimage destination due to the martyrdom of St. Thomas Becket in 1170.



Stain glass window in the cathedral.



Canterbury still has considerable town walls, this is the West Gate through which traffic still passes (with difficulty). The River Stour is in the foreground.


By the River Stour.




Sue in the castle.


Canterbury and the area around has lots of geocaches. This was an interesting area close to what was a Second World War II airfield. It was thought that these blocks had something to do with the airfield.



This is classed as the Smallest Fully Functional Cache in the World. It has a log book and pencil inside. I didn't open it up as I didn't want the embarrassment of not being able to put it back together again.