Experience The Adventure

Those lifetime hangovers really are a killer.  I’ve been having fun, doing the normal stuff, and thats really why there is no postings – everything is normal.  Doesn’t look like i can make it to running of the bulls, that would have been exciting.  Maybe next year, or the other one in August.  Anyone want to tempt fate with me?  Not sure if surfing is a go yet either, will try though.

I was drinking, and thought, focus, just focus.  Not because of the liquor, but because if you want to drink, do it somewhere close to home.  Decided to get out of the city, and go see something move lively and real, so took a train out to Dover.

Now Dover really has 2 main things; the castle, and the white cliffs.  This apart from the major terminal for ferries and the hovercraft.  If its clear outside, they say you can see France. 

There it is…… fog.

Dover castle is likely one of the nicest castles in England.  After 4 hours of exploring, I saw everything.  The secret tunnels dug in the cliffs used in the world wars – some of the grafiti from people on the wall go back to 1800 (how do you honestly tell if its real), the extent of the castle is almost all in tact.  The seige experience in the keep was full of movies and light, the shops, the mighty view from each peak at each side of the castle.  They tell how strategically important this castle was in the history of England, withstanding raids and one of the two castles that held out against a major French invasion.  Its easy to see how once you are on top of the hill though, its such a steep and long approach that you would have trouble walking up much of the hill itself.  What a perfect place to build a castle.  Something odd was very few towers had much of access holes for shooting out arrows.  One part of the castle that was mostly gone was a section that was tunneled under, and it collapsed the tower, but did not defeat the castle.

 The white cliffs are made of chalk.  It was soft enough that even to try and move a scape away a section of chalk was successful.  Its a wonder how they never eroded.  After taking a long trek out onto the cliffs, i decided to take the low path back.  The path soon turned into a trail, which turned into a bush path, then into nothing.  Finally it led to a section of the cliff.  Not wanting to go back, I decided it was time to climb up, no matter how steep.  It was easy at first, there was a drainage area with the metal rods from reinforced concrete sticking out to hang on to.  About halfway up the rods ended, i decided it was a bad idea, and looked to head back.  There was no way to get down safely, and no way to go up safely.  It was really only a few meters down.  To the first ledge.  Don’t think about the distance to the second, i have no idea how far that was but didn’t really care.  Just don’t slip.  Using some basic principle of rock climbing/bouldering, I used the protruding concrete to hang onto while I made my way up to the final ledge where the drain pipe extended.  The drainpipe was really sliperry and I could not get a hold of it, nor would I be able to hold onto if i sliped.  Finally, using weeds and shrubs for the final boost, over the edge and pipe to the fence.  The only war wounds, the cuts from thorny plants.

The beach there looks man made.  Its really just rocks, little to no sand anywhere.  The water looks clean, with the odd rubbish floating around.

Found a pub, no menu, but he says “we can cook anything you want.”  The place was as dirty as it gets, the couches stained, dim lights, the bathrooms had leaky plumbing.  But the bar tenders were nice, and had a good traditional english sunday dinner, covered in gravy.  Had reservations about eating there.  Train back to London, and that was enough for the day.  Felt like a few days.  On to something next weekend, in the city though.  Hey Wade, see you on Friday.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 20th, 2006 at 9:40 am and is filed under London, London Trips, UK. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.