A continuation of a trip which started on Sept 10.
Canterbury - 9/10-11 (here)
It was a looong driving day from Canterbury all the way to coastal Brighten
The route along the Southeastern coast included these towns on the way,
Canterbury >>> Sandwich >>>Deal > Dover >>>Hasting >>> Brighton
The driving scenery on the way from charming Canterbury toward the South Eastern coast town of Sandwich and beyond, is not particularly remarkable.
It consists of Greenery, lots of sheep on the landscape and some vineyards.
The weather was most of the day cloudy with some showers when in between the sun was playing pick-a Bu...
It took about 30 minutes to drive from Canterbury and reach this small quint preserved Medieval port town (about
5000 inhabitants) in Kent, which we only
passed through
The name of the town is, most likely, Saxon in origin, approximately meaning sandy place, or the place on the sand.
The word sandwich as an item of food came into being centuries later and is related to John Montagu, the 4th Earl of Sandwich. a British first lord of the Admiralty during the American Revolution (1776–81) and the man for whom the sandwich was named.
He didn't really 'invent' the sandwich but he may have made it popular.
Another 15 minuets drive got us to this coastal town, where the North Sea and the English Channel meet
It is a former fishing, mining, port and garrison town. Today it is a seaside resort, which its quaint streets, houses and monuments are a reminder of its history long gone.
Built on the orders of King Henry VIII, Deal Castle is one of the finest Tudor artillery castles in England,
Close to Deal is Walmer, a possible location for Julius Caesar's first arrival in Britain.
It took about 30 more minutes minutes to drive from Deal to Dover along the coast
Situated in the south-east corner of Britain Dover is considered a large-Port Town, due to its large volumes of port traffic and low urban population ( 10,000 inhabitant}
The name derives from the River Dour that flows through it. and into the sea
The nearest point to the European mainland, Cap Gris Nez in Northern France is only 34 km away across the Strait of Dover - narrowest part of the English Channel, marking the boundary between the Channel and the North Sea, and separating Great Britain from continental Europe.
This location has always been a focus for peoples entering and leaving Britain. a point of destination, also for many illegal migrant crossings.
The Port of Dover -ferry, cruise terminal, maritime cargo and marina facility provides much of the town's employment, as does tourism including to the iconic landmark
The white cliff of the coastline which reaches a height of 110 m, owes its striking appearance to its composition of chalk accented by streaks of black flint,
deposited during the Late Cretaceous.
During the Late Cretaceous, between 100 million and 66 million years ago, Great Britain and much of Europe were submerged under a great sea. The sea bottom was covered with white mud formed from fragments of coccoliths, the skeletons of tiny algae that floated in the surface waters and sank to the bottom and, together with the remains of bottom-living creatures, formed muddy sediments. The weight of overlying sediments caused the deposits to become consolidated into chalk
Due to the Alpine orogeny, a major mountain building event during the Cenozoic, the sea-floor deposits were raised above sea level.
Rising above the famous White Cliffs Dover heritage site Dover Castle / fortress which was built after 1066, and has been the site of royal intrigue and epic sieges. In the labyrinthine tunnels beneath it,
The castle served as center of the crucial effort to evacuate hundreds of thousands of Allied troops from the beaches of Dunkirk.
Dover Castle is a popular film location having featured in Into the Woods (2015), Poirot “The Clocks” (2009), The Other Boleyn Girl (2008) and Hamlet (1990).
The White cliffs, on both sides of the town of Dover stretch for 13 km and form part of the North Downs.
A section of coastline encompassing the cliffs was purchased by the National Trust in 2016, and the charming spot of it , we visited, is named Samphire Hoe
Samphire Hoe picnic area
The 30-hectare nature reserve. park and pick-nick area is situated 2 miles west of Dover .
Samphire Hoe is named after the wild plant rock samphire that was once collected from the Dover cliffs; its fleshy green leaves were picked in May and pickled in barrels of brine and sent to London, where it was served as a dish to accompany meat. A 'hoe' is a piece of land which sticks out into the sea
The park was created by using 4.9 million cubic meters of chalk marl from the Channel Tunnel excavations and is found at the bottom of a section of the White Cliffs of Dover. The site is owned by Getlink, and managed by the White Cliffs Countryside Project.
Another hour and 15 minutes drive from Dover to Hastings, only partly along the coast, got us to Hastings
known for the 1066 Battle of Hastings, fought on a nearby field (where Battle Abbey now stands) Hastings, set between hills that reach to the sea, is a small town of about 90,000 on England’s southeast coast.
Around the old town there are cliffs of buff-coloured sandstone, locally known as the Hastings Sands.
A three-mile seafront stretches from the fishing fleet at the eastern end through the arcades and funfair rides, to the pier and unique double-decker promenade.
The town became popular with tourists when the railway brought visitors to the town in Victorian times.
Romans who arrived in Britain for the first time in 55 BC. began to exploit the iron (Wealden rocks provide a plentiful supply of the ore), and shipped it out by boat. Iron was worked locally at Beauport Park, to the north of the town. It employed up to one thousand men and is considered to have been the third-largest mine in the Roman Empire.
With the departure of the Romans, the town suffered setbacks, the mine abandon and the original Roman port is probably now under the sea
The start of the Norman Conquest was the Battle of Hastings,
The Norman ruins of Hastings Castle, once home to William the Conqueror, sit on West Hill overlook the town and English Channel.
It took another driving hour to have finally arrive, early evening to Brighton our final destination, to my relief. of this long driving day.
To be continued ......
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