By the numbers
16 Day Heritage Pass £42, sites
visited £55.50 or $100 AUD
28,536 Steps
20.24 kms
I had a pretty good sleep as the night
before, I had a headache that I think could have been from lack of sleep the
night before, a little bit from the heat and no coffee. I was allowed to sleep
this time round and up before 730 am to have breakfast before leaving on a
train to Dover, where I had a castle to visit It wasn’t that far to walk and I
was expecting to catch the train at 930am, but had enough time to catch the one
at 830am, which was pretty good as it took me into Dover station, where it
would be a short walk up hill to Dover Castle.
I had to walk the hill all the way up to
Dover Castle and I took some stairs as I thought that would be a better place to
get inside. I was turned around at the drawbridge gate by a security guard who
told me I gad to buy a ticket at 10am. It was twenty to ten and I found the
ticket gate that I had avoided when coming up the steps. The ticket gate was a
little booth as the main one is further up the hill at the main entrance. I
started walking that way and soon realised it was not much fun walking up a big
hill, so walked back and waited until 10am so I could enter the castle. I didn’t
have long to wait by that time and I was happy to finally visit the castle as
last time I was there it had been shut for the winter apart from being open on
the weekend. Before I left home, I nearly thought it would be closed on the day
I was going to visit, but that changed luckily.
The first place I headed to was a platform
that was used during WW1 to direct communications amongst the shipping traffic
using Morse code and telephone. The place had a great view of the harbour and
thats what it was used for during the war. From there I headed up the hill towards
an old church that had something I had wanted to see for quite some time and
that was an old Roman Lighthouse, which was the oldest structure on the site as
there had also been Roman Fortifications, but I don’t know if they tried
finding those or not. The Actual Castle is nearby and pretty imposing as it was
built by King Henry II in the late 1100’s and has morphed into what it is today
as it had been used throughout time up to World War 2. The castle you could
walk through and there was an actual fire burning in the fire place. I did
question the fire in the middle of summer. It was explained that it adds to the
atmosphere. It did look good though and there were other room you could explore
on your way to the roof. That showed a spectacular view of the whole area. I
did end up in some medieval tunnels nearby that were a little bit dark and
there was only one way in and out as I soon found out. Going back the way I
came was loads of fun.
I made it to a tunnel tour of Operation
Dynamo, which was a tour of the tunnels where events played out during World
War 2 with Dover being defended although Dover was attacked from France with
Germany lobbing shells and air raids to attack the area. Operation Dynamo was
the biggest event that took place and that was where the Dunkirk evacuation
took place over 10 days and included the little ships as well. The tunnels were
built during the 1700s and used during the Napoleonic wars and extended during
World War 2. There were around 4 miles of tunnel and I still don’t see how you
could possibly get lost there as you are directed where to go the entire way.
The story of the operation is through video clips and audio starts with the
beginning to how the action at Dunkirk played out. At the end the displays show
old telephone switchboards and video on how some of the other stuff worked like
the radar and the artillery making sure of the positions of friendly pilots so
they wouldn’t be shot down. I did love how at the end of the tour you ended up
in the gift shop, although there was a little display about the operation in
Dunkirk and defending Dover from attack. The tunnels were kept secret from the
Germans throughout the war and reached a depth of 24 metres underground,
although I am guessing they go deeper.
It was getting close to the time that I
should return and I decided to walk the ramparts before leaving and I did get a
pretty good view of the white cliffs of Dover, although in the tunnels you were
actually metres behind the cliffs. The ramparts are the defences and they had
where the anti air were located and also some of the old canons as the castle
had been involved in conflict in the past. I left the castle and walked to the
water where I had a better view of the cliffs, although it was pretty warm
outside by the afternoon. I knew I had to turn around and head to the train
station and I made it there with at least 10 mins before a train left until I
realised I needed to be on platform 3 and not 1. That was very lucky I checked
as I was going to hop onto a train that didn’t stop at Canterbury. It even left
one minute early unless my phone is 1 min slow. Once back in Canterbury, I had
a walk along the wall before heading back to the hostel as they have pizza.
Turns out they are out of pizza bases and I had to walk up the road for
something else that ended up being Pizza from Pizza Hutt. I walked that back
and had that for tea. From the way the menu at the hostel reads it is only
pizza they have. Hopefully they don’t run out of anything else for breakfast.
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