Log No 314. Wed 14th May 2014 - Rye to New Romney, 19 miles (4813 miles walked)

There wasn't a cloud in the sky when I rose this morning but a clear cold night meant the tent was heavy with condensation.

I got to Norman's Bay train station 20 minutes early but the barriers were down at the level crossing and I had to wait for a train to pass before they were manually opened and then I could get across to the platform on the other side.

There was one other person, Jane, waiting for the 0753 and she was telling me that sometimes the gates can be closed for up to half an hour before the train actually comes through and she has missed the train because of this. When the gates are closed you used to be able to cross over by smaller pedestrian gates but these are permanently locked now since some foreign cyclists had a near miss last year.

I got back to Rye for 09.00 and took the cycle path to get back to the coast at Camber.

The level of the stony shore is higher than the road and is retained by an embankment. I walked along the top of this for a short while then went back on the cycle path to take an inland route to Lydd.

I would have liked to take the direct route to Dungeness on the footpath along the shore but it was on the edge of an MOD firing range and red flags and bullets were flying.

I had planned to get to Dungeness from the road and track adjacent to the MOD boundary fence and so I bypassed the centre of Lydd but I hadn't gone far when I changed my mind for two reasons: I wasn't 100% sure I could get access right down to the shore and I thought I had better try and find a food shop now rather than not come across one at all on the way to the campsite.


I had some lunch then went back into the centre of Lydd and got stocked up before heading to Dungeness on the main road to Lydd-on-Sea.

A private road turned off to head directly to the Nuclear Power Station at Dungeness and as the map showed a public footpath crossing this fenced road to get to the lighthouse I started walking down it.

There were a variety of private and works vehicles using this road and one car stopped to ask me where I was going.

There was a Police Station part way down the road so I called in to get confirmation that I could actually get onto this footpath, this was the case so I continued.

I got to the lighthouse at 14.00 and stopped for a break to finish off my lunch, the sky hadn't remained cloudless for long but it was still a mainly sunny day and a lot warmer than ithas been.

The place felt a bit like a shanty town with wooden shacks and houses seemingly built anywhere on the flat, shingle bssed headland.

There were a few people about but not as many as there seemed to be in the train that left there shortly after I had.

The steam train was a small narrow gauge affair, the Romney, Hythe and Dymchurch Railway, with the coaches just 2 persons wide and only room to sit.

I stayed on the road along the coast, the tide was going out revealing a wide, groyne free, sandy area but it didn't look that easy to walk on, not at the moment anyway.

There were houses all along the landward side of the road, mostly just the one house deep, and I went through Lydd-on-Sea, Greatstone-on-Sea and as far as Littlestone-on-Sea, New Romney, where the campsite was. It was 15.40 when I got there.

It wasn't shown on the map and can't have been open long because when I went into the reception the warden said she I was the first backpacker and she didn't have a price for one one. She asked me what I have charged elsewhere, I said £7 was a fair charge but she didn't charge me anything when I told her what I was doing.

She said she had one chap stay here overnight last year who was going round the coast in a mobility scooter. I said I had seen the scooter; but not the driver, in Applecross on the west coast of Scotland, I had been told it had broken down and was waiting for spare parts to arrive.

I was feeling quite tired after the 19 miles but I think it is due more to the later start than the distance. Tomorrow will be a bit shorter.