Tim and Jen continue their slow tour of the English coast with a visit to Kent
Words Tim Walker ❚ Pictures Jen Tricker
ROAD TRIPS KENT
Whitstable has enjoyed something of a renaissance in recent years. Like many English seaside resorts, the Kent town has its share of run-down bits but there are some lovely parts, too. On our way to the seafront we pass through street after street of terraced houses, tidily painted in pastel colours. The high street, busy with independent shops and cafés, leads us down to the picture-book harbour. Well, almost picture-book – a few brightly painted working boats are moored up against the harbour walls but the East Quay is dominated by a not-so-beautiful cement works. Behind this, the Lobster Shack restaurant is tucked away, and we enjoy a plate of the famous Whitstable oysters, sweet and delicious, whilst gazing out across a shingle beach.
At the eastern end of this beach, we arrive at the town’s “castle” which is really a private house built at the end of the eighteenth century, all crenellations and turrets from the front but, around the back, a joyous hotchpotch of architectural styles as successive owners have tinkered and extended. It is a pleasant place to rest a while in the rose garden before taking tea on the lawns out front.
Our next stop, Margate, is a revelation, with its smart sweep of promenade, curved harbour wall, bijou lighthouse and luscious golden sands. Not having booked a campsite for our first night there, we park up in a quiet spot beyond the Turner Contemporary gallery, where overnight parking is tolerated, the sea lapping at the wall below us. When it gets dark, the lights of a dozen ships twinkle on the horizon. It is a great spot to spend a night.
The following morning, we double back to Reculver, the starting point of the Viking Coastal Trail which runs along the coast for 27 miles via Margate and Broadstairs to Cliffsend beyond Ramsgate. This is a super bike ride, as flat as a pancake along a concrete sea defence, below low chalk cliffs to Margate, and then climbing up onto higher cliffs across grassy commons and past the spectacular beaches of Botany Bay, Kingsgate Bay and Joss Bay. We turn around at the North Foreland Lighthouse and pedal back the way we came. For the final five miles, we slowly reel in the twin towers of St Mary’s Church at Reculver which stand majestically above the flatlands like a Kentish Chartres Cathedral.
Our bas
