A birthday weekend by the coast offers Susan Taylor plenty of fine scenery to explore
My autumnal birthday always seems to bring the rain. For as long as I can recall (more years now than I like to remember!), it has always rained that day. This even includes the year when we treated ourselves to a holiday in Mauritius – a very heavy, very sudden downpour sent everybody scurrying away from the pool and into the bar for shelter. With this in mind, when I began planning a quick escape for my birthday weekend, at the top of our research list was the weather forecast.
Discovering that the only sunny spot in an otherwise rain-cloud covered country was likely to be the south-east corner, and with my preference for a visit to the seaside, we settled on a trip to the Kent coast. Having been brought up by the sea – albeit it much further north – I rather miss it and need regular doses of its bracing fresh air.
Following the Crab and Winkle Way
And so, leaving drizzly Buckinghamshire behind, we arrived around noon at warm and sunny Primrose Cottage Caravan Park, just outside Whitstable. Brian, the friendly site owner, greeted us and showed us a couple of spots before leaving us to take our choice on this fairly small and informal site. Wasting no time (tomorrow was the ‘big day’ and I feared the wet weather would catch up with us!), we quickly settled in and then set off to make the most of the sunshine with a stroll into town.
There are essentially two routes for walking to Whitstable from the campsite, both taking around 30 minutes: you can go on the pavement, or follow the Crab and Winkle Way, a cycling and hiking trail running along the original Crab and Winkle railway line.
Interestingly, this was the first-ever passenger steam railway route, running six miles from Whitstable to Canterbury. Opened in 1830, the line finally closed in 1952 and since 1999, has been a popular trail for cycling and hiking. The Way actually finishes (or starts) at the train station, although the pathway continues on to Whitstable Harbour.
Once you reach the harbour, there are a couple of good cafés if you need to rest weary legs – not forgetting all those oyster bars and shacks, for which Whitstable is famous. Many of these were closed for the season, but we found a great spot at The Harbour Garden Café.
Here, we enjoyed a clearly freshly caught seafood lunch, washed down with a local ale, while sitting in the sunshine watching the comings and goings at the working harbou
