Hythe; Saturday, 13 April, 2013

There’s something very comforting to be curled up under a big warm duvet whilst rain hammers at the windows and the wind howls round the outside of the building. That’s increased even more when it’s accompanied by the sound of the English Channel smashing into the beach just a few yards away. Consequently I had a wonderful night’s sleep and after a stunning breakfast was ready to face the day fully refreshed.

I caught the bus into Folkestone and had a look around the town centre, catching the funicular railway down to the beach and having a wander through the old town before heading back to the bus station and catching the local bus out to the site of the former Air base at Hawkinge.

This base was the closest one to Dover and the front line during the Battle of Britain. Today virtually the whole site has been developed into a housing estate, but one small corner with a couple of hangers and a few Nissen huts still remains as a museum to those brave men and women of the RAF who protected the country during its darkest hour.

After looking around the museum I caught the bus back into town and then picked up another bus to go up onto the top of the North Downs and the Battle of Britain Memorial at Capel le Ferne. With its cliff-top position looking out to the coast of France and the Horizon, from where wave after wave of Luftwaffe planes headed towards England during those desperate months in 1940, it’s a moving site. The simple memorial of a pilot sat looking out to sea, and a single wall with the names of those airmen who gave their lives being a sobering reminder of how much people had to fight to retain their freedom.

The weather was deciding to enhance the melancholy mood by closing in around the site as I sat having a cup of tea in the visitors centre with the first sleety drops of rain buzzing round in the air.

From the memorial site I caught the bus on into Dover and then another bus up to the entrance to the castle.

By the time I got to the castle the weather was rapidly deteriorating into heavy rain accompanied by a biting wind ripping in off the channel. I had a bit of a wander around the castle and took in both the keep and the underground tunnels before giving up and heading back down into town to catch the bus back to Hythe.

Crossing back over the North Downs near the Battle of Britain Memorial the weather deteriorated so much that it was impossible to see more than a few feet in front so the bus slowed to a crawl over the top of the downs.

Back in Hythe with the weather settled down into a thin penetrating drizzle I headed back to the hotel to dry off, warm up and have dinner, before another pleasant night’s sleep listening to the weather scour the rear of the hotel.