Joanne's long walks: Road to Home 2022 Day 30: Shepherdswell

22 km (including 4 km from Dover Marina to the White Cliffs of Dover)

For pilgrims through time, the truth is elsewhere; the true place is always some distance, some time away. Wherever the pilgrim may be now, it is not where he ought to be, and not where he dreams of being.

Zygmunt Bauman, From Pilgrim to Tourist (1996)

In his description of St. Bernard's Way, Tony Maskill-Rogan offers two possible routes from Shepherdswell to Dover, both the same length. The first follows the well-maintained, signed route of the North Downs Way and the Via Francigena, while the second, which he describes as "more direct and more scenic," follows other footpaths and swings around past the ruins of St. Radigund's Abbey to enter Dover from the west.

More direct and more scenic both sounded good to me! And the broad, well-marked North Downs Way was getting to be a bit of a bore: for the last stage of my walk, I didn't mind a return to the challenges and excitement of the footpaths I had been walking north of London. Dodging curious cattle and speeding lorries, being careful not to "worry" the sheep, negotiating my way through patches of shoulder-high grass and fields of equally tall rapeseed, finding myself on the wrong side of a barbed wire fence because I had missed a gate hidden in a hedgerow and having to backtrack half a kilometre to get around to the other side... All those familiar old challenges were back on this alternative route to Dover! 😁

I don't know what the official Via Francigena route is like, but the route I took was indeed scenic. I descended from a chalk ridge into the village of Temple Ewell, and stopped at the café in Kearnsey Abbey Gardens for a cup of tea and a scone with clotted cream and raspberry jam.

Kearnsey Cream Tea

After this very civilised and very English snack, I returned to the path, continuing over the fields to St. Radigund's Abbey Farm, where, as the name suggests, the ruins of the abbey have been partially incorporated into the farmhouse and outbuildings.

After climbing up and down a few more ridges, Dover Castle finally came into view, and the sea beyond it!

Close enough to France for the fleur-de-lis to flourish!

I wound my way down the ridge toward the town, stopping to talk to a young man with a ponytail in his beard who had carried a lawn chair up to the top of the ridge and was sitting in it smoking a cigar. He asked where I had walked from, and at this point, that's inevitably a conversation starter... I took advantage of the opportunity to ask him a few questions about Dover, and as I was walking away, I thought, I should have asked him the best place to get fish and chips! It was too late, but... When I did go to get fish and chips later in the day, I saw the same fellow again there! So it was obviously the right place! 😁

I walked into Dover town centre along Folkestone Road, where there are a lot of B&Bs, including the one where the two ladies from New Zealand are staying. But I had booked a hotel in the marina, and I was glad I did, because the man at an airbnb I stayed in a few nights ago used to live in Dover, and precisely on Folkestone Road, and he had said (without being asked) that Dover was "a bit rough and ready" and the marina was the only really nice area. My waterfront hotel certainly looked impressive...

... but for the rate I paid, I don't get a sea view, or spa access, or even breakfast! My room is round the back, above the service entrance, where the bar staff take out the recycling 😂.

Nonetheless, it's a fancy enough hotel that they hide the towels in the bathroom drawer... And there I was, prancing about the room naked, dripping on the carpet and looking all over for a towel! 😂

No need for a spa: I was quite happy to settle for a nice hot bath and a cup of tea, change into my summer dress (which is also my nightdress, but nobody need know that except you and I) and go out to explore Dover!

First things first: a stamp for my pilgrim credential. I got one at the tourist information office, popping into the free museum upstairs to see the amazing bronze age boat, dating from around 1500 BC!

Then I found my way, after several attempts, to the top of the White Cliffs of Dover. It took some time because Dover is not a pedestrian-friendly city. It is cut in half by the four-lane highway leading to the ferry terminal, which can only be crossed at a couple of points, and further compartmentalised by an impenetrable block of Soviet-style flats between the highway and the waterfront, ten floors high and perhaps half a kilometre long, without a single passageway or gap, to make sure as many residents as possible can enjoy a sea view! While on the other side of the highway is an immense shopping mall... It took me a while to negotiate my way around all these obstacles, as well as the ferry terminal itself, and find my way to the top of the cliffs. Signposts tantalisingly labelled White Cliffs, with the walking man symbol generally associated with pedestrian routes, were few and far between, and not to be relied upon: one of them pointed right into the middle of the four-lane highway!

When I did get to the bottom of the cliffs, and subsequently to the top of them, it was worth the trouble, and very well organised as it is a National Trust site (which gave me an opportunity to obtain another stamp on my pilgrim credential, and an extra pair of National Trust hiking socks, now that I have tested them and found them worthy).

White cliffs incorporating part of the old city walls

People live right under the cliffs!

"The last pub in the civilised world" 😅

The ferry port - I see now why they are reluctant to take foot passengers! The whole city seems reluctant to take people on foot...

From the top of the White Cliffs of Dover I could clearly see similar white cliffs across the Channel in France: the first stage of the Via Francigena in France, from Calais to Wisques.

I look forward to walking over the top of those cliffs, and looking back at Dover, when I resume my Long Walk in France!

Last port of call for the day: Castle Fish & Chips

Fish & chips & mushy peas

Vintage postcard in the Dover museum

Morning update: went for a stroll up to the fortifications of the Western Heights, but there isn't much to see there, other than the view over Dover and the foundations of a medieval church of the Knights Templar.