This morning we couldn’t decide what to do at first. We were relying on the weather forecast to make our decision for us. If it was going to be quite a nice day, we would go to the Dover cliffs and do some walking followed by Dover Museum. If not, then we would have a day out doing odd little things, or something which we hadn’t quite planned and it would be a bit of an ad hoc sort of a day.
After the weather forecast told us that it would be more or less the same today and tomorrow, we decided on going to the white cliffs to do some walking. We set off for Dover, although we went “the scenic route” as is the case sometimes…! We eventually got to Dover but we had to drive around the Castle to get there as a lorry was blocking the route we were initially going to take. We got there in the end, and I got my walking sticks out - I love them! We set off from the visitors centre and headed to the lighthouse which we knew was closed today - which is a shame because we would have liked to have gone inside. Unfortunately, it was the end of the tourist season so it was no longer open to the public. But we thought that they could have made the grounds accessible, as there were lots of benches there and it would have made an ideal picnic spot if it had been a really nice day.
It was chilly and windy, but this made me walk faster, and I warmed up nicely. It took us an hour to get to the lighthouse, where we stopped for a few moments - fortunately, Mathew’s sister decided to call him at this point to wish him a Happy Birthday for yesterday as she had not been able to get through as we were on a submarine at the time…! After the call, we had some water and a little snack before heading back. We decided to take the same route back as we did there. Mathew took all the photos this morning as my hands were full with the walking sticks and I was feeling determined!
Just before we got back to the visitors centre, we stopped to go down a steep pathway which led onto the beach. This was an official route which people could walk, although it was very challenging - steep, very uneven all over the place, with stones and rocks frequent obstacles! I wasn’t looking forward to going back up there, so I warned Mathew that I may become grumpy on the way back up! We eventually got down to a platform on which there was a steel step-ladder attached, leading to the actual beach. It was a very steep ladder of steps, and it looked quite far down to me. Mathew started going down and he said it was okay, but I was unsure. VERY unsure. I attempted to go down, but as soon as I was on the first step I felt completely uncomfortable and I told Mathew I couldn’t do it, and I stayed up there while he went down onto the beach. If the ladder had been half as long I probably would have been okay, but it was a long way down and I had already hit my head on a beach telescope earlier this week, I didn’t want to add to my injuries. I can be very accident prone sometimes, and although I came down to the platform without incident, I thought it best not to risk going backwards down some steep steel steps, even though there were two sets of hand rails. I just decided it wasn’t a good idea. I already conquered my fear of ladders but I think it was the height aspect which made it worse because I do not like heights unless I am 100% secure inside something like a plane. I still have issues with cable cars and I absolutely HATE ski lifts!!
It was a shame that I couldn’t go down onto the beach, because the reason for going there was the remains of an old shipwreck. Mathew went over and took lots of photos though - he told me it was full of sea anenomes, and he brought me back a pebble. Now it was time to go back up the cliff!! Now, I was expecting to get all unnecessarily grumpy but on this occasion this did not happen. Perhaps it had something to do with my determination, and the fact that this pathway up the cliff was far from boring (as was the walk at Hearne Bay!). But I think I realised the difference between Mathew and I when it comes to walking - Mathew loves to climb up mountains, and enjoys the feeling of achievement when he reaches the top. I like to walk down into canyons and explore what’s inside because I can’t see it from the top, and I like to feel the canyon edges looming high above me, and it helps me to understand the scale. I think because I want to go down into a canyon - or in this case down the cliff and onto the beach - I know there is only one way back up and I HAVE to do it as there is no other option. If I were to climb a mountain I have to be VERY determined to do it, otherwise I’m happy to stay at the foot of a mountain and feel it looming high above me.
Anyway, slowly but surely we made our way back up the cliff and we eventually got back to the visitors centre where we both had a sandwich and a slice of “Kentish Apple Cake” which was very nice indeed! We bought some postcards in the shop along with a couple of edible souvenirs for my family, and headed into Dover itself.
We parked and visited Dover Museum and Bronze Age Boat Gallery. There were three floors to the museum - the ground floor seemed quite dated with its dressed mannequins and yellowing information tags, but the little models were quite good, showing the development of Dover in general. The ground floor was all about the Romans and the Anglo - Saxons, and I noticed the “celtic” man standing next to the Roman general seemed to be growing a rather bad mullet….!
The hallways where the stairs were had lots of cabinets of memorabilia of the girl guides as the Museum was celebrating a landmark year in 2010. Up the stairs onto the first floor, and we were in the “Special Exhibitions Gallery” where I assume temporary exhibitions are usually displayed. It seemed a little off this one, and again a little dated - this gallery had a room which had been created to show the average Roman, Medieval, and Victorian household (which has a very disturbing painting of three children - two boys and a girl - all with the same face - a young man’s face. It was seriously disturbing!!) along with a few paintings, pictures, and cabinets of artefacts from the same time periods. There was a random one at the end with WW2 memorabilia inside, but the strangest thing about this gallery was that there were no information cards or anything telling the visitor what things were. I appreciate this may have been an exhibit in the making, but I did find it quite strange how NOTHING was labelled at all.
Back in the hallways with more girl guide memorabilia, and up the stairs to the second floor. Two galleries lived here - the history of Dover gallery and the Bronze Age Boat gallery. We decided to look at Dover first, which took us from the very beginnings with the Anglo Saxons to WW2. Again there were more of those models showing the development of Dover through the ages, and there was yet another model boat made from bone by prisoners of prison ships - we saw a couple in the Museum at Chatham Dockyard, and there was another one here, along with a box and a little mechanical working toy which, when you wound the wheel, it made the lady up to look like she was spinning wool. Very intricate and clever these things were, all made from animal bone by prisoners. There was even a box made from straw which I found quite impressive.
Across the hallway we went, into the Bronze Age boat gallery and this gallery looked pretty much brand new, with the exception of worn buttons and levers, but still, this gallery looked like it was created yesterday. It was cool and the lighting was very low. Artefacts were on show from an excavation in the centre of Dover, of a Bronze Age wooden boat, along with information about how it would have been made, how it would have been used, and there in the centre was the boat itself. Only the base, but it was still an impressive sight. Nobody mentioned anything about taking photos so I took some! There was also a reconstruction of part of the boat which had been made by archaeologists using tools and methods of the time. It was a very impressive - and the best - gallery on the top floor, and the last thing we did before leaving was sit down to watch a short film on the excavation of the boat, it’s reconstruction, preservation and display.
We left the Museum and headed back to Bodsham, but this time I was paying attention to the map and managed to direct Mathew back with no trouble at all! My next task on Friday will be to get him out of Bodsham and back to Dover with much less hassle than this morning….!!
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