I haven’t just done Part 5 of my Kent Coast Walk, hot on the heels of a CFS flare up. We actually completed it on a very hot Sunday at the end of August, but I just haven’t had time to write it up and it is a very belated account. This is a section of the coast path that we have never walked before, despite being sandwiched between two sections that we do very often. The reason for this is that I am scared of heights. I have been walking on the white cliffs of Dover on the castle side since I was a child, and know exactly where to go so that I am not too close to the edge, but I had heard horror stories of vertiginous drops on the Folkestone to Dover side and have always been too worried about getting up there and freaking out to give it a go. Lengthy research seemed to suggest that the worst drops are now fenced off, and my desire to get round the whole of the Kent coast meant that it was time to face my fears!

On arrival in Folkestone we made a quick diversion to the Lidl bakery to buy some rolls for lunch (we still had some individual portions of cheese from the Brussels Youth Hostel free breakfast bags that we thought, given that this was our final outing of the summer holidays, would be a fitting time to use up) and stopped to admire this wonderful seagull mural on the side of a neighbouring building, before we headed down the cobbled Old High Street to the harbour.

This time the tide was in as we set off past the harbour and Sunny Sands, climbing upwards towards the East Cliff. Another of the Triennial artworks can be found here – this one inspired by the Sound Mirrors that can be found all along the coast. Having already passed two sets during the course of my coastal walking, and with the prospect of another one ahead of us on this section, I just had to stop and take a photo!

On this short stretch you can find the Coastwatch Station, a martello tower, and the site of a Roman villa. Once upon a time, my daughter was a member of the Young Archaeologists Club and took part in a dig that was going on here, but now it is all covered over and we couldn’t even see a sign to mark where it was, although there was an information board about it  further along.

We still faced a steep climb to the very top of the cliffs, stopping from time to time to admire the views. I was surprised by the number of walkers who seemed to be out and about, but my daughter told me that this is a walk which has become incredibly popular on instagram. I swear I was the oldest person on the cliffs that day and had never seen so many walkers in their 20s and 30s before, and without stereotyping, I would guess that most were down on a day trip from London.

The Coastal path passes through the Battle of Britain Memorial Centre, where we had a quick look around (and noted the cafe which had a lovely balcony terrace with channel views),

before heading to the nearby Cliff Top Cafe, which also has channel views and is where we had been planning to have a brief pit stop. It was super busy but we managed to grab a table and then I joined the very long queue to order. It was such a long queue, (with very harassed staff), that it took half an hour to reach the front, by which time my daughter had left our belongings and come in search of me, thinking that maybe I had decided to abandon her there and continue on the walk by myself! There weren’t even chocolate milkshakes available after all that, but having queued for that long we were hot and thirsty and weren’t just going to leave empty handed, so had to settle for banana instead.

We enjoyed the view while we drank, but it did then put us very behind schedule. It was already lunch time, and although we soon found what would have been an ideal place to sit and eat our picnic (there were actually three or four more benches than this, but I couldn’t fit them all in the photo!), it was too early in the walk to have another stop, and in terms of making sure that I had enough breaks, we were hoping to get to the half way point before our next proper stop.sit down. Next time though!

As we continued, I could see that we were getting closer and closer to the feared cliff edge. (Abbots Cliff House, which is up ahead in the photo below, was perfectly situated to have once been used as a base for the authorities to watch out for smugglers, but some internet research tells me that it is now perfectly situated to be available as a very expensive holiday let!)

I was relieved to see that the railings were very robust, and not the rickety wooden affair that I had been apprehensive about, but at the same time I still made sure that I was looking firmly in front of me, and not at the sheer drop on my right hand side! Arguably a bit of a lost opportunity, but I’m sure we’ll be back and maybe next tine I might be feeling a little braver!

Not long after this we came across the next sound mirror, and if you have ever watched it, this one features several times in the BBC comedy drama series Back to Life. I have loved discovering and learning about these listening ears, but sadly this is the last one that I will encounter on my Kent Coast walk.

We were definitely more than ready for some food by this point, but the grass alongside the now tarmac path that we were sharing with a cycle route was very long, so we pressed on, and aware that we were getting closer to Dover, ended up sitting on the wall of an old wartime building to eat our picnic. There are many of these gun emplacements along the cliffs.

Samphire Hoe was below us – a nature reserve created from the spoil excavated from the channel tunnel. It opened in 1997 and we used to visit fairly regularly when I had a car. It’s not so accessible on foot, although you can still walk down the access tunnel if you are so inclined. On this day we definitely weren’t, but we took time to reminisce – and to admire the very aesthetically pleasing parking area!

We could now see Dover ahead of us, but the path came much closer to the very busy A20, which meant that traffic noise began to intrude on the peace of the walk.

It was interesting to see the brick chimneys once used as ventilation shafts for the steam trains running through the railway tunnel below (what an amazing bit of Victorian engineering!). It is a very picturesque line, running alongside the beach for much of its route.

At this point we were on Shakespeare Cliff, a dramatically rising section of cliff. It gets its name from a scene in King Lear, where a disguised Edgar persuades his father, the blind Earl of Gloucester, that he is at the edge of a cliff in Dover. Gloucester says “There is a cliff, whose high and bending head looks fearfully in the confined deep:
Bring me to the very brim of it”

Edgar fools Gloucester into thinking he is at the cliff edge and describes the scene: “Here’s the place! – stand still. How fearful/ And dizzy ’tis, to cast one’s eye so low!/The crows and choughs that wing the midway air/Show scarce so gross as beetles: half way down/Hangs one that gathers samphire: dreadful trade!/” (And it is this mention of samphire which gives the aforementioned Samphire Hoe its name.)

A cliff fall meant that the path had been re-routed slightly away from the edge, but instead of a dizzying drop, I had a different fear to face in the form of a herd of cows, some of whom were very close! I am still quite traumatised by cows following my scary encounter along Faversham Creek back in June, made worse by the discovery of the https://killercows.co.uk/ website where other walkers have detailed even scarier encounters!! With more cows out of shot on the left and a barbed wire fence on the right, going around them was not an option, and as we had come too far to think about turning back, I had to face my fears, trying to take courage from the fact that several groups of walkers ahead of us had passed by unscathed.

I edged my way past, keeping as close to the fence as I could, and once safely past, we soon began our descent into Dover, looking ahead at the cruise ship moored at the Western Docks, and cross channel ferries sailing in and out at the Eastern side.

We left the sea, heading through a subway under the A20, past some houses and into the Western Heights Nature Reserve.

At this point I was completely done. Exhaustion took over and the remainder of the walk was a bit of a blur! We could have cut it short and walked along the road into the town centre, but even when I am on my last legs I am pretty stubborn, so we continued along the footpath, being rewarded with some lovely views over the harbour and the sea front, and to Dover Castle.

For people less tired than me, the remains of the Drop Redoubt Napoleonic Fort that you encounter on this final section are very impressive (and you can find out more about it here https://doverwesternheights.org/). We had visited a few times years ago for their open weekend events, and it would have been nice to have a bit of a wander, but even a sit down and a drink and snack were not enough to revive me at this stage, and my daughter was also suffering from the effects of too much sun.

Instead, we continued following the path, now downhill all the way, straight to the bus station and home.

All in all it was a fabulous walk, and I can see why it has become a ‘must-do’ on instagram. Instead of always heading up to the other side for our fix of cliff top walking, this one will definitely be added to our repertoire from now on.

Read Kent Coast Walk Part 6: Dover to Deal here

Read Kent Coast Walk Part 4: Hythe to Folkestone here