My daughter and I completed this next part of the coast path on 31st October in gloriously warm sunshine. Although we have walked from Dover to St Margarets and back, and Deal to Kingsdown and back many times before, we have only done the middle section once, and it was the first time that we have actually completed the whole walk in one go, which was quite exciting.

I grew up in a village just outside Dover and retain a soft spot for the town. It makes me sad that it has become so down at heel over the years whilst its neighbours have enjoyed a level of gentrification and are all prospering, but the seafront – which has had money pumped into it – is really lovely and it always makes me very happy when I emerge from the subway that leads from the town centre and see the sea and the harbour and the ferries and the cliffs and the castle.

We turned left and walked along the seafront where there are always lots of swimmers (whether training for a channel swim or just swimming for pleasure, I’m never sure), towards the towards those iconic white cliffs and the Eastern Docks, from where the path climbs steeply upwards. It’s a bit of a hike, but pausing for a breather is a chance to look back and admire the view – as well as how far you have climbed!

By the time we reached the top, my daughter was feeling in need of some caffeine, so we stopped at the National Trust cafe and sat outside in the sunshine, watching the ferries sail in and out of the harbour. One of my favourite things about being up on this part of the cliffs is listening to the ferry announcements in English and French which you can clearly hear over their tannoy systems. I find something quite exciting about it and it always makes me want to pack my bags and jump on board.

We then headed off along the cliff top, following the well defined paths. On a clear day you can see across to France, and when I have remembered to bring my binoculars, it always gives me great pleasure to spot the tower of the Calais town hall, but today the only reminder of our proximity to the continent was the ‘Welcome to France’ message that always pops up on our mobile phones.

If the tide is out and you are feeling adventurous it’s possible to make a short detour to access the beach that you can just about see at the foot of the cliffs in the photo below, via a zig zag path, a tunnel and a 7m ladder. I am not adventurous – and on the one occasion that we did follow the path, I was too scared to go down the ladder! – so we continued along the main path, keeping well away from the cliff edge.

It’s always very busy up here and, listening to all the French, Dutch and German being spoken, it seems to have become a popular stop off for holidaying families, either just arriving off the ferries or waiting for their ferry home, as well as for more local visitors.

About 40 minutes after leaving the cafe, we passed the site of the Fan Bay Deep Shelter, a series of underground tunnels designed to house soldiers from the nearby gun battery during the second world war. You can visit the tunnels on a guided tour during the spring/summer season, and although we have never got round to doing this, some idle googling has just informed me that there are actually two sound mirrors built into the cliff face here which I didn’t know existed, and which you can also visit as part of the tour! If you have read any of my previous coastal walk blog posts you will know that I have developed a bit of an obsession with these impressive structures over the course of my ramblings, so this might be just enough to tempt me next year!

The South Foreland Lighthouse could soon be seen ahead of us. As with the Fan Bay shelter, it is possible to have a guided tour, and if you didn’t stop for refreshment at the first National Trust cafe, they have another one here. There are plenty of outside tables and in the summer there are also deckchairs on the grassy area in front of the lighthouse. It is very pleasant to sit back, relax and gaze out across the channel, but there was no stopping for us today and we continued straight ahead.

After the lighthouse there are always far fewer people – most, as we usually do, use this as the turning point before returning to Dover – and so we were perturbed to suddenly be following two youths playing very loud music. For once we were saved by cows! There were two – one with sharp horns – that were mooing aggressively and butting heads. It was quite alarming, but said youths weren’t in the least bit intimidated and decided that they would go and take a closer look. Although I would normally have been more than a little nervous, I was reassured by the fact that if it turned nasty then they would be attacked first, and whilst they approached them, we slunk quietly past – and escaped their nasty music. A good result all round!

With St Margaret’s Bay in sight, we continued along the cliff path for a short while before dropping down into a lane, taking us past the Pines Gardens on one side and its accompanying tea room and small museum on the other. My daughter used to be entranced by the little fairy ladders that could be found here when she was tiny. I don’t know whether they are still there – we haven’t been back since as we are always walking with purpose – but even though she is now far too old to be interested in the presence of fairies (although I would happily still look for them!), the gardens do look lovely and they have been added to the long list of places that we really should pay a (return) visit to.

From here, we joined the steep, winding road that runs down to the beach. St Margaret’s beach is a great spot – very clean and excellent for rock pooling. There’s parking, toilets, a kiosk selling food, drinks and ice creams, and an excellent pub – The Coastguard. We occasionally treat ourselves to lunch here in the summer as they have a terrace area overlooking the beach, but today we had brought a picnic lunch and sat on the pebbles to eat.

The white house at the end of the walkway, tucked under the cliff, belonged first to Noel Coward and then to Ian Fleming. The latter based his book, Moonraker, in St Margaret’s – although the subsequent film version was given a very different setting.

A set of steps took us back up to the top of the cliffs

and the path continued in front of some very well appointed houses with enviable views, to the Dover Patrol Memorial, built to commemorate the Royal Navy’s Dover Patrol of the channel during the Second World War.

Fun fact – there is another Dover Patrol Memorial at Cap Blanc Nez, the cliffs on the opposite side of the channel just outside Calais, which we discovered while walking there a couple of years ago. (Apparently there is also a third one in New York which seems quite random, but what do I know!)

Just opposite the memorial is the former coastguard station that used to be a wonderful tearoom (The Bluebird Tearoom). We had some happy times here when my children were younger, with the promise of a milkshake and a slice of cake offering sufficient motivation to my younger son in particular, to toil up to the top of the cliffs. I still remember the disappointment of the day when we arrived and found it closed, and even now when we pass it, we still feel sad that it is no longer up and running. In an ideal world I would love to run a tea room and I always say that if I ever somehow come into a considerable sum of money this will be the place that I buy and return it to its former glory!

The section of the walk that followed was my favourite part. The path was grassy rather than the earlier gravel, and with fields of sheep on one side, the sea on the other, and nobody else in sight, it felt incredibly unspoiled and timeless: like nothing had changed for centuries.

After a while, we approached civilisation again with some more desirable homes and then, just past the golf course, the path dropped down to the beach. The village of Kingsdown, and beyond that Deal, were ahead, and we could see Deal Pier in the distance.

We walked along the shingle until we reached Kingsdown. There’s no shortage of refreshment stops on this walk (even without the Bluebird Tearooms!), and there is another good beach front pub here called the Zetland Arms. It has lots of tables and chairs out the front and was doing a great trade in the late afternoon sunshine,

but we sat on a bench and had an energy boost in the form of a carton of chocolate milk and a delicious vegan biscoff brownie made by my younger son (he still loves cake!).

Past the colourful beach huts, the path continued along Wellington Parade, an unmade road of more desirable sea front properties (oh the house envy that this walk elicits in me!). I love the way that plants and flowers have managed to escape from front gardens and establish themselves on the beach, and despite the lengthening shadows as the sun began to go down, these red hot pokers caught my eye.

I am also always fascinated by the trees which grow with great proliferation on the beach here. I’ve just done some more googling and they are apparently Holm oaks, an evergreen variety that is tolerant of sea spray. No wonder they are thriving in what, at first glance, seems a pretty hostile environment. The fallen acorns are clearly doing a great job at germinating.

The energy boost was very short lived, and the bone weary fatigue was setting in, along with the realisation that, with buses home only once an hour, we were either going to have a very brisk walk into Deal or a very long wait, and as it had suddenly started to get chilly, and within that extra hour it would also be dark AND all the shops would be shutting, we went for the former option. It turned into a bit of an unenjoyable route march – not the best way to end what had been an excellent walk – and I think it was only momentum that propelled me along.

Having done this part many times before, and for those with the luxury of finishing the walk in a more leisurely fashion and for whom it is all new, I can tell you that it’s a very pleasant stroll into Deal with lots to look out for – but be aware that from here onwards, the footpath and the cycle path regularly swap sides with each other, so you need to keep your wits about you and observe the markings – or risk the wrath of an angry cyclist ringing their bell as they hurtle towards you!

I will now slip into full tour guide mode and tell you that the first landmark you’ll come across is Walmer Castle. Built as a Tudor fortress during the reign of Henry VIII to protect the south coast against invasion from the French and Spanish, it later became home to the Lord Wardens of the Cinque Ports, including the Duke of Wellington (you can see an original pair of his wellington boots inside) as well as the Queen Mother, and is now owned by English Heritage.

Next, all in once stretch, you will pass the Walmer lifeboat station, the memorial bandstand (built to commemorate 11 Royal Marines Bandsmen, killed by an IRA bomb at the nearby Barracks in 1989, and where there are some really good brass band concerts every Sunday afternoon between May and September), Roman themed adventure golf and a (free) children’s outdoor paddling pool, as well as a few cafes.

Soon after you will see Deal Castle, an artillery castle also built on the orders of Henry VIII, also owned by English Heritage. (A third castle was built in Sandown on the other side of Deal, but there is nothing left to see but a plaque, as the remaining ruins were incorporated into sea defences.)

The fishing boats drawn up on the beach opposite always look very picturesque, and so it is easy to forget that it is actually a very hard and dangerous way of life.

Nearly at the pier now. It’s not the prettiest, but it’s always good to have a stroll along, and you can’t see that it’s not pretty when you’re on it! There’s also a very good cafe at the end that does an excellent breakfast!

I definitely didn’t have the time or the energy for heading along the pier that day, but the entrance marked our finish point for Part 6 of this walk. As you can see by the clock, we arrived at 4.20pm. The bus stop was just around the corner and we even ended up with 5 minutes to spare for a quick browse in the nearby Oxfam Bookshop. (I’m never so tired that I can’t browse for books, and on this day I was rewarded with a copy of Miss Austen by Gill Hornby which I had been looking out for. after previously enjoying another of her books – Godmersham Park.)

So, Dover to Deal. It may be one of the sections of the Coastal Path that I am most familiar with (and as a result, this blog post has turned into a bit of a wander down memory lane), but it really is a top walk and, without doubt, one of the absolute highlights of the Kent Coast. I thoroughly recommend it.

Read Kent Coast Walk Part 7: Deal to Sandwich here

Read Kent Coast Walk Part 5: Folkestone to Dover here