North Downs Way - Day 8

Brabourne to Dover
Distance: 19 miles
Ascent: 1000m
Weather: very windy, rain in afternoon
Buzzard, bunnies, pheasant, crows, pill boxes, white horse.
Runners happened upon in shrubberies: 1
Huge rabbit holes: 4
Cows: very moo-y

The weather forecast for today was pretty bad. The lady on radio Kent FM kept going on about torrential rain and lightning. There'd been a lovely sunset last night, but the weather front coming in tomorrow afternoon promised to be interesting.

We had breakfast at the same table as a wedding party, who were even more obsessed with the weather forecast than we were.

The day started with blue sky and patchy clouds,  with strong winds which built as the day went on. A murder of crows was silhouetted against the tree line against the rather ominous dark clouds.

We crossed lots of styles, some of them wobbly, with many bunnies and pheasants around the field edges.

The rain started just about on schedule just as we reached Dover Hill. Thankfully the Valiant Sailor pub was just around the corner and open for lunch for people who are neither valiant nor sailors. We'd just sat down when the rain started lashing at the windows.

Nearly two hours later we decided we should make a move, donned our waterproofs and headed out. The wind had dropped, and the rain eased off a short while later, with blue skies clearing and large Cumulonimbus clouds over the Channel. 

The paths over the coastline (or sea line, as it's sometimes called by people who know about such things) were muddy, much of it sticking to our shoes.

Countless lives were lost during the course of the afternoon. The footpath over Shakespeare Cliff was carpeted in snails. Poor snails. So crunchy. 

The NDW enters Dover via the Western Heights and the Drop Redoubt, which has an impressive number of bricks.

We are staying at the Best Western hotel on the seafront in Dover and had dinner, with Whitstable Bay beer, looking out at the harbour, with ships coming and going, plus some people trying to parallel park a campervan.

There are a couple of options for ending the NDW and one of them is in Dover. So we visited the commemorative plaque, which is both a start and a finish point, but for us a part way point as we shall finish in Canterbury tomorrow. Its quite a long walk but should be reasonably flat which is good considering how we were hobbling up the stairs this evening.