North Kent

Spent today driving along the North Kent coast from Whitstable (famous for its oysters!) to Westgate-on-sea down to Sandwich and back to Canterbury where I enjoyed a delicious local ale. The weather was perfect and the coastline quite interesting. Found a quirky museum in Herne Bay that was worth a visit (£2). Inside was some preserved tusks from an ice-age elephant and a piece of a bouncing bomb. (The area was used for practicing the bouncing bombs that became famous in WW2 and made into a great movie call the Dam Busters in 1955). A lot of stuff was on display that had been collected in the massive mud flats from this part of the Thames estuary. Also took a pic of the Amy Johnson statue that pays homage to the world record setting aviator who disappear off the coast near here in mysterious circumstances. Amy Johnson was the first woman to fly solo England to Australia. Final stop was a tiny inland port called Sandwich. This was interesting because it was the port where massive congregations of ships left the UK to invade France. Of course the river is all silted up now! On display is a boat that played a role in the movie Dunkirk. The drive back to Canterbury went through some magnificent summer fruit orchards - all in full flower.