Dover Cliff Walk

Due to my unusual shift pattern at work I frequently have days off midweek which I never quite know what to do with. There is the usual cleaning, laundry, groceries combo but that doesn't exactly take up a whole day or days. Since lockdown has ended I have decided to be a bit more adventurous and go on solo trips to make better use of my time off. The first of these was to the Dover Cliffs in Kent.

This was doubly exciting for me as I recently bought a drone!! A little tiny tot of a drone that I have christened Winston and this was to be Winston's first outing.

We set off early in the morning from Charring Cross station - and by we I mean Winston and I. The trip to Dover took just under two hours - there is a fast train option from St Pancreas (I hour 4 mins) but it was a. more expensive and b. Charring Cross is easier for me to get to. Round trip cost £29.

Once at Dover it's a short work down into the town itself. Sadly the shops and restaurants were still closed at this point but I did find a place for takeaway coffee - much needed before my walk.

I originally planned to do the Dover to Deal walk which is meant to be 10 miles long and takes around 4 hours. I'm not 100% sure where I went wrong but I ended up getting a bit lost (more on that later) so it was a Dover to Dover loop instead.

Post coffee it was time to make my ascent up the cliffs. I walked down to the beach and turned left along the coast until I saw a sign marking the start of the cliff trial. To be honest the cliffs are clearly visible so even if you miss the sign you can just head in their general direction.

Dover is a port town and it marks the shortest distance across the Channel between England and France. The port is a hive of activity with ferries arriving and leaving and trucks queuing up to get in. I paused to have a look at all the activity then headed up the hill.

Unknown to me at the time was the fact that you can actually drive up to the top of the cliffs to a visitor centre and there is an excellent vista point which requires only a few paces of a walk.

Once on the cliff top it was around an hours walk along the cliffs until the South Foreland lighthouse. This walk had some stunning views across the cliffs and as I was lucky with the weather I could make out France in the distance. You are meant to be able to see two ship wrecks at the base of the cliffs, but I was a little nervous to get too close to the edge so I missed them.

In terms of difficulty it was fairly easy going once on top of the cliffs, some small slopes but nothing to get too excited about.

At the lighthouse you can stop for snacks and / or take a bathroom break. At this point you carry on a little further before you turn off the cliff path and head down to Margarets Bay. St Margaret's bay is a picturesque cove with a few houses looking down on to a nice beach. There are also tea rooms and a garden to explore if you wish.

This is where I started to go a bit off track - my map told me there was no through road if I stuck along the beach and went left / north towards Deal so I turned back and found myself walking along a main road. After re-reading a few blogs about the Dover to Deal walk, they seem to suggest that you can indeed walk along the beach from St Margarets Bay to get to Deal.

That will have to be an adventure for another time as once I left the beach and started walking back up the hill via the road my google map suggested, I had a change of heart and decided to go back to Dover instead. This was mainly as I didn't fancy walking along a main road for an hour. On the plus side I stumbled upon a field which was the perfect spot to fly Winston.

The route back along the cliffs was a little more hurried as I was rushing to meet my train. The views were still lovely and although my day didn't go exactly to plan I would recommend the Dover Cliff walk to anyone. In fact, if you are not a big walker it could be better than the Seven Sisters Walk as there are not so many hills and you still get to see the white chalk cliff faces.