Dungeness, Kent  | - Click on the image above to view gallery
|
|
 New Lighthouse
It is also a fantastic place to go if you enjoy taking pictures as there are so many photographic opportunities amongst the many unusual buildings and abandoned ships.
Recently we have had two visits there: the first one in July on a lovely warm summer’s day when we visited the RSPB reserve. I never seem to have any luck taking photographs of birds here; I suspect you really need to be there at a very early hour of the day to get close views. Never mind, we always enjoy walking around the reserve visiting the hides and seeing what is about.  Boardwalk  Prospect Cottage
This year there has been great excitement as a pair of Purple Herons has bred successfully on the reserve. The Purple Heron is one of those species that is predicted we will see more of in this country due to climate change. During our visit we went to the spot where a telescope had been set up to view the area where they are nesting but sadly there was nothing to see although one of the volunteers said they had had their best view of one of the birds during that morning. We might not have seen the Purple Heron but we did get a distant view of a Great White Egret.
Following our walk around the RSPB reserve we took a drive along to the beach near to the lighthouses and then visited the garden of perhaps one of the most famous houses at Dungeness: Prospect Cottage, which was a home of the late film director Derek Jarman. The cottage itself is painted black, with part of a poem, “The Sunne Rising”, written on one side in black lettering. The garden, however, is the main attraction. Reflecting the bleak, windswept landscape of the peninsula, the garden is made of pebbles, driftwood, scrap metal and a few hardy plants that can survive the harsh environment. It is well looked after and is always well worth stopping for a look around. Thankfully the day we stopped for a look was a beautiful sunny one which I think shows it off at its best and of course I took a few pictures.
 Northern Chief  Dungeness Lifeboat
Our second visit of the year was on the Sunday of the August Bank Holiday weekend, which might have seemed a strange time to be visiting as it would be too busy but we didn’t find it a problem at all. On this day we did something we hadn’t done for many years and that was have a day out on the Romney, Hythe and Dymchurch Railway using a rover ticket which meant we could hop on and off wherever we wanted. With a train every 40 minutes it was never too long to wait for the next one. The Romney, Hythe and Dymchurch Railway was opened in 1927, has 13 and a half miles of 15in gauge track, and runs from Hythe to Dungeness. It’s a great way to see Romney Marsh too and while travelling on the track we could make out some of the walks we had done during 2009 when we walked the Royal Military Canal across the Romney Marshes.
On this weekend the Dungeness Lifeboat station were having an open day and the trains were stopping there so we hopped off and had a good look around the lifeboat station. As part of the open day the Lifeboat was due to be launched but we didn’t wait around for that to happen. Instead we walked along the shingle beach taking in the unusual environment looking at the plants and taking a good look at the many wrecks of old boats and buildings that litter the shingle banks. With a really impressive looking sky with lots of brooding clouds they made for some great photographic subjects so, as you can imagine, I enjoyed taking lots of pictures.
 Wreck 1  Wreck 2 Following our walk along the shingle beach we had lunch in the Railway Café beside Dungeness terminus and then did something else we hadn’t done for many years and visited the Old Lighthouse. The Old Lighthouse is a Grade 2 listed building and climbing the 169 steps to the viewing gallery at the top is always worth it for the view across the headland. It’s only from this viewpoint you get the sense of the scale of the shingle headland and the unusual environment. From up here you also get a good view of the two nuclear power stations. The oldest and nearest to the lighthouse is a present being decommissioned while the second power station started generating electricity in 1983 and continues to operate. You would think these building would dominate the site but in fact they are part of the landscape and I really don’t notice them too much.  Lighthouse panorama
After our visit to the Lighthouse we caught the next train back to New Romney where we got off to have a look around the station have a drink in the café and take a few pictures of some of the miniature steam engines as they fill up with water and coal. On our way back to Hythe on the train the weather did what it had been threatening to do all day and the heavens opened we were really glad we weren’t travelling in one of the open carriages. We never tire of visiting Dungeness and we’ll be sure to go back before to long.
 |
I just remember the power stations. The gardens of Prospect Cottage look so interesting.Take care Sherran
What a great set of pictures from this rather harsh, yet beautiful enviroment. Particularly liked the pictures of the old boa
ts.
Regards,
Dave