Walk • Trek • Travel
A photographic record and journal of our walking, trekking and travelling adventures.
Dungeness to Rye
Dungeness to Rye

Sunday 06 October 2019

At 6 am I woke up to the sound of engines starting. Some of my neighbours were moving on. My attention then moved on to the crazed tapping on the roof of ‘Bianca Bongo’. It was raining. Heavily.
I had no real timetable this morning. I planned to drive to the car park next to the lighthouse at Dungeness, park up, and then walk to Rye along the beach. I had checked the tide times and knew that the tide would be low and I had also checked that Lydd Range would be closed avoiding another detour.
I decided I would stay in my sleeping bag for another hour and hoped the rain would stop by then. It didn’t stop and by the time the man came to unlock the toilets at 7.20 am my bed had been transformed back into the rear bench seat and steam was being forced from the spout of the collapsable kettle signalling it was time for coffee and porridge.
After breakfast, I ventured outside and made my way to the freshly cleaned and supplied toilets. My remaining neighbours where ‘self-contained’ and so did not have to worry about such things but I suspected that, in the months to come, I would be spending a fair bit of my spare time researching public toilets on the internet. God only knows what Google’s targeted advertising algorithms will make of that!
Parking and sleeping in a car park, layby or some other place that is not an official campsite, is apparently called ‘wild camping’ which is a term I find a little odd because I do proper ‘wild camping’ in a tent or bivvy out in the wilds.
While engaged in the act of proper wild camping, I adhere to the principles of Leave No Trace (LNT) which aim to minimise the impact you have on the environment, wildlife and other users of the area you are in. One of the principles of LNT is to dispose of waste properly and this includes human waste. In a nutshell, it would usually mean digging a small ‘cat’ hole for the solid waste and carrying the paper waste out until you can dispose of it properly and while this is fine for wild and remote places such as Dartmoor is it not really appropriate for a car park on a residential street opposite a row of semi-detached bungalows.
Being self-contained has the advantage of not having to worry about this at all and, presumably, gives you more freedom to wild camp in your motorhome or camper van.
‘Bianca Bongo’ has no such facilities and so I must dodge the puddles and endure the rain as I cross the car park to the toilet block.
By 8 am I had made my way up to the car park at Dungeness. It was still raining and now it was windy too. I decided to sit and wait and see what happens so I turned on the radio and made myself another coffee while getting my waterproofs out of my rucksack and putting some snacks in.
The chatter on the internet was that a storm was coming but the weather forecast indicated that the rain would stop for a few hours between 9 am and 11 am but return in the afternoon.
I knew that the first part of my walk would be along the five-mile stretch of shingle beach to Jury’s Gap and that walking on shingle is very hard work and slow going. I didn’t want the added challenge of walking into driving wind and rain. I already knew I could do that, I had done it many times before!
Sitting in the van drinking my coffee, dry and warmed from the small gas stove that boiled the water, I considered abandoning the walk. All I had to to do was start the engine and drive away. I could be home in an hour.
Then I remembered what it is like to be at home, staring out of the window wishing I was somewhere else. Anywhere else!
Just before 9 am I decided I was going for it come what may and put on my waterproofs. By the time I jumped out of the van the rain had stopped. Very quickly the wind was blowing the clouds away and patches of blue sky were visible. Within a few minutes, the sun was out and the day was completely unrecognisable from the one I had awoken to.
I started my walk.
‘Bianca Bongo’ parked at Dungeness
Walking behind the power station
The fourth ‘1904’ Lighthouse
Navigation Aid at Dungeness
Look-out Tower at Lydd Range
Chasing Sea Birds
Sea birds at Dungeness
No Parking is strictly enforced at Lydd Range
Outfall pipe west of Wickmaryholm Pit
Broomhill Sands
Trig point at Jury’s Gap
Rye
Rye Harbour

The Route

Distance : 11 Miles

I parked in the car park next to the lighthouse and opposite Dungeness Station which is part of the Romney, Hythe & Dymchurch Railway. I then walked to Rye and was planning to catch the Wave 102 bus back to the Pilot Inn and walk the short distance back to the car park but managed to get a lift instead.
Click HERE for a GPX file of the route.
Are you tired of being stuck in the office? Bored of being chained to a desk? Counting down the days until retirement?
Me too!!
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