Dover Deal Sandwich Part 2: The White Cliffs of Dover

In this 3-day weekend trip, we spent a sunny but windy afternoon walking on the White Cliffs. From St Magarett’s-at-Cliffs to Port of Dover, we visited an organic garden, enjoyed our afternoon tea at Mrs. Knott’s Tea-room, and walked the Frontline Britain Trail. For the entire afternoon, we immersed ourselves in the green grass and blue sky with the view of majestic White Cliff and the endless sea horizon.

We discovered our first stop by accident. This organic garden, located on the way linking between the bus stop and the cliff trail, was hosting a seemingly interesting photography exhibition. We did not know what was special about this garden other than its entrance’s description – 6 acre garden is a great place to learn about practical sustainable living within a low carbon world.

What does this description mean? What is the photography exhibition about?

Our curiousity led us into the garden and arrived at the halfway hidden organic shaped Pines Calyx where the photography exhibition was held at. This zero-carbon grass roofed structure provided a great deal of information about sustainable living and its environmental principle. We found ourselves more interested in learning about this building than the photography exhibition. It was definitely worth our detour to visit this sustainable architecture.

The lighthouse was under construction?!

Instead of seeing the beautiful lighthouse, we saw the scaffolding surrounding its white facade. It could almost be mistaken as a pagoda from a distance away. What a pity that we didn’t see the pretty South Foreland Lighthouse. Even though the lighthouse wasn’t looking at its best, lots of people still came to picnic under the sunny weather.

We were so hungry when we got to the lighthouse we immediately went to Mrs. Knott’s Tea-room for a quick refreshment. The tea-room was transformed from the former lighthouse keeper’s cottage and the interior was filled with bold pattern wallpaper, old wooden clock, vintage wooden furniture, and bone china teapot and cups. It was almost like we were back to the 50s and while enjoying our lovely refreshment

After a satisfying stomach full of sweets, we continued walking towards Dover. We saw an open grass field in front of us. The view was so grand without human establishments to be seen, we felt so small walking on this huge green land.

On this green field, dogs were running freely and happily. Occasionally, we could see the White Cliffs peeking from the very edge behind the grass. It felt really good to take a break from the city and get back to Mother Nature.

As we got closer and closer to Dover, the scenery started to change. We could start seeing the world’s busiest Port of Dover behind the curved White Cliff. We could start hearing the man-made noise. From atop the White Cliff, everything at the sea level looked like toys. We had an amazing view of the port with France in the background far into the horizon.

 

 

FOXY’S SIDE NOTES:

• Foxy’s Dayout to The White Cliffs of Dover is part of our ‘Dover Deal Sandwich Trip’ series.
  Check out our ‘Dover Deal Sandwich Trip’ Part 1 – Sandwich, Kent here
  Check out our ‘Dover Deal Sandwich Trip’ Part 3 – Deal, Walmer, and Dover Castle here
• Learn more about sustainable building ‘The Pines Calyx’ here and the organic ‘The Pines Garden’ here
• South Foreland Lighthouse
• Port of Dover

Tags: beach, chalk grassland, Dover, English Channel, English coastline, French coast, green building, Kent, Langdon Cliffs, Mrs Knott’s Tea-room, Orgnic gardens, Port of Dover, seaside, South East England, South Foreland Lighthouse, St Margaret's at Cliffe, St Margaret's Bay, sustainable architecture, The Pines Garden, The White Cliffs, White Cliffs Country, zero-carbon