Beach detail, Dymchurch

On a splendid winter’s day we followed a well worth path to Dymchurch on the Kent Coast, bookending our walk at Unit 1 in West Hythe with coffee in the morning and half of “Doubbel Trubbel” dark ale at the end.

The tide was right up as we set off meaning we had to walk along the seawall to New Romney some 3.5 miles south. By the time we returned the tide had fallen far enough for us to get on the beach.

We were the first to walk on the pristine wet sand left by the receding waters. The beach detail was beautiful, as here where stones have trapped under a worn groyne. The low sun caught the myriad of pebbles stranded on the wet sand (extra) giving the effect of a Martian landscape.

Thank you for all your comments, stars and hearts for yesterday’s steam blip. Nice to be back in the signalbox at Tenterden. I have another turn there at the end of the month and one at Rolvenden during half term.

Many of you have wondered if I will miss all this when we move. Yes!! It’s the thing I will miss most. Yet, depending on where we end up, there may be a heritage railway nearby. Or, I may decide to keep up my competencies by coming down to Kent a couple of weeks a year.

A signalman needs to have at least 5 turns in total and at least one in each box and complete all the question papers. I should be ok for 2025, then we’ll see what happens in 2026.

When we came out of the craft ale bar this evening we could see stars. Yes, I know what you’re thinking! Actually, it was more like planets. Using the Night Sky app we could see part of the grand alignment; Mercury was below the horizon, Saturn and Venus were in the vicinity of the moon, away to the left was Jupiter and beyond that Mars.