Place in the Sun

A few months ago my wife and I decided to have a drive down to the coast and walk along the white cliffs of Dover, We grabbed the dog,camera and a jacket and off we went. About an hour later we parked in a spot and once we were booted up and dog on a lead off we went, 10 mins later and after talking to another dog walker we found we were at the wrong place and could not get to the cliffs this way. Boots off, dog back in the car and 1 mile later we were at the correct place. Boots back on dog on lead and again we set off.

This is the starting point, above the port of Dover.

Dover is the world’s busiest passenger port, with 16 million travellers, 2.1 million lorries, 2.8 million cars and motorcycles and 86,000 coaches passing through it each year.

Once you turn your back on the port and walk a few hundred yards, this is the view.

You can now walk for as long as you like, with the next point of interest being the South Foreland Lighthouse and then down into St Margarets Bay, Kingsdown, Walmer and Deal, we were meeting friends in Deal for lunch so after a couple of hours walk we were back in the car. We decided to drive to Deal along the coast road and as we went through St Margaret’s at Cliffe, Jeanette spotted a neat looking house for sale, I carried on driving thinking nothing of it, we ended up down at the bay and realised we could not drive to Deal this way and had to go back up the hill, on doing this I said we’ll go back and check out the house, this was it.

It’s an old fire station and was built in 1970 in St Margaret’s and was one of the first fire stations in Kent to alert the crew by Pocket Alerter instead of the traditional siren. Kent Fire Brigade was rebranded Kent Fire & Rescue Service on 1 October 2003. The station closed on 1 April 2012 along with nine other fire stations in Kent due to restructuring by Kent Fire & Rescue Service.

Anyway to cut a long story short, we put an offer in,(accepted)  and we picked up the keys last Friday, it’s our new holiday home.

I found a couple of old photos on the net.

And before you ask, No there is not a pole inside, only the flag pole outside.

For those who would like to follow the adventures of my Brother and his wife as they cruise around the world please check out his travel blog here