Chalking up another sighting

It was sound mirror bagging day today and our first appointment through pouring rain was with the mighty three at Denge, near Dungeness, and which lie in an old gravel quarry that is now a lake and a bird reserve. Huge curved concrete structures from the 1920s onwards, and of three different designs. Science educator Tom Scott visited once and showed how they were used to detect faraway noises like aircraft. Of course, someone then went and invented radar, and sound mirrors went out of fashion almost overnight.

After marvelling for a time we set off around the coast to Dungeness and marvelled at the lighthouse, and enjoyed watching one of the Romney, Hythe and Dymchurch Railway's beautifully turned out locomotives departing!

The sun came out here and there and we trundled around the coast towards Folkestone and Dover for more sound mirrors. But first, a pit stop at Samphire Hoe. I didn't know of it before, although as family we visited the construction of the Channel Tunnel terminus back in the day. Plunging down through the chalk in a steep narrow road tunnel we emerged next to the White Cliffs, on a chunk of land formed from the excavated spoil from the Chunnel. While the wind galed outside, we warmed up in the cafe and next to the wood burning stove, and had some much needed coffee while staring out to sea, which wasn't a bad way to spend the time.

Much of the afternoon was taken up messing around on little roads and barely-even-roads that didn't lead to where we wanted to get to: a small sound mirror near the cliffs. And there was no phone reception to let us check the map. In the end we admitted defeat and rode down to the shore again to eat cookies and listen to the waves.

Eventually we returned to the B&B, but the GPS took us on a different road from the one we'd come in on, which meant we also missed a potential Lion Foundry spot (they didn't just make bandstands!).