Dymchurch beach

With Barbara and David and Doreen on a day out on the East Kent Coast today. First stop was Lathe Barn at Donkey Street on Romney Marsh for an early lunch, then to Dymchurch to ride the Romney Hythe and Dymchurch Railway (RHDR) to Dungeness and back followed by a brief walk along the bracing seafront at Dymchurch concluding with fish and chips at The Pilot at Dungeness.

The journey on the RHDR was its usual interesting excusion. These marvellous, powerful locomotives really look impressive as they haul up to 15 coaches at speed across the marsh. Fascinating looking at the back yards and fences of houses that back onto the track - a higgledy piggledy mix of walls made of differing materials in various states of disrepair, some gardens nice, others a dump and yet others all shingle.

In the final mile or so the line opens up onto Dungeness itself, which is the most fascinating of natural and human habitats. Shingle with very specialist vegetation accompanied by mainly ramshackle houses all overpowered by the brooding presence of Dungeness A and B Nuclear Power Stations.

I was looking forward to the fish and chips as we've had some good ones at The Pilot. I was disappointed this time, the fish was not as crispy or as well cooked as on previous visits and the chips lacked crispness on the outside and fluffiness on the inside which all good chips have - and they were only warm.