Ron's Birthday Walk

Ron’s Birthday Walk

To celebrate his 92^nd birthday Ron organised a walk from Subway in Bench Street to the café in St Margaret’s village, but it was not to turn out exactly as he had envisaged.  The walk took place on Saturday 27^th July, two days before his birthday, a fine summer day just right for walking.  He had last completed this walk about seven years ago so things had changed.

We arrived at Subway and met Ron’s friends Rohita and Nina.  With Sue and I this made five people on the walk.  After a photo we set out.  The first part of the walk was the most difficult going under Jubilee way then up the incline with many more steps before meeting the road into the National Trust area and Café.  With a bit of help Ron made it to the top then we stopped for a break on the benches opposite the café.  On the way Ron gave us some interesting history of the harbour, castle and western heights, as well as some of his engineering projects when he first came to Dover and worked for the council.

Since we last did this walk a few years ago a new coastal path has been built all the way to the South Foreland Lighthouse, with the aim of protecting the area from damage by keeping most of the footfall on the path, which seems to be working.

Many people were out walking on this lovely sunny morning, most of them tourists.  There were magnificent views of the harbour and English Channel and, more immediately, of the coastal hills and grassland an important area for birds such as skylarks and meadow pipits as well as all the native chalkland plants and flowers.

After passing the entrance to Fan Bay, which was very busy, we rang James Rouse as he and Rose were going to join us at the lighthouse.  After several attempts, one of which was answered in French, we were able to contact James on Rohita’s phone.  He had checked the village café and found that it was not open as it was still being prepared by the new owners.  Rose therefore kindly invited us to their house for lunch.

 James walked to meet us at the lighthouse and after a brief sit down he guided us through grassland and wood to St Margaret’s Road where we were joined by John and Carol Bush.  We were given drinks and a lovely lunch prepared by Rose.  This was followed by a birthday cake for Ron with Happy Birthday sung in Cambodian as well as English, thanks to Nina.

Ron then tried a trick with an assortment of eight bottles and glasses which some understood and some didn’t, and then he produced a pack of cards from his bag and entertained us by demonstrating several rather complicated tricks.  As Rohita had to get back to Dover for work, James offered to drive the five of us walkers back to Dover.

We were dropped off at Pencester Road and Ron insisted that he would walk home to Markland Road, another mile and a half.  He was also going out to Deal in the evening.

Ron walking all the way to St Margaret’s was amazing.  At first we were sceptical that he would make it, but he completed it with energy enough for plenty of talking and demonstrating tricks. While the day didn’t go exactly as planned, thanks to James and Rose he had a memorable time as part of his 92^nd birthday celebration.