Having found myself near Canterbury for the weekend and realising I was in the fortunate position of having Monday morning on leave from work, I decided I’d prolong my stay an extra night and go see the sea!

I used the webpage park4night to seek out a suitable destination and discovered Seasalter beach.  There is roadside parking there which has charges up until 4pm, but is free overnight, which was perfect as I arrived around 4.30pm.  I parked up, climbed up the steps onto the sea wall and went to explore.  The beach was shingle, but studded with wildflowers – and the sea had disappeared somewhere into the distance as it was low tide!  Despite the sweltering heat, there were quite a few families sunbathing and some couples walking along the wall.  I walked west for about 15 mins and discovered the sportsman pub, then I turned back, walking partly on the beach, partly on the wall.

There were various other cars, vans and motorhomes parked up.  Being as I was lone-camping I wanted to choose my spot carefully, and try to avoid ending up right next to someone who might make me feel uncomfortable.  I chose a spot opposite the Seasalter caravan park reception, which doubles as a café and little shop.  I re-parked with Nessie’s backside into the breeze, which this side of the seawall was quite strong.  No sooner had I got myself positioned than another van arrived and parked up right next to me!  He was a man on his own, but he kept himself to himself and caused me no trouble.

I wasn’t quite ready for my dinner, so I poured a cool drink and took my camping chair and my golf umbrella for shade and went to sit on the beach for a while to read and chat to my sister on the phone. Very relaxing to have an afternoon on the beach.

I went back to the van for dinner, which was a very simple meal of one of those pouches of rice with spicy beans, supplemented with some tomatoes.  I had leftover pudding from the weekend, so I made some tea and took my travel mug and my cheesecake to the beach again, this time just sitting on the shingle for an hour relaxing with my book. I then did my van chores before sitting on the sea wall watching a spectacular sunset, catching up with a friend on the phone.

I slept in the roof as I thought it would be cooler and I enjoyed the novelty of seeing the last of the sunset from my bed. I hang a little light up there so I’m was able to enjoy reading some more, before switching to listening to a podcast to lull me to sleep.  I thought sleep was going to be challenging as the road is actually national speed limit and, although not busy, cars and motorbikes came roaring past -seeming louder in the dark!  Their air movement also buffeted poor Nessie making my roof-bed rock, but not in a soporific way!! But they must have all been rushing home to bed, as I didn’t notice any in the night at all.

I woke quite early, so I was able to wash, dress and take my breakfast of tea, tinned grapefruit, croissants and jam down onto the beach.  I had time to sit and read and pray and watch the view.  I remembered to take my binoculars with me and I was interested to spot some people in the distance digging in the wet sand – for cockles I guess.

Sadly I couldn’t stay sitting on the beach all day.  I took a short walk in the opposite direction to the previous day and found that there was a water tap and toilets.  Quite modern facilities, but in need of a clean so I stuck with my own van facilities. I then packed my last bits away and set off on my ‘commute’ home, ready to be at my desk for lunchtime and to spend the afternoon working!

L