26 March 2023 - Down to Margate
Miles driven today = 33
Total Miles to date = 210
Have you all got a Chas n Dave earworm now? I've had one ever since I got up this morning!
The weather has been utterly vile for the best part of today. The rain started battering on the van roof a little after 3am and didn't really stop until well into the afternoon and I got rather soggy doing all the outside prep stuff before we left our overnight spot.
The A28 formed the most direct route through the teeming rain to our seaside destination. But Google Maps showed delays around Canterbury, so we doubled back along the A2 and then followed the A299 past Whitstable and Herne Bay before rejoining the A28 for the last few miles into Margate.
Luckily there are plenty of indoor activities to occupy ourselves with here so we donned our waterproofs and headed for the first attraction on our list, the Shell Grotto. After entering through a gift shop and paying for admission we dropped down some stairs into a room which gave us some information on the grotto.
Another staircase and a winding passage through the chalk caves brings you into the grotto itself.
Amazingly nobody knows who created this place or when or why they made it. The entrance was blocked and there is no historical record of its existence until it was rediscovered during the course of building work in 1835. It could be as modern as 18th Century or it could date back as far as Roman times.
The shells used to create the mosaics are almost entirely locally sourced. Cockles, mussels, whelks, limpets, scallops and oysters. The only foreign shells are a couple of conches and some giant clams. There are reckoned to be 4.6 million shells here in all.
At the far end of the grotto is the Altar Room, which was heavily damaged during WWII when the house above it was destroyed by a German bomb. This room has been used for séances in the past.
It was still raining so we headed for the Turner Contemporary gallery which is free to enter.
The main exhibition here was by an artist called Sonia Boyce.
"Feeling Her Way" is a multi-media installation which centres around the vocal experimentation of five Black female musicians.
The gallery was also hosting very busy ceramics fair.
We had a quick mooch around the info centre next to the old harbour.
Then we headed across the road for a look around the Old Kent Market, which had a number of interesting stalls and some tempting street food options.
They have an actual crab museum here! Lisa wasn't remotely interested so I only popped my head in for a quick look round. They had a model of the claw from the "Margate Crab". A semi-mythical beast which looked like it must have been the size of a small car.
Despite the weather we've really been quite taken by Margate. It is definitely on the up and is becoming very popular with artists, especially with the advent of the Turner gallery. Tracey Emin also grew up in these parts.
We had a chat with a young lady who is part of a collective running a small gallery. She told us that in the 8 years she has been here the place has changed beyond recognition. I really don't know how Chas n Dave would feel about it now.
We'd been on our feet for several hours so we popped into the Wig & Pen for a sit down and a swift libation or two. They happen to have a great little Thai restaurant called Bow's upstairs so we treated ourselves to a prawn pad gaprow and a duck red curry before making our way back to the van. It really was very good.
We are parked up right on the seafront next to the tidal lido where a few hardy souls were swimming earlier on. This is what it looked like when we arrived. Very quiet and serenee
While we were away on our wanderings the tide came in and the van is now rather salty but we have decided that we are going to stay put. We had originally planned to stay here for a couple of nights but there are advanced warning notices that the lido and the beach are closed for the next couple of days for maintenance so we might get turfed off in the morning. Whatever happens the forecast is looking decidedly more clement.
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