15.7km (9.8 miles) 2/10
An easy seaside walk. Said to be good for swimming - weather permitting, of course. You’ll be following the directions backwards from Margate to either Broadstairs or Ramsgate. Not exactly rocket science. Just turn right at the coast and keep the sea to your left. The tide will be on its way out so some stretches could be walked along the beach. Low tide is at 15.55.
Margate's Turner Gallery is an early attraction (free admission) followed by Dreamland, a restored vintage fairground. Then off you jolly well go, past beaches, a clifftop castle, and at least two possible lunch pubs, towards Broadstairs, a town associated with Dickens.
It is Broadstairs Folk Week this week. Some events are free, others need a ticket (see their website for more details). If that’s not your thing, you can just chill on the beach or continue on to Ramsgate - whatever.
Trains:
Are you sitting comfortably? Then I’ll begin…..
Buy a return to Margate. You can travel from either Victoria or St Pancras today.
Southeastern have a £20 Summer Offer fare available online and at Southeastern ticket offices and vending machines. This will be of most use to non railcard-holders but does give more flexibility, letting you ignore the fare advice below.
Railcard holders' off-peak fares are less than £20 anyway for Victoria and some St Pancras returns. (There are two St Pancras fares, depending on the route taken).
The 09:25 from St Pancras,(Stratford International 9:32) reaches Margate at 10:59. This is covered by the cheaper of the two St Pancras fares (the 'Herne Bay' route).
The 9:40 from Victoria arrives Margate at 11:23 The journey takes a little longer than from St Pancras ( by 13m out, 20m back) but it costs less. Returning, there is one train an hour.
Returning from Broadstairs.
To St Pancras: Trains at xx:59, xx:05 and xx:25, (the xx:25 is covered by the cheaper St P fare). The last train is at 21:59.
To Victoria: xx:11, with the last effectively at 21:11 (one at 22:41 gets in at 00:36).
Returning from Ramsgate:
To St Pancras: Trains at xx:05 (platform 2), xx:12 and xx:20, (the xx:20 is covered by the cheaper St P fare). The last train is at 22:05.
To Victoria: take the xx:05 (platform 1 or 3), the last train is effectively the 21:16 to Charing Cross (the 22:35 gets to Victoria well past your bedtime).
Train information compiled by Isambard M Tiger, Professor of Ticketology and Hard Sums, Rale University. If you want to know even more, ask his research assistant.
Lunch
If you want a sit-down meal, try one of the clifftop pubs before Broadstairs – the Captain Digby or the Botany Bay. Broadstairs itself has plenty to offer, including the Charles Dickens pub, but could be busy. If I remember right, there is a festival area with food-stalls.
Tea
If you get as far as Ramsgate, there is a large Wetherspoons, the The Royal Victoria Pavillion.
Walk Directions here You're doing them backwards OK? That's called clockwise in the notes.
T=swc.101
2 comments:
n=5 on this walk, being four on the designated high speed train, our fearless walk poster on the one after, and none on the slow line from Victoria, at least not that we saw, not that we hung around waiting.
The tide was in and so all of the Gormley statue moored on the beach outside the Turner museum was submerged bar the crown of the head just visible through the waves. https://www.turnercontemporary.org/news/turner-contemporary-announces-that-antony-gormley-s-sculpture-will-stay-in-margate-until-november-2020
Weather was w=warm_and_cloudy. The group formed and fragmented several times, with one going swimming, and and two drinking and two eating very satisfactorily at the Botany Bay hotel. We were at Broadstairs at not long after 3pm, where the usual folk aberrations were under way. All chose to stop the walk there rather than continue to Ramsgate.
The posting led me to buy one of the cheaper High Speed tickets as the outbound train "is covered by the cheaper of the two St Pancras fares". I neglected to read on to the return instructions, which show that the cheaper ticket is only good for one in three of the trains back. I think its simpler to recommend the more expensive ticket, with Victoria the fall back for the more price sensitive.
I heard tell of 1 more on the Victoria train, making that n=6 . You're right about the train info. Professor Tiger agonised over how much to put in and how to say it, but the bottom line is people just want a short info burst not a doctoral thesis. I will relay your comments back to him (he is still gibbering uncontrollably in his study).
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