Another fine walking day with the same gentle coastal breeze as yesterday. Today we continue our journey around the coast heading south and find seafront parking at the northern end of Deal by the site of the former Sandown Castle and at the start of the promenade.

Sandown shingle beach continues north for several miles to Pegwell Country Park just shy of Ramsgate backed by several golf courses along the way and southwards towards the coastal town of Deal….

Apart from the odd fisherman dotted along the shore, the beach is pretty deserted until we arrive near the centre of Deal where the beach becomes Deal Beach….

The town itself and the promenade are quite busy on this lovely Sunday afternoon as we continue our walk passing the Time Ball Tower a Victorian Maritime Signal Tower, now housing a museum – the time ball is mechanically programmed to rise up the mast at 5 to 1 and drops at 1pm every day (we are too late to see this) and a little further on is Deal Castle ….

Beyond the castle the beach is occupied by a few fishing boats and wild flowers and looking back on Kent’s last remaining fully intact pleasure pier….

Pressing on along the promenade we wander past the village of Walmer (now pretty much absorbed into Deal) to it’s castle….

And very deserted but prettily strewn with wild flowers, shingle beach which eventually leads to Kingsdown which is just a tad too far for us, as we make this our turning point and after a time on the beach, we head back to the van….

Another lovely long walk not exactly beach walking but promenade walking which has to be the second best type and easily preferable when the beach is shingle!

Today’s stats:

• Miles driven – 36
• Miles walked – 7
• Beaches – 3
• Fuel – £99.63
• Groceries – £51.71
• O/N – £9.50