Frank and Joan's news for 05 April 2007 in Northern Cyprus

Frank and Joan's Adventures in Northern Cyprus

Our adventures in the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus continue....

Today is Thursday and tomorrow morning I will be leaving Jill and Les at about 5 a.m. to go to Stansted, on my way back home to Joan. Before I do I have been taking some pictures of this area of Kent, as this is the area we used to live in.

I have managed to do the few important things, that I came over to do and also managed to pick up a few things in the shops for us back home. I also managed to get a few phone calls from TRNC, from those who had not picked up on the fact that I was here. They soon ring off when I tell them I am in UK as it costs a lot for both of us.

After the long day on Saturday we all three had a relaxing morning and at around 10 o'clock Sunday morning, Les and I went down to The Smokery to get ourselves some breakfast kippers. This smokery has been passed down from father to son and is still one of the old traditional smokeries. Jim Moat who owns it is a well known character around these parts and he still does the finest kippers I have ever tasted. Later we went to the local pub and enjoyed a few real beers.

Monday, Jill and I went in to Ashford to do some bits and pieces of shopping. Amongst this was new mobile for me as I have never been completely happy with the Motorola Razor I bought a couple of years ago and they do get heavily used there in Cyprus.

Tuesday I checked on the registration for both of us, at the local doctors surgery because we have not been in to see them for some time. Hopefully we will not need them here but the back up value is for us a sort of peace of mind. Apart from which, we have both paid many years for the right to NHS treatment.

Wednesday I went in to Canterbury as I needed to do some business at the Barclays bank branch there, one of the reasons for coming over. In the evening our old friends, Ann & Peter came round and we all ordered a Eastern style takeaway form a local restaurant. Very tasty too, washed down with acouple of cans of real ale.

Today it is a lovely warm spring day and after waiting in for a TNT delivery for Les, hav

ing a sandwich with them during their lunch break, I then went down to the area around Dungeness to take some pics which I thought many of you would enjoy. On the way down to Dungeness I stopped off at the New Romney beach area first as the beach huts still stand out in their pale pastel shades.
From there, if you drive along the coast road you come across the small timber houses which are so typical of the area and you can still find some traditional timber fishing boats which were extensively used for many years. Further down the beach is the well used Dungeness lifeboat. There has been a lifebaot here since way back in the 1800's with the crews coming from local fishermen. The English Channel has so much traffic in this area and some very heavy winter seas, so they get frequent call outs.
Many of the families who live in this area have done so for a few generations and they maintain the traditions and the properties, such as this very fancy timber house with its shingle garden and the carved poem on the side wall. Many thousands of people must have stopped and admired and photographed this over the years. All along the shingle beach area you can see the rail tracks which used to be used for launching and the old net sheds. Here and there you come across a very leaky boat which clearly will never float again but makes for a very good picture opportunity.

As you go futher along towards the end of the peninsula area you come across the old and the new. The original lighthouse, which has now been replaced by a new automatic one, and behind that the two atomic power stations. The first of these, Dungeness A, is now being closed down, as in atomic terms it is old technology. Apparantly they are going to knock down all the surrounding buildings and then finally clad the fuel building in a thick concrete jacket.

One of the many tourist attractions in this area is the steam train. The Romney Hythe and Dymchurch Railway runs all year round along the coastal area. It is even used by many school kids as the school bus, as there is a station in New Romney close to the local secondary school. Obviously it is a major tourist attraction in the summer months and is run by real enthusiasts of steam trains.

Finally on my way back I couldn't resist these three lovely properties, all beautifully kept and with their fresh fish notices outside. When we lived down here we used to frequent these often as you don't get much fresher than these fish.

Well this evening we three are going out on to the marsh to visit The Bell at Ivychurch. It has recently been taken over, but rumour has it that the food is simple but good. On top of that I don't want to be too late, as I have to be on the road by 5 a.m. See you back in the TRNC.

When I got back to TRNC I found an e-mail from Lewis, a regular contact who lives in the Canterbury area. As this area is so interesting I am copying his mail here.

Hello Frank,

Being a fan of Romney Marsh/Dungeness myself I thought you may be interested to know that the wooden house you described with the shingle garden belonged to Derek Jarman (google him), a UK film maker. The garden was "planted" with items found on the beach, some of the thick wooden stakes with metal tips were, I believe, sea defences against landing craft. If you look carefully at some of the older wooden buildings you will see that they are converted/extended railway wagons from WW1. To the north-east of the Dungeness railway station is an "art gallery", inside you can see that it was indeed a raiway carriage.

Regards, Lewis Gerolemou

He is right about the "art gallery". I actually went in there to be nosey, but it is very small and there were 10 other tourists all trying to get in at the same time.