Tracy Norton

Going Cuckoo in Cliffe with fellow ramblers.

Today we were up bright & early for our walk with my walking group to Cliffe Pools. My friend kindly picked us up as she fancied coming along too.  It was lovely & hot with blazing sunshine. We walked from St Helens church, along until we reached a walking path. It eventually joined to the start of the pools. Always a magnificent sight. I enjoyed seeing the wild flowers & butterflies that came by.  Sadly bird life was distinctively lacking. Only saw some greylag geese, mallard ducks, great crested grebes & a group of the bird catwalk queens, avocets. One fabulous new thing was hearing a cuckoo for the first time.  It’s haunting echo’s over the pools added a new spicy dynamic to the atmosphere. I expect at dawn or sunset it can be pretty eerie. Cuckoo calls are seemingly used in horror style films. After not quite two hours, our walk was over & our friend drove us the scenic route back home. 

Vintage buses, traction tractors & architecture galore

Vintage buses, traction t

We arrived in Faversham to be greeted by a lady with a leaflet. I noted a vintage bus was due, so we duly waited at the station bus stop. We quickly saw vintage buses come by. The one we hoped for never showed up. It seems we later found out to be cancelled. A bus numbered 666 to Ashford rolled up (which seemed popular with the locals).  We could not believe someone would come up with such a number! We waited so long I got to a point where I said to my daughter we will get on any one that shows up. My loose ways got us treated to a lovely shiny red single decker. Ooh, it was dandy & red. Although only a short whirl about the town it was lovely.

We got off to explore the market & trundle through the town. Cake were purchased. We even landed up in the old market building from which I understand doesn’t open so readily to the public. I met a lady I knew from a poetry night. We were offered freebies & continued our venture along the town. We found a most lovely Poundland I have ever been in. Lovely because no hustle bustle I normally experience. It was tranquil!  Next I spied  a charity shop my mate recommended & bagged myself 3 dvd’s for a pound! I gushed at the cashier as I revelled in this. My daughter is less thrilled & wanted to get going. Next week come across remote control miniatures. My daughter has a bit of a naughty streak willing them to fall over.  Oh how it made her smile when they did! 

We viewed some vintage buses from the outside. One rather handsome specimen from open to hop on board.  Ooh, I got to feel the upholstery & absorb the whole experience!  Such joy.  I didn’t go giddy. I might of, if I didn’t have a sullen child in tow! Lol.

We departed & lured child down a quite path adjacent to a lovely church with glorious window arrangement to the side. We kept walking till we came to Faversham recreation ground. My daughter’s eyes lit up seeing the equipment on offer. I personally have sat in tons of parks over the years & this park had good equipment. We ate lunch & drank tea. Life was good. My urge was to next find the traction tractors!  Off we toured the back streets, came across a fine building next to Tesco’s, more old buses past us, till we found the creek.  It was a tad dried out. I would like to return to walk the creek path. The mega lovely spoonbills have been known to hang out here.  We hear the tractor & we ran like our lives depended on it! We crossed the bridge to get up close. My daughter said it stunk. I didn’t care. It is mighty fine engineering not seen every day.

A cafe my friend recommended had closed early much to my annoyance, so we trundled down a path to a splendid spired church, followed by admiring a mallard & drake duck sitting on a tall wall. More old neo gothic style buildings until we passed the old water tower to await our train back home. A lovely day in what I perceive to be a posh town. 

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