Man in the Mirror: White Cliffs of Dover

While the other 3 are out on their last night in London, I shall relax in the hotel and log in another entry before I retire for the night. On the 2nd day in London, the 4 of us decided to make an out of town trip to dover to check out the much talked about white cliffs. Man... were we in for a treat. The town of Dover is really quaint with nice shops lining beautifully laid out cobblestone paths and all. However, what really took our breaths away was the endless stretch of chalky white cliffs against the crystal blue waters of the English Channel. That in addition to the fresh sea breeze and that crisp sea water-ish smell... amazing.

The beach below which would be the backdrop of our most exciting adventure yet...

Us on our way to another viewing point

Another view of the cliffs; Norman taking another shot at the cliffs

Anyway, I decided to throw in this song I found about the white cliffs written during the second world war. The white cliffs have apparently inspired numerous poets and songwriters to produce some of their finest works (I think... I would be pretty damn inspired too if I knew how to string words to a tune...)

The white cliffs of Dover

Vera Lynn

The white cliffs of Dover

Tomorrow

Just you wait and see

I'll never forget the people I met

Braving those angry skies

I remember well as the shadows fell

The light of hope in their eyes

And though I'm far away

I still can hear them say

Bombs up...

But when the dawn comes up

There'll be bluebirds over

The white cliffs of Dover

Tomorrow

Just you wait and see

There'll be love and laughter

And peace ever after

Tomorrow

When the world is free

The shepherd will tend his sheep

The valley will bloom again

And Jimmy will go to sleep

In his own little room again

There'll be bluebirds over

The white cliffs of Dover

Tomorrow

Just you wait and see

There'll be bluebirds over

The white cliffs of Dover

Tomorrow

Just you wait and see...

Me against the scenic backdrop

Now for the exciting bit. What happened next was that the bunch of us decided to head to the rocky beach below to check out how its like down there. The plan was to hit the beach and then make our way across the rocky beach before exiting near the small residential area we had passed by on the way to the cliffs and making our way back to town and the railway station. We trudged down the rather long, winding path as it brought us down to the rocky beach. We checked out two really cool WWII pill boxes which once guarded the English coast against the beaches of occupied France. After a couple of pics and exploration, Norms, Melvin and I decided to continue on our trek towards the "residential area." JJ, being the cautious one, made his way back up the slope and towards town the same way in which we came by.

the winding path to... the beach

As we trudged across the huge boulders and really slippery, moss covered ground, we realized the journey across the beach wasn't going to be a walk in the park as we expected. Not to mention the fact that the tide was rising really fast and that if we didn't make our way out of there... we would pretty much have been trapped between the icy cold waters of the English Channel and the jagged limestone rocks of the Dover cliffs. After about another 30-40 minutes of climbing, bouldering and crawling, we finally made it to the stairs which led to... a gated walkway. We had failed to take into account the Dover port which occupied the beach front between that little town and the cliffs. Norman contemplated climbing over the barbed wire and cat-walking across the ledge before making a break for it across the port (A very Normanish idea one might say...) Upon further and more sensible discussion, we decided to use the emergency phone to call for assistance.

We made the call to the Dover port police and explained our predicament to them. They were really nice and the copper on the line told me that she could see us from the cameras at the gate and had already informed the police on patrol to head by and pick us up. We hung up and decided to take some "Victory" shots (in Norman's camera) whilst waiting for the cops to get us.

The two policemen who came by to pick us up were really intimidating at first and the three of us were really freaked out by them. It didn't help that Melvin and I (as pictured below...) had to take a ride in the temporary holding area at the back of the van on our way out.

The two cops did give us a warning and told us that what we did wasn't really smart and that the rising tide would have posed a real danger had we began our trek slightly later. We apologized for the inconvenience and, with Norms in the back seat chatting with the two cops, began to make our way out of the port. The two cops were kind enough to give us a ride all the way back to the town centre, which would have taken us quite a while to walk back to.

We had some really awesome fish and chips before boarding the 7 plus train back to London. :) Some experiences... money just can't buy :)