The Delights of Dungeness

Dungeness is a truly strange place with a very odd atmosphere.  It's the end of the line for the Romney, Hythe and Dymchurch Railway, so attracts families with children as well as "train spotter" types (all men, it has to be said) taking pictures of diminutive locomotives.  It's also the site of a rather bohemian settlement, made up of tin shacks and wooden huts, and typified by Derek Jarman's "Prospect Cottage" with its outside walls covered in poetry.  And, towering above both these (rather quaint) features, both literally and metaphorically, is an enormous nuclear power station and working lighthouse.  Something for everyone, in other words...

There are a couple of places to grab lunch in Dungeness, and we chose the one at the end of the railway which gave delightful and unrestricted views of the power station.  Here are two of the ladies in my life (including the dumb blonde - on the left, in case there's any confusion) enjoying what the Station Cafe has to offer.

I struggled to find anything photogenic associated with the power station, and this was the best I could come up with.  I know: pathetic!

It was clearly a good place for fishing, though, as there were several people on the beach trying their luck.

The lighthouse and surrounding buildings were slightly more inspiring than the power station, but the lighting was such that there was little point in wandering around the rest of the site.

Finally, a single image which rather summed up Dungeness for me.  One of the residents had clearly been beach-combing, and produced a pile of plastic junk which your average magpie would give its eye teeth for.  Impressive...

Like I said, a very strange place indeed.