On leaving Reculver, I immediately hit a problem. A diversion. It took me all the way across to Herne Bay before picking up a road that took me towards Hoath. One handy thing, though, was the fact that the diversion took me right past a supermarket. I took the advantage of stocking up on groceries. Then the heavens opened!
I eventually found my way to Hoath where I turned into Hicks Forstal Lane. A short way along the lane a car park appears on the right. It had a height barrier, but was open. There were cars parked by the entrance, but I had enough room to get past and into the car park. As there were stacks of tree trunks in one quarter of the car park, manoeuvring became challenging. I managed to put myself into a position where I had enough space to reverse into a corner and shunt round so that I was able to get out. I then backed down along the fence to the corner that I had shunted into.
Just as I had settled into position, there was a loud bang as the windscreen wipers stopped working. Given the weather, I wasn’t about to start investigating right then. I decided to do that in the morning. I just wanted a cup of tea.
The rain soon stopped. I had a quick look around. There was rubbish strewn everywhere.
It was like a tip. I also noticed that there are, I’m told newly, parking charges. I wasn’t going to pay for parking in a rubbish tip. Far for it for me to say whether you should or should not pay for the parking should you ever find yourself in this particular car park. That is your choice.
The next morning, refreshed with tea, I set about investigating the wiper problem. I quickly discovered that the connecting rod from the motor to the actuator had popped off of the ball joint. I managed to press the rod back into place.
Around lunchtime, I went off for a walk in the woods. East Blean Woods is part of a larger woodland, known as Blean Woods. It covers a large area of North Kent between the North Downs and the north coast; between Canterbury and Whitstable-Herne Bay. It is mainly a broad leaf woods. East Blean Woods is full of mostly Oak and Birch, though there are plenty of Holly and Chestnut as well as a few Aspen and Elm. There is also plenty of Bracken.
False Death Caps
Later in the afternoon I foraged around for firewood. It didn’t take long to gather a good pile. I was about to set about cutting my stash to size when a Polish van appeared. A young lad emerged and said hello. We soon got to chatting. As it turned out, he was actually Slovakian. After a while, I realised that time was getting on. I apologised, explaining that I had wood to chop and increasingly less daylight to do it in. He said that he would be staying overnight, so we agreed to share a brew in the morning.
I got about half of the load done before I stopped for bad light. I didn’t burn any that night, as it happened, as it was so mild again. Later that evening, the Slovakian lad moved on. He obviously changed his mind.
Comments