dungeness

[squirdan]

afternoon all

assuming decent weather on Saturday, I am thinking of taking a day trip from London to Dungeness and back in the hotrod

have never been and really intrigued by the desert / architecture / nuclear combo

if anyone has any good recommendations of pubs / restaurants near there please shout!

and any good deserted country roads would also be most gratefully rcd!

cheers

Dan

[tim78]

Hi Dan,

I live in Rye so know the area quite well.
There's not a huge amount there but it's definitely a cool place to visit. Lots of interesting architecture from train carriages and shacks to modern stuff.
There's a fish & chip restaurant there which is pretty good. It's called the Pilot and quite well know locally.
http://thepilotdungeness.co.uk/
All the roads around Dungeness are pretty good driving roads, especially if it's not too busy. The road to Rye through Camber Sands is great. I goes through the millitary base and ranges at Lydd
I can give you plenty of reccommendation for Rye if your heading that way.
Tim

[tim78]

Just to add, I found the coolest little pub in a place called Snargate. It's not been touched since the war and the landlady is 85. I got introduced to everyone in there and given a little tour when I went the other week.
It's called the Red Lion and worth a look

[tim78]

[squirdan]

thanks Tim!

[Peter]

Taken a few months ago....



We drove past there today in the Porsche. We're just near Rye as well.

[Peter]

By the way, the Gallivant in Camber isn't a bad spot for lunch.

[cubist]

Wonderful place... we rented this:



Derek Jarmens house, the El Ray house and countless other cool builds are well worth the visit to the biggest shingle beach in the universe (apparently) and we toured the nuclear facility and the sound mirrors and went on the tiny chuff chuff to Romney and had ice creams and walked the boardwalks and lost the beagle and found the beagle and, and, and...

[left4dead]

^^^

Bizarrely, I found myself in Dungeness on my very first road trip in the RS rep. Had only been once before as part of a geography field course. We toured the nuclear site and then the geography teacher was arrested.

[cubist]

... and then the geography teacher was arrested.

Brilliant!

[Jonny Hart]

I was offered a position a the power station 10 years ago as I have experience in the software emulation of old computer systems. The job was to update the computer equipment with a modern real-time platform.

The main reactor is controlled by 3 x Ferranti 24 bit computers that were cutting edge in the 60's when the power station was designed. The idea is that they are triple redundant so if one fails you have 2 backups. Unfortunately, the system isn't quite that robust. They were experiencing problems where all the machines 'hung' and needed to be rebooted. During the reboot, the main fuel rods in the reactor had to be driven manually by an operator in a control room that - I swear - looks exactly like this:



The reactor can only be operated manually for 2 days. Essentially, if they couldn't get the computers backup with 2 days, the main reactor would have to be shutdown. They had come close on several occasions!

I was also told that there was originally a MegaWatt gauge above the visitor centre showing the output of the power station. It was taken down because it took 13 years to commission and became a bit of an embarrassment always reading zero!

I didn't take the job.

[squirdan]

Wonderful place... we rented this:



Derek Jarmens house, the El Ray house and countless other cool builds are well worth the visit to the biggest shingle beach in the universe (apparently) and we toured the nuclear facility and the sound mirrors and went on the tiny chuff chuff to Romney and had ice creams and walked the boardwalks and lost the beagle and found the beagle and, and, and...

TBH I tried to rent a weekend place and they are all booked up 6-9 months in advance sadly

that place looks cool

also there is an old lighthouse for rent

[tim78]

I helped convert that place when I was a labourer during my uni holidays. Its has amazing views. I think it was owned by a photographer called peter

[squirdan]

loved it. amazing other-worldly place

thanks for the tips guys. Had lunch at The Pilot and planned a drink at the Gallivant but was closed for a wedding

[left4dead]

Car looks great, Dan.

Dungeness looks typically bleak.

Love the boat shots.

Nice to see the hound having a day out, too.