England - Sep18 - Cliffs of Dover

Leaving Canterbury, we drove over to Dover to see the famous cliffs.  I knew that you could see France on a clear day but I was stunned by how visible and close France was!  I never realized it was this close.

Also, as you can see, Dover has a large port facility with big ferry boats constantly coming and going through that gap in the sea wall.
   
Looking back at the little town of Dover which sits at the bottom of the western edge of the cliffs.  The massive Dover Castle is visible to the right.
   
A better look at the port with a ferry boat coming in.
   
Our first good look at the famous Cliffs of Dover!   There is a nice trail to the east at the top of the cliffs.  We walked about a mile or so.
   
At an overlook, we got a real good look.
   
Proof that we were there!
   
More proof.
   
Hiking the trail.  In the distance is a lighthouse but we didn't make it that far.  Places to go, things to see.
   
There were all sorts of side trails.
   
 
   
We took a different way back to the parking lot and came fairly close to the port.
   
Leaving the Cliffs, we drove by Dover Castle.   There were other things we wanted to see, and our reasoning was, if you've seen one castle, you've seen them all, so we didn't stop.  If we ever come back, I'd like to see it.
   

As we drove by the northern base of Dover Castle, I saw a sign for Bleriot's landing site.  Now THAT I wanted to see!   For those of you who don't know, the Frenchman Louis Bleriot was the first pilot to fly the English Channel.  He flew it in 1909.   I had known Bleriot had landed above the Cliffs of Dover but had not thought to include that in our itinerary.  So we saw the sign, turned in, parked in a small lot, and walked a quarter mile to this.

 
   

"At 4:15 am on the 25 July 1909, watched by an excited crowd, Blériot made a short trial flight in his Type XI, and then, on a signal that the sun had risen (the competition rules required a flight between sunrise and sunset), he took off at 4:41 for the attempted crossing.[26] Flying at approximately 45 mph (72 km/h) and an altitude of about 250 ft (76 m), he set off across the Channel. Not having a compass, Blériot took his course from the Escopette, which was heading for Dover, but he soon overtook the ship. The visibility deteriorated, and he later said, "for more than 10 minutes I was alone, isolated, lost in the midst of the immense sea, and I did not see anything on the horizon or a single ship".[27]

The grey line of the English coast, however, came into sight on his left; the wind had increased, and had blown him to the east of his intended course. Altering course, he followed the line of the coast about a mile offshore until he spotted Charles Fontaine, the correspondent from Le Matin waving a large Tricolour as a signal. Unlike Latham, Blériot had not visited Dover to find a suitable spot to land, and the choice had been made by Fontaine, who had selected a patch of gently sloping land called Northfall Meadow, close to Dover Castle, where there was a low point in the cliffs. Once over land, he circled twice to lose height, and cut his engine at an altitude of about 20 m (66 ft), making a heavy "pancake" landing due to the gusty wind conditions; the undercarriage was damaged and one blade of the propeller was shattered, but Blériot was unhurt. The flight had taken 36 minutes and 30 seconds."
   
I was surprised that the landing site was a clearing in a wooded area.  But of course, in 1909, the area was treeless as you can see in this picture.  I was happy that I had gotten to see this historic site.  Bleriot was one of the great aviators, in the same league as the Wright Brothers, Curtiss, and Lindbergh.
   
 
   
Previous
Home
Next