Where did we go?

We travelled from Sunny Florida to London, Heathrow to begin our journey to photograph as much as we could in the18 days we had available. This is the resulting map showing the approximately 2000 miles that we travelled.


Imagine, having never driven a car from the right side for the first time.  Now imagine driving a 6-speed manual and shifting with your left hand, also for the first time.  Now imagine doing that after being up for almost 24 hours.  Add to the experience by realizing that the car rental is immediately going to dump you out onto M-25, the "Beltway" around London.  Now, just for a little added excitement, let's do this at rush hour on Friday Morning!

Welcome to the life of two landscape photographers that want to maximize their trip and get the biggest bang for their bucks!    After being up for 27 hours, we arrived at Dover, home of the famed White Cliffs and the UK home to the Chunnel.This is also the location where many brave (depending on your viewpoint) individuals use as their starting point to swim the English channel to France!  We spent about 30 minutes at the visitor center overlooking the port where countless ferries transport everything imaginable between France and England.  After that, we were so exhausted that we found our way to the White Cliffs Hotel at St. Margaret's-at-Cliffe. We picked up a sim card for a phone, grabbed a few snacks for the car, and took a much needed rest.  After a wonderful late evening sandwich (Our stomachs were still on EDT), we got a good night's rest and took to the cliffs!



Of course, with a freshly rested set of eyes, we realized that there was a beautiful old church and cemetery at the top of the hill directly across from the hotel, and had to take a tour of the grounds and enjoy the sunrise through the trees and memorials.

All that can be said is AMAZING!  We hiked about 15 miles that day, covering the beach at St. Margaret's, the returning to the visitor center and trekking all the way North to the lighthouse and back.  Before hitting the road that afternoon, we had a coffee on the beach and watched one of those swimmers acclimating to the frigid water swimming a couple of laps back and forth along the beach.


Now it's time for a little drive back to the West .  We'll spend the night back on the South side of London in Crawley before day 2 in England!

Check back for the next installment!

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