The best Laid Plans.

I had intended to put up some pictures of one of my favourite winter visitors to Kent, Purple Sandpipers. A few can normally be found in winter on one or two of the groynes on the beach at Hythe. Disappointingly today I couldn't find any.

On the way back I decided to give the traffic a miss and turned off past the Channel Tunnel exit and then through Newington and Peene, through to Crete Rd W.  This climbs steeply to the top of the Downs and overlooks the Channel Tunnel area.

Driving along the M2 you don't get the the full impression of the enormity of the Tunnel infrastructure.

The light was fading and the huge volume of lorries entering the terminal rumbled in continuously.

Only from a view point like this can one appreciate the enormous scar on the Kent countryside that was created to satisfy the egos of Margaret Thatcher and François Mitterrand.
I thought I'd better put up a picture of a Purple Sandpiper, even if it wasn't from this year. This is from 17/11/2012.