Well some of you might wonder what has happened over the past week, as its been a while since last updated.  Now am back in London at matt and annas, but I'll do my best to sum up the events that have transpired.  

Herne Bay - Ramsgate

When we last left off, the notorious 9 (BCIT crew) were in Herne bay about to ship off in the morning for margate.  We left early, some of us up at 330 to move the canoe, got to watch glorious sunrise with canoe.  Paddled with ebb tide and beautiful calm pink and blue water of the sunrise.  Got to Margate, was bit of a dump, but had a very nice beach.  Paddled on to Ramsgate, didn't arrive til about 630, so another long day.  Went back to Margate crammed in the back of the rental van, myself perched on top of bags stacked 6ft high, while april, stu, wes, and bob crammed in behind standing.  Margate was much larger than any of the seaside towns we'd been to before and far from cute.  Many young ruffians roaming the streets at night.  Stayed at a pretty funny crooked hotel on the seaside and had another day off to collect our thoughts.  Very nice seaside walk and back to meet for picnic at the hotel.  A nice day off.  Tomorrow we would depart for Deal, with a lanky comedian/photographer with vertigo named Andy Photo.

Ramsgate - Kingsdown

Enjoying the earlier leaving times, though didn't leave port till about 930.  Very easy paddle when going with the ebb, doing 6 knots easy, as opposed to the 1 knot experienced on evil day of death, day 2, where you could watch crabs walk past you while you paddled your brains into submission.  Spent the afternoon in Deal, the most seasidey of all towns so far, before we would move on to Kingsdown, a funny little beach village just before the cliffs of Dover.  Bob picked out a beautiful little camping site on a cliffside kind of grassy knoll just above the beach, while April, Wes and I slept on the beach of sharp flinty rock of the beach to watch over the canoe for the night.  When we arrived at Kingsdown, just a few houses lay on the hill above, and I was put in charge of asking to use a phone to check in with the coastguard.  At first a bit hesitant but gathered the courage, and luckily a happy family dinner was occuring at the residence of a very generous family.  They offered me drinks and gave us a bunch of food.  They were very happy to see a bunch of awkward looking canadians pull up a canoe right in front of their eyes.  A perplexing sight to say the least.

Kingsdown - Folkestone

Another early morning, woken by Wes' flute playing.  A pretty enjoyable way to wake up to a sunrise.  The boat went in like a dream, hardly even needed a shove.  Our first sight along the way the infamous white cliffs of Dover, very white indeed.   Next, the port of Dover, apparently the busiesnt port in the world (which I find hard to believe) but many ferries going in and out and leaving nice chop for us to paddle through.  Pretty intimidating, tiny canoe vs giant ferry.  Paddled onwards to Folkestone where we spent the day going on tour of coast guard station.  Very funny watch manager who gave us a tour made jokes and spoke 100 wpm.  My personal favourite: "I went to the shop to buy some camouflage pants... I couldn't find any,"  ..... then proceeded to tell us the protocol for what they do when somebody is reported drowning etc.  Also went on tour of Coast Guard tow ship which specializes in bonking ships out to sea that are doing bad things, like spilling oil, or something like that.  Piled into van again to head for train station cuz we were tenting at scout camp again.  Stopped at grocery (ASDA) on the way to pick up some things for bbq. I tend to take a seat wherever I get tired whether on the floor or otherwise, and this occasion was no different as I plopped myself down inside the entrance between the automatic doors of the ASDA.  My haggard appearance and awkward position led a woman at the information kiosk to be the first of many strangers in my lifetime to ask of those who take care of me (April in this instance),"Is that man OK?"

The BBQ didn't start till
about 10pm but frankfurters and mushy pie apple pie a plenty were enjoyed.

Took the next day off due to late bbq, Bob, Laura, April and I wandered the cliffs of Dover.  A beautiful 3 hour walk.  We then explored Dover castle, a magnificent place on the seaside and learned (as April termed it) the "Disneyfied" history of the Secret WWII tunnels that were built underneath.  The awkward tour operator mentioned at one point, "Don't worry, it's almost over" and nobody laughed.  All in all a very fun day, ended with philosophical discussion about the nature of love and I decided that love for ice cream and unconditional love need separate words.  I suggested squarble... nobody agreed.

Folkestone - Hythe

The last day of paddling.  In some ways very sad, and in others triumphant.  Wes sat this one out which definitely made the journey feel it was missing something.  Stayed at a very nice little hotel, had a wonderful dinner and pulled the boat up to the sailing club with some helpful passersby so it could await its next crew from the rcmp for may 17th. No grandiose statements or conclusions right now.  Check back later maybe.  I was very happy to be part of that trip, and I'm also happy to be on my way now.  I guess thats the way a journey should end.