Circle in the Sand

What better way to spend an early Sunday morning in the middle of June with a trip to the beach. This was always planned to be a short visit due to reasons out of my control but it was one that was long overdue and something a little different. As usual prep work was the key here as I need onward transport - never been one for a simple journey why have it easy when complicated is more fun and often feel as sense of disappoint if things run too smoothly. I needed to be in Dover to get a high speed boat out (often see these trying to come in for a very different reason).

Alarm set for the rather early time of 05:00 but it was nearly mid summers day and a beautiful sunny morning and perfect for an early morning drive down the rarely quiet M2/A2 roads. I decided to look into my mini beach excursion a little more after reading about strange cricket venues and this was up there with the best of them , why have Lords and the Oval when you can have something a bit different instead. Yes six miles off the Kent coast is a 10 mile Sandbank known as the Goodwin Sands.

More than 2,000 ships are believed to have been wrecked upon the Goodwin Sands over the last couple of century as is sits alongside some of the busiest shipping lanes in the world.

When the sadly non defunct Hovercraft service ran out of Pegwell Bay it used to use the Sands as a bypass or soft shoulder to avoid congestion.

A excellently managed local service out of Dover was providing the transport out of Western Docks on a high speed RIB boat for the 35 minutes out to the Sands so a safety briefing and donning the life jacket (Is there anything else you 'don' aside from a life jacket?) then some concerns on the economy size of the life jacket - I was expecting the full Captain Birds Eye version but these days they resemble not much more than a neck tie. The skipper did advise caution as these self-inflate when in contact with a certain amount of water and a recent excursion proved this rather well when someone tripped up and landed in a puddle and was then was beached like a seal with a fully inflated neck collar in about 10 inches of water- unable to get back up unassisted.

Some cracking views of Dover as we left the Harbour

I cast my eye around the fellow passengers a full compliment of 12 people and noticed someone had bought along a set of Stumps and Cricket Bat/Ball for an early morning game.

In the summer of 1824, Captain K. Martin, then the Harbourmaster at Ramsgate, instituted the proceedings of the first known cricket match on the Goodwin Sands, at low water. An annual cricket match was until 2003 played on the sand but many unofficial games continue and you have to be quick as rain (tide) definately stops play here, it's like a cut down version of the T20 version.

You can only get so far in on the RIB before you have to transfer to a small dingy and the junior crew member jumps into the water and pulls you onto the sands. But all good fun and you realise that regardless you will get a little wet in the proceeding.

The sands were amazing and quite bizzare to think you were actually in the middle of the English Channel, walking arounds also very odd and if you stayed to long on one spot the sands would moved and swallow your feet slightly. The cricket match commenced and seemed to be a very generous amount of drinks break sprinkled through the 30 minute match , others wandered around frequently checking the time as the skipper had been very clear - tide waits for no man.

Rumour has it that somewhere below these sands is a full size ice cream van that was transported out here in the 1980's but had to be abandoned when Mr Whippy lost track of time and had to run for the Hovercraft which had provide his outbound journey.

After just over an hour offshore it was time to return , literally 10's of seals all around both the small dingy and the larger boat providing plenty of entertainment. A rapid return to port and before I knew it I was back home before most people had got up on a Sunday morning. Great fun and a special thanks to my hosts - https://www.doverseasafari.co.uk/ -