Wednesday 16th May 2018

Day 2 of the great orchid safari.

And of course, when arranging things like this months in advance, it is impossible to second guess the weather. John and Leone were on a strict timetable, of which I was impressed by their spit second, it seemed, timings. Meaning that in their ten weeks in the UK, this was all they could spare for ochiding.

And with my legs slightly stiff from what we did on Tuesday, I knew I had to be up and about sharpish, as I had to meet them in Hythe services at nine. This was not helped by sleeping in to half six, which I thought was half five, and so could not understand why Jools had already showered and was getting dressed. But as I found out the right time, I relaised i had just an hour in which to shake the sleep out of my head and get into the car for the drive to Hythe.

It was a cloudy, cool and breezy day, which is not the best for macro photography, obviously. But one of the two species, the Lady, does not need bright sunlight to show off their best, the Fly does, however. But there was nothing we could do about that.

They had just arrived, so I discussed the plan for the day, or the options, but in the end, we all decided to just go for it. Main problem was for gales near the coast in the afternoon, which was going to make a return to Dover for more Early Spiders impossible.

So we drove in convoy up Stone Street, turning off once we we up on the down and through the woods. Down the lane, then turning down the lane in the worst condition possibly in all of Kent. It is so narrow and overgrown, it is like driving through the wood.

We park, and after gathering cameras and donning coats, as it was that cool, we went through the gate and into the reserve, first checking the small group of Lady, now struggling to be seen in an overgrown clearing, before carrying on up the path to the meadow.

Australia has nothing like this, a temperate woodland, and they were thrilled to be walking through it, looking at all the plants and flowers bursting forth.

Up in the meadow it was cool and breezy; no butterflies on the wing, and no slow worms to be seen under the tin either. But we did see a few Fly, and as we looked at the top of the meadow. More and More Fly.

So we stop to snap them before walking down into the wood where the mother lode of Fly can be found. We find a party being lead by the KWY warden being shown around, right where the orchids were, as if they knew!

As they leave, we smile and say good morning, then we have the tiny spikes to ourselves.

We move on, crossing the road and taking the path to the top meadow, pausing to look at more Lady, Fly, Greater Butterfly and Herb Paris. Before we arrive at the top meadow where there are a good thirty Lady spikes, along with a few EPOs and a single Fly.

Turns out you can see enough Fly, so we turn round and walk back to the car, not really stopping to look at any more Fly, but pausing for the view from the meadow, with the valley stretching out to the distance above the treeline.

From there it was a 20 minute drive to Denge Woods, where for the highpoint of their Kent Orchid Odyssey was the thousands of Lady pikes, and maybe see a Duke of Burgundy. But as it was now cool, almost cold, I said there was no chance of seeing a Duke.

We park off the road and put our coats back on, and walk down the gently undulating track through the trees. It looked like May but felt like March. The undergrowth was closing the lane to half its winter width, and in month will be barely wide enough to two to walk side by side. And where usually there would be insects everywhere, the air was empty.

We get to the reserve gate and walk down to the path, and at first I saw zero orchids. But I knew they would be there. I hoped. Anyway.

And soon enough we had seen more than enough Lady. I had told them they could not snap every one, and they soon saw why, as there were so many. Like me, they soon got an eye for the unusual and attractive var. A particular favourite was the salmon pink one, of which the best was a great family of three spikes side by side.

At the far end of the site, where the Dukes are seen, we looked at more orchids, and I half heartedly looked for a small Duke. And then, one flew in my field of vision, so I followed it and saw where it landed, allowing my friends to photograph it.

The real highlight though was a hyper coloured Lady, so purple and heavily marked it seemed unreal. So we all snapped that and it was decided that they had seen enough Lady too, so we turned round and walked back to the car, the long slow climb back to the road.

And it was lunch time, so they said they would pay again, and asked if I knew anywhere nice to eat. There were two really good pubs, but the easiest to get to was The Granville at Lower Hardres.

We have toasted baguettes and a bowl of triple fried fries to share. All very nice indeed.

And that was it, the weather was not too windy for anything, and they had a plan to visit the ossuary under St Leonards in Hythe, and I went to drive home.

I passed a young bloke hitch-hiking, and so I stopped; he wanted to go to Wingham, and I could go home that way, so I took him. He was walking between Chartham and Wingham, a walk that would have taken 3 hours, and in places put his life at risk, so giving him a lift was a good deed I believe.

I go home via Sainsbury's in Hythe, getting some cider for Jools and a few other things, and getting out just before the kids and families arrived after school finished, getting home at four to be met by the feline welcoming party.

So I feed them, and they seem happy enough.

I have to have a brew before I pop the samosas I had also bought in the oven. Yummy.

For some reason I was so tired, that I did nothing in the evening, just wrote, read and listened to Marc Riley. Still too cold to sit outside.