Sunday 8th June 2014

Sunday. It is funny to think that in 24 hours I will be two hours away from Beijing. I should be excited, but I am not, not yet. I have packed, bought new clothes, even shaved for the occasion, and yet i am not stirred. Maybe tomorrow when I am on the train heading for the airport. Who would have thought that twenty five years ago, when I was a lowly giblet stuffer I would end up being an International Man of Quality? Not me for sure, and it has been quite a trip.



Today began with some extended sleeping. We lay in until nearly eight, and the cats even gave up trying to wake us and went back to sleep despite being hungry. We got our shit together and were out of the house at half nine, heading to Pegwell bay to meet a couple of fellow orchid nuts to show them the Bee and look for the pale man Orchids I had heard about.



The morning was cloudy, but as we drove the sun burnt the clouds off, and soon the sky was a deep blue and already very warm indeed. We arrived at the Viking Ship to find Jim and his wife already there, we made small talk before heading down the steps, and amazingly, I found the main group of Bees straight away, followed by another two smaller groups, but no Man Orchids. We spread out and soon enough they had been found, so Jim and I snapped them and we were able to move on to Sandwich Bay.



Now, I am an old fashioned socialist at heart, and the thought that land, let alone sea shore and beach should be in private hands makes me mad. However, being mad does not change things, and I realised despite going over to Sandwich Bay dozens of times, we had avoided paying for over six years, so maybe we should stump up the three quid for the toll.



Only on arriving did we find out the toll had increased to £7! So, we paid up and drove in, along the beach to the edge of the third of the gold courses, and there were orchids everywhere. I tried to find the white bee I had seen in a friend's blog, but could not find it, so we made do with dozens of plain bee and hundreds of Lizards, which stretched from the lawns of the mansions of the estate to the edge of pegwell Bay. Stunning sights.



We headed home for lunch, then out again, this time to hunt for a Frog orchid, this time in Dover. Sadly, due to the lack of grazing, the area is now returned to woodland, and we could find no trace of any orchid, let alone a Frog Orchid. So, we went to visit the old folks up in Whitfield, before heading home for dinner, a shower, some packing action and a little relaxing on the patio before bedtime.



And that is it, next time it will be Jelltex in China.



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