Leo Bay, Isle of Sheppey

After a lazy start to the day as it's David's birthday (and the fact that we were waiting for the rain to stop) we layered up and headed into Queenborough – a short walk from the campsite, through a housing estate and a trading estate full of haulage companies and breakers yards (literally where buses come to die!) and some very tired looking buildings, we made it to the town's centre.
At first, it doesn't appear to have very much going for it, but being a very wet February, you want to be able to give a place the benefit of the doubt, and we're so very glad we did.
This little town has so much history woven into its streets. The church was built in 1366 to support the castle which was built around the same time. The church has faired much better than the castle as it was demolished in 1660 having been deemed obsolete - a decision probably regretted when the Dutch invaded in 1667!
The history includes stories of Saxon and Viking settlements and the harbour has played a huge part in naval history with nearly every sea faring legend from British history – including Napoleon, Sir Frances Drake and Captain Cook – having visited here at one point or another.
Our exploration took us straight to the first welcoming coffee shop we could find - Bosuns Tea Rooms - the sign on the door letting us know that they were dog friendly - that was a complete understatement.
Molly was treated as royalty, whilst we were just mere members of her entourage. Treats and compliments abounded, she was event videoed whilst she was given a 'pupacino', her name recorded and her photo taken in order to be printed out and placed on the 'wall of fame' dedicated solely to any dog (or cat) visiting the premises.
The ladies were lovely and it was clear that they were all passionate about living on the island - one of the waitresses even admitted to never having left the island and she was probably in the late fifties!
The owner, Sandra, showed a real passion for the town and surrounding area and was keen to share with us the best places to visit. She also encouraged us to visit the church and told us about the ceiling in the church - only two churches in the country still have the painted dutch barn roof and the painting can only be seen through the lens of a camera. A fact we would have missed if she hadn't told us about it.

That's one of our favourite things about exploring. We love meeting the people who live and love the places we visit - we get a much better insight into what to see and where to visit!

After walking along the quayside to let Molly have a bit of 'off-lead' time (she needed to run off those extra calories from the Teashop), we headed back towards the town and along the harbour before having a drink in a micro pub called the Admirals Arm - an obvious nod to Admiral Nelson who lost an arm in the Battle of Santa Cruz de Tenerife in 1797.
After walking back through to the main street and visiting the church which lived up to Sandra's sales pitch we headed to the Flying Dutchman for lunch via the public toilets in the Memorial Garden - which were clean and well looked after.
The Flying Dutchman, named after the legendary ghost ship, was warm and clean with a very extensive menu and like much of the town of Queenborough its interior design was inpired by its nautical heritage.
After a late lunch, we headed back to MAEV and got back just in time to miss the next lot of rain.
All in all, a fab day!Baca lagi