The cathedral city of Canterbury

We were hoping that today's rain would not be too heavy as we planned a trip to Canterbury to visit the cathedral primarily, but anything else in the town that took our interest.This was a place we had not visited before. Before we left for our visit,Mr fox was spotted again jogging through the field at the back of the property. 

And so, via a convenient Park And Ride, we arrived in the center of Canterbury. 

Not many photographs taken on the outside as the main west end was covered in scaffolding but just a few for the record!

St Augustine, the first Archbishop of Canterbury, arrived on the coast of Kent as a missionary to England in 597 AD. He came from Rome, sent by Pope Gregory the Great. It is said that Gregory had been struck by the beauty of Angle slaves he saw for sale in the city market and despatched Augustine and some monks to convert them to Christianity. Augustine was given a church at Canterbury (St Martin’s, after St Martin of Tours, still standing today) by the local King, Ethelbert whose Queen, Bertha, a French Princess, was already a Christian.This building had been a place of worship during the Roman occupation of Britain and is the oldest church in England still in use. Augustine had been consecrated a bishop in France and was later made an archbishop by the Pope. He established his seat within the Roman city walls (the word cathedral is derived from the the Latin word for a chair ‘cathedra’, which is itself taken from the Greek ‘kathedra’ meaning seat.) and built the first cathedral there, becoming the first Archbishop of Canterbury. 

Until the 10th century, the Cathedral community lived as the household of the Archbishop. During the 10th century, it became a formal community of Benedictine monks, which continued until the monastery was dissolved by King Henry VIII in 1540. Augustine’s original building lies beneath the floor of the Nave – it was extensively rebuilt and enlarged by the Saxons, and the Cathedral was rebuilt completely by the Normans in 1070 following a major fire. There have been many additions to the building over the last nine hundred years, but parts of the Quire and some of the windows and their stained glass date from the 12th century. By 1077, Archbishop Lanfranc had rebuilt it as a Norman church, described as “nearly perfect”. A staircase and parts of the North Wall – in the area of the North West transept also called the Martyrdom – remain from that building. 

After the Restoration in 1660, several years were spent in repairing the building. In the early 19th Century, the North West tower was found to be dangerous, and, although it dated from Lanfranc’s time, it was demolished in the early 1830s and replaced by a copy of the South West tower, thus giving a symmetrical appearance to the west end of the Cathedral. During the Second World War, the Precincts were heavily damaged by enemy action and the Cathedral’s Library was destroyed. Thankfully, the Cathedral itself was not seriously harmed, due to the bravery of the team of fire watchers, who patrolled the roofs and dealt with the incendiary bombs dropped by enemy bombers. 

This a magnificent building, and fills you with awe as you gaze at the workmanship, and marvel at the vision that these people had who designed and built it. Whatever your faith, or none, this stirs the senses that few buildings do.  

Son Of Man - Completed in 1988 and dedicated that year by Archbishop Robert Runcie, it stands over 7 feet high and is cast in bronze. It was created by David McFall who died of cancer shortly before the dedication took place. The figure was originally submitted as a candidate for the competition to fill the vacant niche on the Christ Church gate. This was won by Klaus Ringwald but the McFall statue was admired and thought suitable for its present site. The large hands on the Son of Man figure were designed to be viewed high on the gate - the optical distortion in this position would make them look more balanced. 

The east end of the cathedral was rebuilt in 1174-75 in a pioneering and highly influential Gothic style.

The pulpitum screen of the 1450s divides the nave from the quire. It features sculptures of six English kings.

The Quire, focus of music and worship to this day, was the first part of the east end to be rebuilt. 

The Pilgrims Boat, part of a series of installations by international artists Philip Baldwin and Monica Guggisberg reflecting on themes of war and remembrance, migration and refugees - Commemorating the 100th anniversary of the end of the First World War 

As visitors move around the Cathedral, they will come across a series of ten installations that begins with 100 glass amphorae suspended in the shape of a ship in the Cathedral’s Nave, each one representing one year since the end of the First World War. In the Martyrdom, four pieces blown at a workshop in Venice represent the four assassins of Thomas Becket, while in the North Aisle a glass boat filled with spent shells, grenades and other debris together with sheets of statistics ignite conversations about the plight of refugees in war, migration and “collateral damage”. The artists worked with the Cathedral Stonemasons to create The Stone Boat in St Anselm’s Chapel. In the Eastern Crypt is a triptych displaying the past, present and future, and the exhibition ends in the Chapter House with a wall of coloured glass, celebrating all of human diversity. 

The Martyrdom - Thomas Becket was born in around 1120, the son of a prosperous London merchant. He was well educated and quickly became an agent to Theobald, Archbishop of Canterbury, who sent him on several missions to Rome. Becket's talents were noticed by Henry II, who made him his chancellor and the two became close friends. When Theobald died in 1161, Henry made Becket archbishop. Becket transformed himself from a pleasure-loving courtier into a serious, simply-dressed cleric. 

The king and his archbishop's friendship was put under strain when it became clear that Becket would now stand up for the church in its disagreements with the king. In 1164, realising the extent of Henry's displeasure, Becket fled into exile in France, and remained in exile for several years. He returned in 1170. 

On the 29 December 1170, four knights, believing the king wanted Becket out of the way, confronted and murdered Becket in Canterbury Cathedral. 

Becket was made a saint in 1173 when miracles were said to take place, and his shrine in Canterbury became one of Europe’s most important pilgrimage centres. A real money making machine! The murder took place in what is now known as The Martyrdom. 

The Font was installed in 1639 for public baptisms. It was smashed up a few years later by Puritan soldiers, but the broken pieces were collected and hidden until 1663 when it was re-installed. A drawing found on a market stall in 2002 proved to be the design of the font. 

The font stands on a marble plinth, with white marble figures of the four Evangelists around the stem. The cover has small statues of the 12 Apostles, coats of arms and a figure of Christ blessing children at the top. 

A pulley allows the blue and white gilded cover to be raised and lowered. The carved dove at the base of the cover represents the Holy Spirit. 

The ornate wooden pulpit standing at the east end of the nave was erected in 1898 in memory of Dean Robert Payne-Smith (Dean from 1871 to 1895). It was carved by the architect George Bodley. The main panels include carvings of the crucifixion and annunciation. The balustrades carry two large figures, according to modern writers those of St Augustine of Canterbury and Pope Gregory. Not all agree, however - J Charles Cox writing in 1905, not long after installation of the pulpit, claimed the figures represented St Augustine and St Paulinus. Brass plaques by the pulpit stairs refer to the Dean and to his daughter, Jessie, a scholar of the Syriac language. 

John Wastell`s glorious fan vault, completed in 1503. Difficult to photograph in all its splendour. 

Ceiling bosses in the Great Cloisters mostly represent the donors who funded its construction. 

The Great Cloister used by the monks when the building was the church of the Benedictine priory of Christ Church 

The Christ Church entrance - Cathedral records indicate the gate was built between 1504 and 1521 with funds provided by Priors Goldstone and Goldwell. This is despite the inscription of 1507 on the stonework “Hoc Opus constructum est anno Domini millesimo Quingentesimo decimo septimo,” - a matter of ongoing dispute between historians. It was probably built in honour of Prince Arthur, Henry VIII's elder brother who married to Catherine of Aragon in 1501. He died the following year aged just 16, allowing Henry VIII to become King and marry Katherine himself in 1509. Imagine the consternation of the sculptors responsible for the heraldry trying to keep up with changing family dynamics! The original statue of Christ and the wooden gates were destroyed by the Puritan iconoclast Richard Culmer in 1643. The gates were restored by Archbishop Juxon in 1660 and still bear his arms. The statue of Christ was replaced in 1990 after a gap of 347 years. 

We did not pay to have our wander around the building and grounds. This was not intentional! We saw what we thought was the entrance, a shop with all the usual things you buy when visiting these places, entered, bought a guide book, and wandered into the grounds. It was only when leaving via the Christ Church entrance, and saw the people queing with their £12.50 in hand, that I realised our error!. Ah well! 

We wandered around the town center for a while and then had some lunch before visiting the Hospital of St Thomas the Martyr of Eastbridge. 

I just loved these seats (scooters) outside this Cafe. 

No city is complete without it`s buskers. They were good, Rolling Stones, when we passed by! 

Chaucer of Canterbury Tales fame. 

The Hospital of St Thomas the Martyr of Eastbridge was founded in the 12th century in Canterbury, England, to provide overnight accommodation for poor pilgrims to the shrine of St Thomas Becket. It is now one of the ten almshouses still providing accommodation for elderly citizens of Canterbury and is a grade I listed building. 

The hospital is situated on the King's-bridge, near the Westgate, in Canterbury. It was established sometime after the death of Thomas Becket (1170), possibly as early as 1176, when Canterbury Cathedral became a site of pilgrimage; the hospital provided accommodation for the pilgrims. The earliest name recorded as founder is that of Edward FitzOdbold c. 1190, with further endowments by Archbishop Hubert Walter about 1203. For many years, no special statutes were enacted, nor were any rules laid down for the treatment of pilgrims. 

In the fourteenth century the Hospital was reformed by Archbishop John de Stratford, during the reign of Edward III; he created ordinances, as well as a code of regulations to be acted on concerning pilgrims. He ruled that every pilgrim in health could rest in the lodgment for one night at the cost of four pence, that weak and infirm applicants were to be preferred to those with better health, and that women "upwards of forty" should attend to the bedding and administer medicines to the sick. He also appointed a Master in priest's orders, under whose guidance a secular chaplain served. Further lands and revenues from parishes were given by Stratford and by Archbishop Simon Sudbury (A man with some local connection) 

This institution survived the Dissolution of the Monasteries and other religious houses during the reigns of Henry VIII and Edward VI, although the pilgrimage to St Thomas of Canterbury did not survive this period. In 1569 Archbishop Matthew Parker issued new ordinances governing the Hospital and its Master which specified the maintenance of twelve beds for the 'wayfaring poor' and established a school in the chapel for twenty boys. This arrangement was confirmed by Archbishop John Whitgift by Act of Parliament in 1584. 

The school survived until 1879. The chapel was then little used until its restoration by the Master in 1927. Further restoration work has taken place during the twentieth century. Much of this work was financed by sale of some of the Hospital's lands at Blean at the foundation of the University of Kent in the 1960s: since the fourteenth century the Master of Eastbridge has been the Lord of the Manor of Blean. The Master is now also the rector of several of the amalgamated city parishes. Since 2003, the Hospital has been cared for by an Anglican Franciscan community. 

Westgate 

Canterbury was walled by the Romans around 300 AD. This has been consistently the most important of the city's gates as it is the London Road entrance and the main entrance from most of Kent. The present towers are a medieval replacement of the Roman west gate, rebuilt around 1380. There was a gate here at the time of the Norman conquest, which is thought to have been Roman. From late Anglo-Saxon times it had the Church of the Holy Cross on top, but both church and gate were dismantled in 1379, and the gate was rebuilt by Archbishop Simon Sudbury before he died in the Peasants' Revolt of 1381. It has been suggested that it was built primarily as an entrance for pilgrims visiting the shrine of St Thomas Becket at the cathedral. However the rebuild as a defensive status symbol was paid for partly by Sudbury and partly by taxation for military protection against expected raids by the French. 

Simon Of Sudbury, original name Simon Tybald, or Thebaud, or Theobald, (born, Sudbury, Suffolk, Eng.—died June 14, 1381, London), archbishop of Canterbury from 1375 and chancellor of England from 1380 who lost his life in the Peasants’ Revolt of 1381. 

A life-like model of the head of Simon of Sudbury is being gifted to the town’s museum this weekend, ahead of a public debate next week on whether the historical figure was a martyr or a monster. 

The bronze resin cast, crafted from Archbishop Simon’s semi-mummified skull, will be unveiled at the Sudbury Heritage Centre in the Town Hall on Saturday at 10.30am, after it was donated by former town mayor Tony Platt. 

The model is a twin to another cast in St Gregory’s Church, which has guarded Simon’s head for 600 years, after he was beheaded during the Peasants’ Revolt of 1381. 

David Burnett, secretary and trustee of the Sudbury Museum Trust, which runs the Heritage Centre, said: “We are pleased to have Tony Platt’s gift on show, because it helps to give a feeling for the real man, much more so than the grisly remains in a cupboard. 

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Vikings at Sandwich and Pegwell Bay

A rather dull day today - which only got worse! Our destination was Sandwich and Pegwell Bay National Nature Reserve. We had a pleasant walk, saw few birds and the rain was beginning as we returned.

Whitethroat - my only bird of the day!

The Viking Ship Hugin on permanent display on the cliff top at Pegwell Bay, Ramsgate is a replica of a Viking ship which sailed from Denmark to Thanet in 1949 to celebrate the 1500th anniversary of the invasion of Britain, the traditional landing of Hengist and Horsa and the betrothal of Hengist's daughter, Rowena, to King Vortigen of Kent.

Out of 53 crewmen, only the navigator, Peter Jensen, was a professional seaman. Viking conditions were faithfully observed and the only instrument carried was a sextant. The 'Hugin' was offered as a gift to Ramsgate and Broadstairs by the Daily Mail in order to be preserved for posterity.

As there was no point in staying out, we returned via the shop and hoped for an evening walk if it cleared. We were in luck, the sun came out so a wander in the nearby woods above the cliffs. One thing made the walk as we started -a fox stopped and surveyed us for a few seconds, and then wandered away. Magic

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Dover Castle and the White Cliffs

A short trip to Dover was today's plan. The castle and the WW2 underground tunnels being our main focus, followed by a visit to the National Trust site to get a photo or two of the White cliffs.

We parked our car, and ticket purchased, we made our way into the Castle area. It is breath taking in its scale and you can see why tourists flock here from abroad. Being near the ferry terminal might help! We spent several hours wandering around and reading and listening at the many information spots. 

The Medieval Colton Gateway of Dover Castle - The entrance though which Roman, Saxon and probably their Iron Age predecessors once entered their respective fortifications.

St Mary in Castro, or St Mary de Castro, is a church in the grounds of Dover Castle. It is a heavily restored Saxon structure, built next to a Roman lighthouse which became the church bell-tower. St Mary serves the local population and is the church of the Dover Garrison.

There are records of a church being built within the castle by Eadbald of Kent in the 630s. However, it is unclear whether this means within the Saxon burgh (usually dated to later than 630) on the Eastern Heights, or within the ruins of old Roman fortifications in the valley. The large, late-Saxon cemetery around the present church does suggest the existence of a c.600 church, but not definitively.

Next to the church is a ‘reasonably’ well-preserved Roman Lighthouse or Pharos, dating from around 46-50 AD (during the reign of the Emperor Claudius 41-54 AD) and, just after the invasion of Britain in 43 AD; the Roman army possibly first coming ashore here or further along the Kent coast at Walmer.

The Romans built a large fort here in c130 AD in order to guard the harbour and sea-route for the fleet sailing from Gaul and through the English Channel. It seems likely they rebuilt the fort in the mid 3rd century. They called the place Portus Dubris or Dubrae, which eventually became the Port of Dover. 

From a vantage point near the church, I took my first image of the imposing castle.

The Great Tower, which Henry II built, dominates the scene, and the history of this famous monarch made more sense when you actually stand among the remains of his grand edifice. The reconstructions, such as the kitchen, really brought alive the era. The whole castle appeared to be in the hands of the French today as bus loads of French school children swamped the area - how would Henry have dealt with that, I wondered.

King's Gate was built in the 1180s as part of the Inner Bailey walls surrounding the keep. The gate has an outer barbican for additional defence, with it's gateway positioned away from the main gate to limit a rushing attack - so I am led to believe!

As the closest part of England to the French coast, Dover was in a very important position in the WW2 struggle. Under the Castle area, tunnels had been constructed when we were expecting a Napoleonic invasion. As this never materialised, the tunnels fell into disrepair but were resurrected and expanded for use in the 1939 to 1945 war. We did two guided tours through the tunnels, one to the Hospital area, where we followed an audio and projected display of an operation to save a pilot who had been shot down and one to the operations area for Operation Dynamo:

Imagine working day and night deep inside Dover Castle's top secret tunnels as war raged outside, in a desperate bid to rescue the troops stranded at Dunkirk as German forces closed in.

This life or death battle against time was won in just ten short days in 1940, when Vice Admiral Bertram Ramsay pulled off a miracle. With no technology and with pitiful resources he masterminded the rescue of 338,000 troops from his Naval HQ in the tunnels below the castle. Vice Admiral Ramsay, is the unsung hero whose brilliant organisational skills pulled off the greatest rescue in our history - Operation Dynamo. The rescue from Dunkirk `tour` uses original newsreels and recordings, testimonies from veterans and dramatic special effects to recreate the terror and tension of these dark days of Second World War.

This was a very sobering tour, and is well worth a visit if you are anywhere near Dover.

The NT area on top of the cliffs, overlooking Dover harbour, has had an interesting history. It was first used as a holding area for convicts, then as a garrison for the military in Dover and then purchased by the NT in 1988, in whose capable hands it serves as the entrance to the Cliff top walks.

Above the current NT area, the cliff appears to have many zig zagged by paths. Apparently these are where railway tracks were laid, allowing materials to be moved in as the harbour was expanded.

It is difficult on a lovely sunny day to imagine the years of the war when this area was subject to ferocious shelling and bombing.

A gunnery duel, along with heavy German shelling and bombing of Dover strait and the Dover area, led to this stretch of the Channel being nicknamed Hellfire Corner and led to 3,059 alerts, 216 civilian deaths and damage to 10,056 premises in the Dover area. British coastal convoys had to pass through the bottleneck of the Dover strait to transport supplies, particularly coal; Britain's road and rail network was not then able to cope with the volume of traffic that had to be handled. Although the German guns regularly fired on these slow moving convoys from 1940 to 1944, with an interlude in 1943, they only sank two ships and damaged several others. Two seamen were killed and others were injured by shell splinters from near misses. However, the civilian crews of the merchant ships found the shelling more unnerving than the attacks by aircraft or E-boats that they were also subjected to and there were instances of crews refusing to sail from their forming-up point at Southend-on-Sea because of the German guns

A walk along the cliff top to a viewing point and a few photographs of the White cliffs, we made our way back to base for a well earned cuppa and rest!

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A visit to Howletts Wild Animal Park

Monday dawned a little dull- and got duller as we headed back along the A2 toward a wild animal sanctuary called Howletts Wild Animal Park. It is an amazing place to spend a few hours - or all day!

Wikipedia says: 

Howletts Wild Animal Park (formerly known as Howletts Zoo) was set up as a private zoo in 1957 by John Aspinall near Canterbury, Kent. The animal collection was opened to the public in 1975.To give more room for the animals another estate at Port Lympne near Hythe, Kent was purchased in 1973, and opened to the public as Port Lympne Zoo in 1976. 

The collection is known for being unorthodox, for the encouragement of close personal relationships between staff and animals, and for their breeding of rare and endangered species. 

Since 1984 both parks have been owned by The John Aspinall Foundation, a charity. Following his death, Aspinall was buried in front of the mansion house and a memorial was built next to the grave near the bison. A later extension to Howletts was an open-topped enclosure for black and white colobus, just behind the entrance. 

The park has the largest breeding herd of African elephants in the United Kingdom 

The park is most famous for having some of the largest family groups of western lowland gorillas in the world. It is also home to the largest breeding herd of African elephants in the United Kingdom and has one of the largest breeding groups of lion-tailed macaques in the world. 

The weather soon turned warm and we had a glorious day. What follows are a selection, but by no means all, of the animals that we saw that day. Some were difficult to photograph as the netting was in the way. 

Eastern Bongo (Tragelaphus eurycerus isaaci) - IUCN Status: Critically endangered

The largest and heaviest of the forest antelopes, Howletts are currently home to 7 bongo, one male and six females. Bongo have brown coats, beautifully marked with 12 to 14 narrow white stripes, providing perfect forest camouflage. The black and white crest running along the spine and lyre-shaped horns are equally distinctive. Eastern bongos are one of the world’s rarest antelopes. They now only occur in small. Fragmented populations in Western Kenya.

Wild mountain bongo populations have suffered huge declines, and are now restricted to a handful of small, isolated populations, all in Kenya

Eastern Black Rhino (Diceros bicornis michaeli) - IUCN Status: Critically endangered

At Howletts are two female black rhino, Salome and Damara and their two calves, a male called Kasungu and a female called Mizi. Kasungu is the first black rhino born at Howletts in 40 years and we were delighted when Salome gave birth in the autumn of 2016, to Mizi.

Black Rhino are critically endangered mainly due to poaching. They are killed for their horns and in recent years the increase has been driven by a growing demand, mostly from Asian consumers who use it in folk remedies, despite proof that it has no medicinal value at all.

The closest living relative to the rhino are tapirs, horses and zebras. They are part of a group of mammals known as odd toed ungulates or Perissodactyla. Rhinos generally have poor eyesight, but they make up for this with their incredible hearing and strong sense of smell.

Despite their size, black rhino are capable of reaching a top speed of around 35 mph and will charge when threatened, lowering their head and using their horn for maximum impact.

African Elephant (Loxodonta africana) - IUCN Status: Vulnerable

The African elephant is the largest and most powerful of all living land mammals. Adults can measure up to 11 ft high at the shoulder and weigh in excess of 6 tonnes! Adult African elephants can eat 150kg or more of foliage, grass, small branches and fruit in one day and also drink 135 litres of water! In the wild, elephants live in herds of related females with their calves led by the oldest cow or ‘matriarch’. Bulls are solitary, leaving the herd at puberty and living in bachelor groups; they join the cows only to mate.

Dhole or Asiatic dog (Cuon alpinus) - Endangered

Asiatic wild dog, red dog, and whistling dog, all names for the same animal. It is about the size of a German shepherd but looks more like a long-legged fox. This highly elusive and skilled jumper is classified with wolves, coyotes, jackals, and foxes in the taxonomic family Canidae. Found in eastern and southern Asia, from Siberia in the north to the Malay Peninsula in the south

Dholes are unusual dogs for a number of reasons. They don’t fit neatly into any of the dog subfamilies (wolf and fox, for instance). Dholes have only two molars on each side of their lower jaw, instead of three, and have a relatively shorter jaw than their doggie counterparts. Also, female dholes have more teats than other canid species and can produce up to 12 pups per litter.

Dholes are incredibly athletic. They are fast runners, excellent swimmers, and impressive jumpers. These skills are critical when the pack is hunting. In some protected areas, they share habitat with tigers and leopards.

Colobus (Black-and-White) Monkey (Colobus guereza kikuyuensi)

Black and white colobus monkeys are old world monkeys. This term describes monkeys from Africa and Asia. These primates have distinctive black and white colouration with long white fur on the back and tail. Babies are born pure white and gradually change to their adult colour as they get older. It is not always the mother who carries her baby. In the wild, this gives the mother time to look for food offer younger members of the group the chance to practice at caring for a baby.

The word 'colobus' is a Greek word meaning 'mutilated'. This name refers to the fact that over time these monkeys have evolved and lost their thumb. This is often common amongst forest primates and is believed to allow the monkeys to travel more easily through tree branches.

Sumatran tiger (Panthera tigris sumatrae) - IUCN Status: Critically endangered

Sumatran tigers are the smallest subspecies of tiger and we look after a stunning pair named Indah and Amir at Howletts. Habitat loss caused by the expansion of palm oil and acacia plantations are the biggest threat to the survival of this species. The illegal trade in tiger parts for traditional medicines and the depletion of its prey base is a contributing factor to the dramatic decline of this beautiful animal.

Capybara

Capybaras are the largest of the rodent species. Weighing as much as a man, these oversized, pig-like animals are highly adapted to an aquatic lifestyle and even mate in the water. Capybaras are found over much of South America. Efficient grazers, they are able to crop even the short, dry grasses left at the end of the dry season. They are capable of a range of vocalisations and can purr and bark. Like rabbits, they eat their own dung to extract maximum nutrition from their food.

Gelada baboons (Theropithecus gelada) - IUCN Status: Least concern

Gelada baboons at Howletts share their large open topped enclosure, near the Gatehouse, with our group of black and white colobus monkeys. Whilst they live together in relative harmony, occasionally a young gelada, full of mischief, will pull the colobus’ tails and run away, which obviously causes a bit of an uproar!

Whilst referred to as a baboon, geladas are actually the last surviving species of a once widespread group of grass grazing primates.

In the wild geladas can only be found on the rocky highland escarpments of Northern Ethiopia. By night they sleep on rocky outcrops and during the day, they graze on the lush grasslands.

Lemur

Lion-tailed macaque (Macaca silenus) - Endangered

The lion-tailed macaque (Macaca silenus) is a primate that spends most of its time up within trees. These Old World monkeys have lengthy, tufted and slender tails that resemble those of lions, hence their naming. Lion-tailed macaques have rather meek and reclusive dispositions, and because of that do not generally travel very far out of their forest home ranges. In terms of lifespan, these creatures often exceed 30 years in age.

The Brazilian or lowland tapir (Tapirus terrestris) -Vulnerable 

Currently home to three males and a female, visitors can often see them enjoying their pools in the summer months and warming up in their cosy sheds in the winter. Brazilian tapirs have remained virtually unchanged for over 20 million years. A relative of the horse and the rhinoceros, tapirs are mainly active at night and use their prehensile upper lip to browse on aquatic plants, twigs, foliage and fruit.

Females give birth to a single calf, after about 13 months. Youngsters are born with stripes and spots on their coats, which help keep them hidden against the forest backdrop

This is a great place to visit, as it is far more than a zoo. The program of breeding the Western lowland gorillas has been very successful, for example, and other breeding programs a helping to keep some species from disappearing altogether.

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The first weekend of our Kent holiday

Kent Was our destination for the week, a converted dairy on the nearest farm to France! (So the war time history said) It was in fact in Reach Court farm in the village of St Margarets-at-Cliffe, Dover. Within a few minutes walk of the famous white cliffs.

Having had a good journey, only 130 miles, we settled into our cottage and took ourselves on an exploration of the area, by foot of course. 

This was our home for the week. You can just see our red door on the right. 

This area around Dover has a large amount of history associated with the second world war in particular, but being close to France, previous invasion attempts as well. We passed numerous reminders of this history on our way to the cliff top/ walk, in the form of posts and notices reminding us of the legacy of the great conflict. 

We arrived at the cliff edge and were treated to spectacular views of the coast line including the entrance to Dover harbour, just along the coast. 

Part way along the walk we came to South Foreland Lighthouse. As a national Trust property we had free access, today being an open day - lucky us! Our guide was very knowledgeable and passed on a lot of information, not only of this lighthouse, but an insight into the life of lighthouse men in general through the ages.

This particular lighthouse was the first one anywhere in the world to use electricity to power its light. Prior to this, it had gone from a fire on the top of a tower (1635 possible), to oil fired lamps (1793) using whale oil, and onto using a similar oil as Rapeseed oil. The first electric light was simply a spark jumping between two carbon rods before moving onto the primitive early bulbs in the early 20th century. The electricity was first generated by a steam generator which had to be specially built. This was in the days before mains electricity.

The need for a lighthouse here is mainly due to the Goodwin Sands, notorious for its many shipwrecks.

Sunday dawned very dull so we did not travel very far before lunch. We booked sunday lunch in the village at the White Cliffs pub and it was a great roast beef lunch. Then we headed a short distance along the coast to Deal to see if I could get a hot water bottle, as I was very cold last night! No joy, but by this time the misty cloud was beginning to lift so we headed back to St Margarets Bay to take a few images and see if a walk along the cliff top would produce any butterflies. Rosey managed to find one that she had not photographed before, which was worth the walk. 

Some properties were a bit more humble!

Some a bit more elegant 

Some of the properties built along this cliff are amazing, and the view! - well amazing in all weathers, I would expect.

We ended our walk here, by the Dover Patrol Monument. The Dover Patrol Monument is a war memorial designed by Sir Aston Webb to commemorate the Royal Navy's Dover Patrol of the First World War. Two identical granite memorial obelisks, 75 feet (23 m) high, were erected near Dover and Calais in 1921 and 1922. A third was erected in Brooklyn, New York, in 1931. The UK monument became a Grade II listed building in August 1966, promoted to Grade II* in August 2015.

The Dover Patrol was formed in July 1914, around a nucleus of the 12 Tribal class destroyers. Through the First World War, a variety of craft served in the patrol—cruisers, destroyers old and new, submarines, mine-sweepers, armed trawlers and drifters, armed yachts, motor launches and other coastal craft—as well as a variety of aircraft - flying boats, aeroplanes, and airships. From time to time, French destroyers were included in the patrol.

he patrol covered the southern part of the North Sea and the eastern portion of the English Channel, including the Straits of Dover. Its duties included escorting merchant ships, hospital ships and troop transports; anti-submarine patrols; sweeping for German mines, and laying British minefields and anti-submarine nets; and bombarding German land forces on the coast of Belgium and northern France. It was commanded by Admiral Reginald Bacon from 1914 until his retirement at the end of 1917, and then by Vice-Admiral Roger Keyes. Six members of the patrol were awarded the Victoria Cross in a single action on 22–23 April 1918, for their part in the Zeebrugge Raid to block the entrance to the port of Bruges-Zeebrugge and so prevent German vessels from leaving port.

Some 2,000 members of the patrol lost their lives during the war. A committee was formed in November 1918 to raise a public subscription for the erection of a monument in memory of the patrol. Over £45,000 was raised, including £1,000 donated by King Albert and Queen Elizabeth of the Belgians

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Suffolk Wildlife Trust`s Fox Fritillary Meadow

Fox Fritillary Meadow is an ancient floodplain. It is the largest of four remaining sites for the snake's head fritillary in Suffolk, and it was to here that we booked to visit to see these beautiful wild flowers. Visiting Fox Fritillary Meadow is by prior arrangement only, and visitor numbers are restricted, so we booked some 2 months back for this year.

According to Suffolk Wildlife Trust:- The Snake's-head fritillary is a most unusual looking wildflower and the UK's only native fritillary species. When in bloom in spring, this flamboyant wildflower is unmistakable. Its nodding purple and sometimes white flowers have distinctive chequer-board markings resembling a snake’s skin. Before it flowers its presence may be overlooked as the foliage is grass-like, but once in flower it is a spectacular sight, forming a wonderful purple haze across the meadow. The number of local names, including Snake's-head lily, Crowcup, Leper's Bells and Chequered Lily, suggest that this was once a common countryside sight

Its first recorded presence in the wild in England was in 1736 and its origin has been debated by botanists ever since. Opinions still vary. Some say it is native, others that it was introduced by the Romans or escaped from Tudor gardens. Whatever its origin, we do know that in the early 20th century it occurred widely in Suffolk's river valleys.

Unfortunately, this attractive plant has gradually disappeared from the countryside as meadows have been fertilized, ploughed, drained or built upon. As they thrive on land that has never been subjected to intensive agriculture, they are now nationally quite rare. Thankfully, we are lucky to have in Suffolk four semi-natural grasslands where it occurs in the wild - three of these sites are SSSI’s and Suffolk Wildlife Trust reserves. 

The Trust manages these sites traditionally by hay cutting and aftermath grazing by sheep and this careful management maintains the habitat in which the fritillary can flourish. 

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