The first stretch is the longest in time and distance before reaching Osmington Mills and The Smugglers Inn, a thatched traditional pub, dating to the thirteenth century, renowned for smuggling by the seventeenth century. As I arrive, suitably raucous pirate-like laughter wafts up over the garden sound system.
The next stop, Ringstead, seems just round the corner by comparison - it’s easy walking rewarded by a kiosk, where families stop for beans on toast and small children clamber over picnic benches.
The Smugglers Inn
A sandy bay carved in the elbow of the Kent coast, rumours that Margate has become a coastal artist hangout earned it a place on my friend Gabi’s British Bucket List and I was game for a day trip. We’d both seen Sam Mendes’ lingering, intimate portrait, Empire of Light, a movie set within the movies at the Dreamland Cinema, which we stumble across just minutes after arrival. It takes some moments and a bag of chips on the beach to adjust our sense of proportion from long dreamy pans to the real-life vision of Londoners fresh off the train.