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A few weeks ago, I went to Whitstable for a day trip out of London with one of my best friends. We discussed doing some weekends away to get out the city this summer and see new places, but with busy schedules we ended up making our first attempt a day trip. For me, nothing beats a road trip, even if its a short one! I love the feeling of freedom – being able to jump in a car and go anywhere you want, at any time.
We chose Whitstable because I know a lot of people living on the Kent coast who love it, and it was within easy driving distance (about an hour and fifteen from Wanstead in East London). Having just bought tickets to the ‘Silent Alarm’ anniversary tour that week, we pretty much listened/sang along to Bloc Party the whole way there.
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Arriving at lunch time, we parked up in the centre of town and walked down the high street, towards the coast. The high street was just as you would want – beautifully quaint and with a true sense of being by the seaside, but not in a cheesy way. There were so many trendy boutiques and vintage stores – honestly, without restraint I could have spent a fortune.
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We came out by the Harbour and wandered round the market – there were some really beautiful pieces of art, including some incredible landscape photography. We carried on down the seafront towards West Beach, stopping at the Old Neptune pub on the beach. Down this way, there were endless brightly coloured beach huts along the pebble shores.
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After walking all the way down the beach, we backed up on ourselves down Island Wall. I loved walking past all the white washed buildings and choosing which home we would like to live in. They were all lovely and there was the real feeling of history. Whitstable is also home to a number of tiny alleyways leading off to who knows where!
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We stopped for a very traditional seaside lunch at Elliot’s, No 1 Harbour Street. Can definitely recommend it – we got chatting to our waitress, who also suggested we stop in at the New Inn pub, which we did after another coastal walk. We had headed towards the castle, which has really lovely gardens, and would be a gorgeous wedding venue! If you carry on up the seafront towards Tankerton, you pass loads more coloured beach huts, and can see for miles, out towards Clacton-On-Sea. Once we got back to the harbour, we came across the Oyster Shack. As we had already eaten, we didn’t stop in, but it would make an amazing date location or place for a beachside beer.
Over all, we had a great day on the Kent seaside, and I came home feeling like we’d had a proper break, despite only being there for the afternoon! This was also the first time I took out my new Fuji X-T2. I’ve bought it as a travel camera – it’s around half the size and weight of my Canon 5D, so definitely something more appropriate for just sticking in your handbag and carrying around all day. I can’t tell you how different I found it though – the EVF (electronic view finder) really threw me for the whole day! It’s a bizarre thing to get used to. Also just buttons being in different places, and actual dials for settings meant it took me forever to set up a photo (I always shoot in manual). It’s going to take some used to, and I can’t wait to properly test it out more after wedding season. Any images you see in this blog were taken on it, with a Fujinon XF 18-55mm. I want to gradually invest in some other lenses, but figured this was a good starting point. I’ve also bought an adaptor which means I can use my Canon lenses on it for now (only in manual focus). Photographers amongst you, keep an eye out as I will probably do a more lengthy review of the XT2 once I’ve had a good chance to play with it.
Caroline x
