Canterbury Meet
Rich: “The Canterbury meet was my first time going to an ALC meet by motorcycle. To be fair, it was just a different way to carry the same gear that I would camp with whether by foot, bicycle or car. It did however mean I got there quickly without being stuck in traffic. On Saturday I decided to do a loop that I'd seen online, about 120 miles via the coast at Rye, Dungeness, Dover and Whitstable. Stopping at various places along the way for coffee, cake and a visit to the Battle of Britain memorial.”
Editor: “continuing with the theme of cake, and to provide some background to the piece below, you may not know that Rita has acted as 'cake officer' for several years. This is an unofficial role created by Rita for the benefit of all members with a sweet tooth and/or high calorie requirements. So, most of us!"
Rita: “We had cake made by the bakery in Halstead, Essex. It was beautifully decorated with hundreds and thousands and 'smartie' type sweets. It had a filling of lemon and jam. There was enough to be able to share with the site staff as well as campers. My little Robin friend liked it too. He came for his breakfast every day of my stay.
In a hardware shop in Sandwich I was thrilled to find a portable cake box, made in cotton, which folds flat. Very useful because with the cake was in a box I couldn't get my hands in to lift it out as the gap was too narrow. A box with tied sides makes getting them out easier.
That hardware shop was a jewel, one highlight of the trip Martyn and I made there, with so many interesting items many on special offer. The other Sandwich ‘jewel’ was the 'Waiting Room' cafe in the centre of town, so comfortable with lovely food. Walking by the river was so relaxing that one of us had a little nap on the bus on the way back to the site. Unusually for Rita, she realised we needed to get off the bus in the right place.
The Canterbury Club site is a great place to appreciate nature as it has a small woodland area with snowdrops in spring. The nature area was built with the help of volunteers and organised by the Camping and Caravaning Club*. It makes this site a very special place to visit as there is always a refuge available away from your individual pitch. There are paths around the area with places to sit and contemplate. A new feature is a series of hand painted 'doors' featuring little messages for those looking for gnomes or other fairytale experiences."
"Another very important feature of the Canterbury site is its Information Room which has seating and lighting so can be used as a reading space, particularly welcome during cold wintery evenings. The provision of indoor seating is so important for ALC meets and there are very few sites with indoor areas we can use in poor weather. The Canterbury site staff have made this campsite somewhere special to visit. The dedication of and kindness of the staff really shows."
Susan: “Saturday evening at the Canterbury Meet saw five of us getting the shuttle bus out to the University of Kent campus where the Gulbenkian was showing the much-reviewed film about the rise to stardom of Bob Dylan.
The film's title is derived from the chorus of Dylan's 1965 single Like a Rolling Stone. Bob Dylan - Like A Rolling Stone (Live at Newport 1965) The film starts with Dylan hitchhiking to New York City, seeking to meet his music idol, Woody Guthrie. Dylan meets him in the hospital (where Guthrie is slowly dying from Huntingdon's disease), along with his close friend Pete Seeger. When Dylan plays them his Song to Woody they are both impressed, and this marks the start of his musical career.
The recording used period-appropriate microphones and instruments and Timothée Chalamet (Dylan) apparently immersed himself in the role, even avoiding modern technology such as a cell phone so that he could fully engage with the character."
"The film ends in 1965, when Dylan performed using electric guitar at the Newport Folk Festival, an action that was highly controversial and not at all well received by the audience of folk fans expecting acoustic music - they booed him off-stage.
In 2016, a rather different audience greeted with surprise and enthusiasm the announcement that Dylan had won the Nobel prize for literature, 'for having created new poetic expression with the great American song tradition'.
I think we all enjoyed the film, in my case as much for the 40 or so Dylan songs as for the film itself. I'm not old enough to have been aware of Dylan as a performer in those early days but many of his songs are incredibly well known, of course. In fact, I've since heard a good number of his songs playing in our Students' Union Bar, so it seems the younger generation appreciate his work, too."
And finally... our Winter Meets often feature cathedrals, and Canterbury is a perfect example, with a glorious cathedral within easy walking distance of the Club site (what a shame the Club does not have a site close to York).
Rita and Martyn both stayed an extra night at Canterbury, giving them time to attend a choral evensong as well as having a proper look around the building itself.