Day one – London to Folkestone
| Distance today – 78 miles | Journey time – 1h 45m |
| Total trip distance – 294 miles | Total journey time – 5h 50m |
The plan for today was to visit the Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2025 exhibition at the Natural History Museum. We’ve not been to the museum for many years, but it’s always enjoyable – with the bonus of the wildlife photography this visit. We headed off to the tube, alighting at South Kensington.
We arrived at the museum just before opening which meant the first 2 minutes inside were quiet. That didn’t last long.
First stop was the photography exhibition – around 100 pictures were on show, across various categories. Needless to say many were extremely good. Our favourites were “Alpine Dawn” and “Out of the Darkness” (Keith), and “Fractal Forest” and “Caught in the Headlights” (Jo).
We then had a look at the dinosaurs, before visiting the Darwin building where 25km of shelves contained jars containing specimens taken from around the world; some we found dated back to the 18th Century.
Lunch. Italian. Lasagne and chicken salad…with chips.
After lunch we left London behind and headed across the QE2 bridge across the Thames estuary before heading down to Folkestone where we were staying for the night. We were offered “welcome cake” on arrival, so took a slice up to the room. Having had a big lunch we opted for a light tea – M&S sushi, salad, fruit and yoghurt.
