HUGGINS TOURS

Margate Weekend

A Summer Trip To Margate - in Late November!   by Ian Huggins

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Where can you get a weekend away in good company with 3 course dinner, cheese and wine and cooked breakfasts for £40. The answer, of course, was on our Margate trip with catering provided by Angela Marshall, and by booking out an entire Youth Hostel to ourselves. Originally conceived as a small-group walking weekend using B&Bs (to get a late 'summer' event on the Ski club social calendar), this 'alternative' event took on a new dimension when Paul Huggins recommended aban-don-ing B&Bs in favour of the YHA so that we could expand the numbers.

It was a real race to collect in enough committed deposits to secure the accommodation within the 14 days grace allowed by the YHA between taking our provisional booking and receiving our deposit. But we got there and, in the end, mustered a good sized party of 25, including some of Paul's operatic society friends.

Why Margate you might ask and why November? Well, by the time we had worked out how to get a party together fast enough, Margate was the only hostel left in the country that was still available and met criteria like size and distance from London. I still have several spreadsheets showing all the places we rejected. So it was that we found ourselves setting out for Margate for a beach outing at the end of November!

It's lucky we had Angela's experience of catering to call on - she made it look easy to buy the right quantities for 25 and then feed us all in style.

Economies of scale on the food side meant we had plenty in the drinks budget - needless to say people just couldn't or wouldn't drink up all the wine we bought. The result was a free raffle to distribute the surplus drinks at the end of the weekend - and, more worryingly, a float to carry forward to the next trip!

To my amazement, virtually all of the group chose to join the coastal walk, wrapping up warm, and finishing at the Captain Digby pub for lunch. There were strong winds to lean into in places but mostly we stayed dry with plenty of panoramic sea views Margate and Cliftonville appear to be in decline with some of the architecture past its best and a few poor planning decisions in evidence. However, those who pressed on after lunch to Broadstairs were rewarded with a very pleasant up-market town with Dickensian heritage.

Saturday night proved to be a night of great contrast. Another excellent meal provided by Angela was rudely accompanied by the local yobs deciding to lob stones at the hostel windows and offer their unrelenting abuse to anyone brave enough to challenge them. With no quick solution in sight the local constabulary were called out (not that they ever arrived).

Hats off to Richard Arthur who miraculously persuaded them to go away in the end and then supplied keyboard skills and an endless repertoire for a sing-along late into the night. It must have been good because even Mark and Del joined in heartily. Those more chorally challenged retreated to games of cards and a good line in, er, dare I say, drinking.

On the Sunday morning after a general tidy-up and packing, some chose to do a tour of the historical parts of Margate, followed by a tour to find a cup of tea. Our visitor from Germany, Denise, had a few minutes where it looked like she might not make it back to the airport. John's car wouldn't start, but the AA man was called, and they departed in plenty of time in the end. Ian Huggins and Dave Hamilton squeezed in 18 holes golf at St Augustines near Ramsgate.

Apart from my thanks to Paul for his assistance and to Angela for the catering, I'd also like to thank baby Sean for his exemplary behaviour. I think Chris and Linda must have drugged his bottle!

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