Chislehurst Caves and Tilbury Fort

On Sunday we took the drive down to the county of Kent, to visit Chislehurst Caves. I've wanted to take Gus here ever since I found out I would be taking part in the swap! I couldn't get any pictures of Gus in the actual caves themselves as it was too dark - but here he is with some locals...


Notice the picture is blurry? I took several pictures here at the entrance to the caves and they all came out blurry. They say the caves are haunted! Spoooooky!

Chislehurst Caves are a network of man made caves dating back all the way to the Saxons, Romans and the Druids. The caves are split up into them 3 parts, the Druids part being a maze of walkways and also contains Druid alters where they held human sacrifice. In WWII the caves were opened up to the public to use as a sort of under ground bunker to shelter them from the bombs above. It cost 1p a night to stay! Down there they had churches, shops, a cinema and a hospital. A baby girl was even born down there. Here is Gus looking at old photos from the war.


I've been on the tour before, it's great! We also learned that rock concerts have taken place there too, bands like The Who, Led Zepplin, Jimi Hendrix and lots of others.

After the caves we travelled back up to Essex, and to Tilbury Fort. The fort is from the 16th century, and was built along the Thames Estuary to protect London. It's said that Henry VIII built the first fort, and Queen Elizabeth I rallied her army here to face the Armarda. Here is Gus taking a look at some of the tank/gun things they have on display there.


On the approach to the fort you walk along the side of the Thames, and on a clear day like Sunday you can see Gravesend in Kent on the other side of the water.


After that we headed back down the A13 home. It was a fun day - Gus said he liked the caves best! So did I!

Yesterday we went on a road trip to Sussex. I'll have pictures up soon!