"Morning," said the man walking past us. "They call this the desert of England."

"Oh right," I replied. "Do you live here?"

"Not here in Dungeness, but further up in Hyde. I'm taking my mate Michael from Sheffield on the obligatory tour then it's off to Pilots for fish and chips. The fish here are big." He sized out the imaginary fish with his hands. "It must be due to the power station. Anyway, cheerio."

Mum looked over to me. "Let's not got to Pilots."

I was somewhat disappointed. Earlier on in the day, we were told about this fish and chip place by a local lady walking her dogs and her child. We had inadvertently driven down an un-tarmacked lane that we felt shouldn't be driving on and had asked her if we were going the right way. It turned out that Google Maps was correct but she thought it was better to go back onto the main road. So we did just that. We ignored Maps for the second time when it told us to drive to the power station where we were met with a locked gate. We sheepishly turned around and drove out.

Dungeness is called the desert of England by the Met Office due to its lack of vegetation and dryness. One will observe that being on the Kent coast, water isn't exactly in short supply and actually there is vegetation. One-third of Britain's plant species can be found in the nature reserve and it's an area of Special Scientific Interest. It also has the largest areas of shingle in the world. I'm guessing this is the desert.

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