INDEX feature
On the
Moonraker trail
First up, Bond’s forays to the Moonraker rocket plant on the Kent coast between Dover and Deal. Will he stop Drax launching the deadly missile on London? You may not have a supercharged Bentley like 007, but your mission evokes plenty of intrigue: in Maidstone, where Gala Brand pinches Drax’s black notebook from his pocket as he drives through the traffi c; past Leeds Castle and the chilling moment when the villain forces a supercharged straight-eight red Alfa Romeo off the road; up Charing Hill, where Krebs cuts the ropes on a lorry carrying rolls of newsprint, so that they thud down onto Bond’s following Bentley to make it crash. Krebs then sits back to savour ‘the spring woods full of bluebells and celandines on the way to Chilham.’ It was a route Fleming knew well and loved. Roll on to Canterbury and maybe The Duck Inn at Pett Bottom for a pitstop, then to Dover with its ‘wonderful cardboard castle’.
Fleming enjoyed eating at the Royal Café on Dover’s Bench Street and he sends Bond here – the name is changed to the Café Royal – for scrambled eggs
and bacon. The real-
life café has been converted into the entrance hall of the YMCA training centre, but there’s no mistaking Dover’s ferry terminal and port, used in the fi lm Diamonds Are Forever; nor the landscapes leaping towards the Channel where Chitty Chitty Bang Bang fl ies off to rescue the Potts children. Finally, we come to a ‘panorama full of colour and excitement and romance’: the stretch of coast between Dover and Deal where the Moonraker research establishment is located, probably around Kingsdown. Check out The Swingate Inn, Swingate, perhaps Fleming’s prompt for The World Without Want Inn. And follow Bond crunching
across the shingle beach with Gala Brand beneath the towering white cliffs of St Margaret’s Bay. The ‘corner of England where Caesar had fi rst landed two thousand years before’, embracing Walmer,
www.indexmagazine.co.uk getting married? –
www.planningyourwedding.co.uk Deal, Sandwich
and Margate, now takes us into the world of Goldfi nger.
On the Goldfinger trail
A change of novel also brings a quick change of car – Bond drives an Aston Martin DB III to escape London this time. Set course for Sandwich and his encounter on the links with jeweller, goldsmith and golf cheat Auric Goldfi nger (if combining both trails into a circular tour, reverse the order of places that follow.) The Historic Dockyard
Chatham, fi lm location for Diamonds Are Forever and The World Is Not Enough is worth an early detour between London and the ‘dainty teleworld of Herne Bay’. Then make for ‘Goldfi nger-land-Reculver’, the base from which the novel’s baddie runs his gold smuggling
business. While Bond doesn’t wish to hang about, you might investigate Reculver Towers and Roman Fort before pushing on to the ‘quiet little port’ of Ramsgate. Bond planned an early
lunch before he was off to Sandwich, and the cafés and pubs sprinkled along Ramsgate’s waterfront give you lots of choice for a scrumptious snack, too. Then here we are again at Sandwich for the golf game at Royal St Mark’s aka Royal St George’s. If you don’t fancy a round you can still view the venue for the Bond-Goldfi nger clash from the public footpath that runs across the course from the town to the sea. And there are plenty of welcoming local hostelries where you can stay and refresh. Do you want that drink shaken or stirred? For more 007 adventures and Ian Fleming connections in Kent, see
www.visitkent.co.uk
13
Gemma Arterton
Ian Fleming
Photograph by Gareth Cattermole 2008 Getty Images
The INDEX magazine February 2012
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