Curlews, convicts and contraband is a new walking route on the Hoo peninsula; it is a seven-mile walk from the village of High Halstow across the North Kent Marshes to Egypt Bay.
It has a logo of a Curlew, see
TQ7877 : Logo, Curlews, Convicts & Contraband.
Two hundred years ago the shoreline was a favoured landing spot for smugglers, their ships were painted black to avoid detection and flash lights were used to coordinate the operations. Many wagons and horses would be lined up to carry the goods through the darkened villages to London.
A hundred years later prison ships were moored offshore at Egypt Bay, this gave Dickens inspiration for Abel Magwitch, the villain who flees from a prison ship across the marshes in Great Expectations.
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