The banana bread lay heavy in my stomach last night and I
didn’t sleep well. I finally nodded off just before the alarm went off at
3.30am. I got up, settled my errant stomach with some toast and coffee and set
off to Sittingbourne for Karl.
More coffee, a quick tiddle, and then off to Queenborough
for the main business of the day.
In the middle of the Thames estuary are old sea forts left
over from the war. There is a geocache tied to the landing gantry of one of
them, and there is a virtual geocache associated with another a few miles away.
Earlier in the year I had an invitation to go out to
the forts with an organised group but (in
all honesty) I didn’t want to go along just to make up the numbers, so I
turned down the offer. (In retrospect
that was a wise decision as the boat broke down on that occasion).
Instead I contacted the
boat people directly and organised a trip of my own. A dozen of us met up at
the landing stage in Queenborough and we boarded the X-Pilot just as the sun
was rising.
Our first target was
the Red
Sands Fort. We set sail at six
o’clock and arrived after an hour and a half; those sea forts are amazing when
seen close-up. After a little to-ing and fro-ing our boat was moored to the
landing platform, and by popular acclamation I was the first person to board
the fort. Five more friends (and the tour
guide) joined me and we spent a few minutes having a look-see (and doing the secret geo-ritual) before
hopping off the platform and letting everyone else have a go.
In total we were at the
Red Sands Fort for about half an hour; it was amazing how much the tide fell in
that short time.
We then sailed on to
the forts at the Shivering Sands where we didn’t board the forts; all that was required for
geo-purposes was a selfie. But again it was great to be there and see the
things. They look impressive when seen on the horizon from the coast. Up close
they were amazing. And as we sailed away we saw a seal in our wake.
We sailed back to harbour past the wreck of the SS
Richard Montgomery; a wrecked American Liberty ship the masts of
which are still clearly visible. It was built during World War II and was used
to carry cargo during the war. The ship was wrecked off the coast of Sheerness
in 1944, whilst carrying about one thousand five hundred tons of explosives
which are still on board and dangerous.
I
took quite a few photos as we sailed. Once ashore I took another photo
of the late brekkie that we had, and then we said our goodbyes and went our
various ways. Pausing only briefly to drop Karl off in Sittingbourne I came
home and took the dogs out. As we walked we tried to fight with a car
transporter and a dustbin lorry, and we had a good swim in the river too.
We came home, and we all dozed in front of the telly for
five minutes before the dogs charged up the garden barking at shadows. After
the twentieth time I closed the back door to stop them bothering the
neighbourhood and went back to sleep.
"er indoors TM" came home, made
a rather good bit of dinner and went bowling. The intention was to watch some
telly, but having set the alarm for before four o’clock this morning had taken
its toll. I really should have an early night.
Oh - and in closing
today marked the seventh anniversary of Fudge joining the family. Seven years
ago (to the day) I wrote “…to his credit Fudge is a quiet dog…”
How things have changed…
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