Abbey Wood Caravan Club Site, London

Today marks two weeks in the UK; given the fact I spent more than a week lounging about in a semi- invalid state, I guess we have done okay. It is just as well that we are not restricted to a holiday or tour of just weeks, as so many tourists are. There are fortunately many months ahead to fill with more exploration and touring. 

This morning dawned better than yesterday, despite rain having been heard all through the night. Alas it did not stay away all day, but we did not let it spoil our outing.

After breakfast, we spent time on the telephone forward booking camping sites through to the end of the May Bank Holiday which extends beyond the long weekend at the end of the month. Alas we will be paying peak season tariffs, but we are at least secure in the knowledge that we have somewhere to park our wheels. We also checked in with Chris’s brother back in Suffolk to confirm the date we would return to base; Chris’s godson, his nephew, has invited all of us oldies to dinner at his bachelor pad and from past experience, we know this will indeed be a treat. We are also to go out to dinner to celebrate the three siblings’ birthdays, all happening within a ten day window in the middle of June; they will be turning 69, 71 and 74 respectively, my husband the baby of the threesome. However this still leaves us with a month to fill with our own touring schedule.

We caught the bus soon after 9.30am toward Greenwich, but alighted near Woolwich and made our way on foot to the Thames Barrier, both the Information Centre and the river bank from where this engineering feat can be viewed.

The £500 million Thames Barrier was completed in 1984, after eight years of construction. The 520 metre span is one of the largest movable flood barriers in the world, others of significance are in the Netherlands, Boston and New Orleans in the United States, St Petersburg in Russia and Venice in Italy, some of these still a work in progress.

The River Thames has flooded from time to time over the centuries, the last in 1953 when three hundred lives were lost. This occurs when there is a storm surge in spring tide conditions moving up from the North Sea.  In 1879 the Thames River Prevention of Floods Act was passed, which led to higher and stronger flood walls and embankments along the river. However it was not until 1972 the Thames Barrier and Flood Protection Act was passed, the first step toward real action.

The concept of the innovative rotating gates used in the design of the barrier was devised by Charles Draper in 1969, based on the design of the taps on his gas cooker. Films in the Information Centre demonstrated the intricacies of the construction and even I, a very impractical person, could not help but be impressed by the engineering. The barrier divides the river into four sixty one metre and two approximately thirty metre navigable spans. There are also four smaller non-navigable channels between nine concrete piers and two abutments. The flood gates across the openings are circular segments in cross sections, and then operate by rotating, raised to allow under spill and to allow operators to control upstream levels and complete 180 degree rotation for maintenance. And if all of this is gobbledy-gook, I would encourage those interested to either visit the site themselves or have a look at You-tube films explaining it better than I can.  

We were also interested to note that the site marks the end or beginning of the 180 mile Thames Path National Trail which follows the river to its source. We did walk a little of this last year when we were staying in western London; we thought it might be good to seek out other sections of the trail. 

It was nearly midday by the time we caught the bus onto Greenwich where we found a park bench near the Cutty Sark, and within the shadow of a war memorial which memorialised those from New Zealand no less; how was that for a co-incidence!

We then caught the DLR (Docklands Light Rail) through to Canary Wharf. Docklands was once the largest enclosed cargo-dock systems in the world, and for the same reasons that the docks in Liverpool which we visited last year, they were rendered defunct in the 1960s. 

Nowadays, the cargo ships dock further downstream near the big container port near Thurrock, east of the Dartford Bridge. And so the docks became an eyesore, better known as the desolate and neglected playground for criminals, although that opinion is mine and gleaned from film and television dramas. However in 1981, the London Docklands Development Corporation was formed with the objective of regenerating and finding new uses for the former docks of London. The light rail was built and Canary Wharf was born. Today the area comprises sky-scraping offices and stylish restaurants and bars, all based around a vibrant cosmopolitan waterside setting . It is a super modern Venice on steroids.

The light rail wends its way through the amazingly stunning modern buildings, high above the ground, and emerges from the centre of some and disappears into others. A train ride alone offers an incredible view of this impressive precinct, and construction still goes on and will no doubt continue to amaze.

Apart from wandering from dock to dock, passing through well planned squares and malls, dodging the “suits”, because most of the workers here are employed in high finance and live a life far removed from average Joe Bloggs', we found our way to the Museum in Docklands. 

This museum, opened in 2003, is housed  in a Grade I listed 19^th century Georgian warehouse built in 1802. As we so often manage to do, we immediately joined a tour of “Sailortown” on the second floor, just four of us including the guide, passionate about his subject. By the time the tour ended, it was time to head home even though we had seen nothing else of the museum. It took near on an hour to travel back to Greenwich on the DLR, then the bus back to Abbey Wood, by which time the rain had set in and we arrived back at camp rather bedraggled.