Beyond the Sea

Our last couple of days on land have been hectic, where to start ? 'Mud larking' of course. Our long awaited, and well prepared for (we did bring $5 Big W canvas shoes in anticipation of mud) adventure on the Thames. We met the tour leader, and at least another 40 excited 'mud larkers', and made our way  down to the river via the Southwark Bridge. After lots of history, our guide, a marine archeologist - who seemed to dislike people generally (because it appears we are all responsible for destroying the Thames), but lit up like a Christmas Tree at the site of a piece of old pottery, led us to the river bank. In our new shoes and wearing disposable rubber gloves (provided) - we peered expectantly at the rocks, yes no mud to be seen! Because it is an archeological site and protected, we were only allowed to pick things from the surface, no foot scrapping or prodding with a stick. We did have a fun time and surprisingly found some old bits of pottery, not Roman or Viking, but still fun !

In the evening we caught up with a school friend of Wayne's from Mount Gambier and his partner. The four of us had a lovely Italian meal in Covent Garden, while the two fifty something school friends reminisced. Then we were  home to bed, in preparation for Southampton.

Not quite the early start we would have liked found us just leaving Bloomsbury at 10.30, oops. I was driving, it's just best - I drive, Wayne navigates. I will say at this point we certainly got our money's worth out of our 'congestion tax' without a Sat Nav, only a hand held GPS it was tricky, as the buildings kept blocking the signal. Turn here, no there, change lanes, oh look that's the back of St Pauls cathedral ! 

Finally through the Blackwell tunnel and we head for Dover. With a brief stop in Bearsted, another family history site for Wayne to check out. It was just lovely, complete with a cricket club on the village green. 

We arrived in Dover the busy sea port is watched over by Dover Castle and hemmed by the white cliffs, which are amazing, the day was hazy so their brillance was dulled a little, but they are still so unique. In history and even today, they witness so many hello's and goodbye's, and so after a nice walk we headed toward Maidstone, slowly !

Slowly because our Wayne romantically (not to me, but toward the English countryside) thought it would be lovely to travel via 'B' roads to our destination. Well that means travelling at about an average of 25km/h, pulling off the road for oncoming cars, or parked cars, giving way to sheep, harvesters or any other animal, vegetable or mineral that wanders into your path! Driving our Vauxhall Corso, I feel like a turtle with a shell on my back, working frantically changing gears - but I think Wayne was enjoying the scenery !

Eventually it was 'decided' (calmly and  without raised voices) that unless we made our way back to the motorway we not only would miss dinner with our friends in Portsmouth, we would be lucky to make Southampton before the ship sailed.

Needless to say we had a great Indian dinner in Portsmouth (our friends from last year's cruise) and at 11pm we crawled into Southampton - so its cruise day, hopefully I'll still manage regular updates, M x