Just after 09.00 hrs and it's cold (2 Celcius) but sunny and promises to be a beautiful day for a walk. I headed for the Downs which overlook the river where I live, up through the village and out onto the track..
Looking West towards the distant West Sussex-Hampshire border
And East towards the Kent border.
Once on the high Downs the walking is easy, but the distances are deceiving and horizons tend to be a long way away but no problem on a day like today.
Nearly Midday and brew time in the sunny shelter of a gorse thicket. Even in December the Gorse is in flower and the smell is a reminder of summer days to come..
Brew finished and I stopped to watch these young folk throwing themselves into the cold North wind which swept up the escarpment from the Weald below.
This late in the year the sun doesn't get to the Northern slopes and winter grips the land, even on the finest days.
I headed down towards the river which winds it's way inland towards the County Town. Up this river in their longships the Saxons came and settled the river valley.
A site not uncommon on the Downs where I live is this....
One of the thousands of shells fired when the Downland was a vast training area during the War. If you look closely you can see the recess where the copper driving bands encircled the shell body. Now they make handy counter weights to close farm gates.
To link that photo with the post title...is this river bridge..
On a dark misty summer night a troop of Canadian tanks crossed the river as part of a night training exercise. Royal Engineers had thoughtfully laid a Bailey Bridge across the river just a couple of hundred metres to the North but in the blackout and swirling river mist the Canadians saw a bridge ...and drove their tanks across it..
Some distance away the Engineers were horrified when in the darkness the squeek and rattle of the tank tracks turned to a hollow rumble!!! They rushed to the opposite bank to be met by grinning Canadians whose only comment was they thought the bridge 'wobbled' as they drove across it..Not surprising really as the bridge's safe loading was about half of one tank..not a troop crossing nose to tail..
A very short time later those same Canadians distinguished themselves by their fighting ability and courage when as part of Canadian 2nd Armoured Brigade they landed on Juno Beach on 'D' Day and fought their way inland to form a vital part of the first Allied Bridgehead in Normandy
In the 1960's I used to walk to the bridge with my young kids and we would look at the track scarred wooden 'kerbs' that remained after that night crossing. The photo shows the new wooden kerb replacements.
The river flows hard on the ebb and needs continuous work to maintain the banks, which even in the 21st Century is still carried out in the historic way. Stakes with Hazel wands woven through them and chalk boulders as back fill.
And now home on my boat and already the frost is forming on deck, but the woodstove is glowing and yet another brew is lined up..( And... that photo was taken on a much warmer day..in a different berth..
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