Day 1 (20th June 2022)

 After a hectic weekend of me behaving like a super-stressed out adolescent, this morning seemed remarkably calm and almost well organised. So much so that I was ready to go 15 minutes before the 10am start time I'd given myself (for days, I thought I was being wildly optimistic). It had to be 10am as dear Guy starts work then, and I couldn't have left if he was stuck on a call.

Initially my first stop was going to be Canvey Island (not on the T but the name of one of my favourite Sea Power songs), but after turning into Balls Pond Road, I suddenly had a thought about one of the places much further along the Germinal CCXXIV trip which was possibly not going to be there by the time I got there. So, quick change of direction, and I headed up to Upper Clapton, parked illegally and ran across the road for stop #1

ROYAL SOVEREIGN 

The (just in case) is because the organisation who run British lighthouses were going to decommission and dismantle the Royal Sovereign that I am most familiar with that sits out to see off the coast of Eastbourne. So, just in case it isn't there by the time I come round Beachy Head, I thought I get this one in the bag!

Hoping I didn't get spotted by an Eagle eyed traffic warden and hit with a ticket barely out of my home postcode, I reset the sat-nav and headed out to stop #2

CANVEY ISLAND

Probably one of my all time favourite songs come to think of it, this brilliant tune needs to make the live set list again sometime soon (Krankenhaus fest hint hint). Released in 2008, it foretold the future in a way that still brings me out in goosebumps whenever I hear it. To jog your memory;

H5N1 killed a wild Swan.

It was a kind of omen

of everything to come.

and then it goes on to say;

On Canvey Island, nineteen fifty three

many lives were lost

with the records of a football team.

I have to admit to feeling very out of place in the town though. Wandered about for a bit, but got a bit sick of being stared at, so headed back out to the A127 and on to just beyond Southend to Shoeburyness to find stop #3

PHOENIX CAISSON 

So, you see that speck of dark grey out to sea? That is the Mulberry Harbour or caisson, code named "Phoenix" - built during WWII as a portable harbour to take to Normandy via Southsea. Apparently it sank after taking on board too much water, and here it still languishes. 

Now the reason it's a tiny speck is because (a) there are big signs warning you about the dangers of getting stranded and drowning due to rapid tidal surges and (b) it was almost as muddy as Glastonbury 1998 and I only had a pair of timberlands on, so no way was I getting any closer!

Well, that just about sums up day 1.

I did stop off at an old Norman church in Copford as it has some of the best 12th Century wall paintings in England. 

Tomorrow I head off around East Anglia in search of more SP related places.

Allons-y!

Douglas Germinal CCXXIV Brain over and out.