Day 60 (18th August 2022)

 My last day on the Germinal CCXXIV Road Trip. The day started with rain, but that was kind of matterless as I had some laundry to do and by the time I'd finished, the weather had improved. 

First stop of the day was above the town of Dover ... stop #139

STRAIT OF DOVER

So you have to look beyond the quay sides to get to the Strait. It is a very busy sea lane and I can't help but be full of admiration for anyone who undertakes this journey in anything less than a ferry. These people really do deserve our compassion and care, and the guts it must take to get in a boat and try to get across this most busy of sea lanes...

 I was really tempted to visit Dover Castle but when I read that most people who rated their visits there wished that they had had more than four hours.... 

No chance. One day I will definitely return, as from a distance it looks bloody stunning. Seriously.

I made my way along the coast quite happily until I encountered a young lad, I'd guess he was about 14. He was on a bicycle and he had right of way so I pulled up in front of the parked cars on my side of the road.  He had at least 2 metres of space to get through, but he stopped in the middle of the road and stood his ground. I didn't quite understand why he had stopped, and after a few seconds, I moved a little bit forward, lowered my drivers side window and motioned him forwards. He then demanded that I reverse. I said to him that he had a huge amount of room to get through, but he started shouting at me that the rules had changed (as if I didn't know) and that I had to reverse. Unfortunately I now had traffic behind me and to be totally honest he had enough room to let a double decker bus through, but he wasn't having any of it. I hate situations like this where I know what the rules are, but he was trying to prove a point that I knew I was wasn't breaking.  I tried reasoning with him but it got to the point where he started swearing and giving me rude gestures. I kept my calm, although I did call him juvenile at one point, because he really was behaving like a petulant child. Other cars started beeping their horns, and eventually he gave way, but the whole experience really upset me, partly because, being a cyclist I am well aware of the law regarding space between cars and bicycles. I really wanted to talk to him about his attitude and that if he tried that sort of behaviour with less civilised drivers, he may well end up getting punched. I stopped shortly afterwards and rang Guy as I was really quite upset by the whole thing.

I decided to decompress by visiting the Turner Contemporary art gallery in Ramsgate. 

 

My next stop was my latest Carrion 7" acquisition... stop #140 

RECULVER

Prior to buying this particular 7", I'd never heard of Reculver before. Turns out it was first a Roman Fort before a Saxon church was built there, and then another church was built.  But with the increasingly destructive tide, the church was abandoned and demolished leaving only the towers as a navigational aid remaining. 

Very impressive. 

My next stop was also pretty impressive in a funny kind of way. The land I drove through was seriously industrial, full of concrete and pylons and barron land before arriving at a coast line that really does look pretty grim. Stop #141

ISLE OF GRAIN 

This part of the country is so ... I don't know  ... weird. There are acres and acres of empty  land and in between there are acres of land covered in huge industrial oil related stuff. Way beyond the comprehension of people like me.

I decided I needed to get back to old stuff, things like ancient cathedrals for example, and on my way there was one that I had never visited before. Rochester Cathedral. What a delight. 

Once again  I was thrawted in trying to reveal their misericords. I have a plan to sort my misericord problem out - it will involve my friend Caroline and her husband Charles... not that they know this yet, but there must be some way of getting access to the country's amazing selection of medieval treasure of misericords. 

I only had one more stop to make. It wasn't a Germinal CCXXIV place but a place mentioned in one of Sea Powers most loved songs...

my final stop #142

ROTHERHITHE 

From Scapa Flow to Rotherhithe... well, yes, I've done that journey and more. I was feeling really quite weepy at this point, but I was also desperate to get home. Although the sat-nav said 30 minutes, after 30 minutes I'd only moved less than a mile. Today London was hit by another rail strike (UP THE WORKERS!) and traffic was pretty  much at a walking pace. It was so weird, to be so close to home and yet so far after all this time.

I got home in the end, of course.

What can I say, words fail me right now.

I have had the most amazing experience and I owe it all to a band that was recommended to me by someone I only know as "Ollie" in the summer of 2003 - He said they were the best indie guitar band in Britain right now. I bought their album and fell in love with them straight away. I saw them supporting The Strokes at Ally Pally and decided there and then that I would never miss the opportunity to see them live if they were in my neck of the woods.

It took me years to pluck up the courage to speak to fans I saw again and again at gigs. During 2006 my partner Bernie was dying of a brain tumour so despite buying tickets for all their gigs (including the first EotR festival) it wasn't until a few years later that I finally started to make friends amongst the most amazing and lovely people that make up the Sea Power fanbase. You know who you are, and you are the most special fantastic bunch of humans I have ever had the pleasure of meeting.

You have been so supportive and caring, and I couldn't have done this journey without knowing that there are a lot of people out there that totally get what I'm doing. 

To the band - I thank you so much for giving me the inspiration for this crazy trip. It has been one of the most incredible times of my entire life, and I really can't thank you enough.

To the people who have followed my blog, cheers and I hope we can catch up very soon, be it at Krankenfest or at future Sea Power gigs - hopefully I will be at all of them!

Finally I have to thank Guy so much, who has put up with my infatuation of this band, and my incessant talk of the Germinal CCXXIV Road Trip since 2016. He has been an absolute Saint and many times, well, seriously "grounds for divorce" springs to mind, although those bastards stole the Mercury Prize off Sea Power in 2008.

I'm so emotional right now.

I love you lot! Bring on Krankenfest, I can't fucking wait!!!!

Allons-y 

Douglas Germinal CCXXIV Brain over and out for the last time.