WEATHER: Wonderful and hot all week 28C
Monday was the dawn of what was to be a busy week.
Today I had to get my Nepal visa into the Consulate at Notting Gate Hill, I had some shopping to do, I was to meet Sharon at Victoria Station at 1.30pm and then my Hostees at Edgeware Road at 4.30pm. Talk about a busy day, let alone a busy week.
I was going to be using the Tube network to death this week and no matter how much you love or hate catching the tube in London, it is an amazing people moving system that has been there for nearly 100 years and still works as good today as it did back then. The London Underground (often shortened to the Underground) is a rapid transit system serving a large part of Greater London. It incorporates the oldest section of underground railway in the world, which opened in 1863 and now forms part of the Circle, Hammersmith & City, and Metropolitan lines; and the first line to operate electric trains, in 1890, now part of the Northern line. The Underground system is also colloquially called the Tube. The Underground serves 270 stations and has 402 kilometers of track, 45 per cent of which is underground. It is the second largest metro system in the world in terms of route miles, after the Shanghai Metro and part of the largest system in terms of route miles when taken together with the Docklands Light Railway. It also has one of the largest numbers of stations. In 2007, more than one billion passenger journeys were recorded, and in the year 2011/12 passenger numbers were just under 1.2 billion making it the third busiest metro system in Europe, after Moscow and Paris. The tube is an international icon for London, with the tube map, considered a design classic, having influenced many other transport maps worldwide. Currently, 86% of operational expenditure on the London Underground is covered by passenger fares. Almost all London Underground trains currently lack air-conditioning, which leads to the network getting very hot in the summer, although plans are under way to mitigate this problem with new air-conditioned trains and other schemes. It is an amazing transport system.
I was up early; the Addletons were still in bed, so I worked out what overland route I had to take and then the 2 tubes to get me to Notting Gate Hill. The Nepal Consulate is located on Palace Gardens Road and the road was amazing, full of old fashioned mansions. I had to pass through a security gate to get access to the road and then I had to walk past these old stately buildings. Most of them have now been turned into Consulates and Embassy’s from around the world including Russia, Cameroon, India and France to name a few. I would have loved to been able to take some photos of this beautiful leafy, wide street but there were signs out the front of them all saying ‘no photography allowed’ so I just had to admire each mansion as I walked past them. The Nepal Consulate was open between 10-12 noon for visa applications and I arrived at 10.15am, perfect timing. I was the only person in the office and after handing over my form, my photo and my fee of 35GBP and then I was out of there within 5 minutes. Seriously the whole process PLUS getting my receipt was 5 minutes and I was told to come back at 10am tomorrow morning! I wish all visa applications were this easy to apply for.
I was back on the Tube to go one stop to Kensington High Street. I know what shops are here as I bought my Africa gear here in July last year and was back again in November for my Antarctica gear. This time I was after a wet weather jacket as I had given my North Face one to Marc in Ottawa not really thinking that I would need it for further travel, and after looking at the weather forecasts in Sri Lanka and Nepal there seems to be a lot of rain hanging around. Not to mention the Philippines that have just had a flood in the last few days. I am not due there till mid-October, so I won’t panic just yet about my travel there at the moment but with Scotland also having showers, I really needed this jacket. As it turns out a lot of the travel clothing shops seem to be closing down, which is really sad, but my shop was still open (just they were closing the following week) and the good news was a lot of their stock was marked down. I found my jacket (pink), and I found some travel shirts similar to the tops I bought last year and they were marked down from 20 quid to 5 quid. How could I pass that up so I also bought 3 tops which will actually come in handy but I will need to find some room in my already full bag. Oh well I’ll worry about that later. But it was a successful shop and it feels great I was able to cross some stuff off my list.
So I was back onto the tube again to get to Oxford Street and get these cargo pants for my coming tours. Well you wouldn’t believe it when I got to the shop it was closed, like moved out and builders in there closed. They had closed on the Saturday (I was going to go in on Friday night) and were moving into a flagship shop just up the road BUT they weren’t opening again till September. Well that does NOT help me now and I had to go to plan B and that is heading down Oxford Street to BHS (British Home Store) where I have bought clothes from before and I was lucky I got the last pair of cargo pants they had on their sale rack for 10GBP. Things all just seemed to be going my way today. On my way out I saw a navy denim dress that was also on sale and after trying it on I just couldn’t say no and went back to the registers to purchase that as well. I totally didn’t need it, well I will wear it more than the other clothes I have, so I will off load some things to Shelly and Shane when I see them next month.
I was right on schedule to meet Sharon at Victoria Station at 1.30pm and it was great to see her again. Last time we saw each other was in Quito at the end of April when we flew out after 5 months together on our South American tour. We had booked our Scottish tour back in January and this was just a bonus chance meeting before seeing each other again next week. We had the opportunity to also catch up with New Heather, also from our South America trip, but she was going to be in the Oxford Circus area, so we jumped back on the Tube to go back to where I had just come from and found a small pub just off the main thorough fare for us to have lunch and then New Heather joined us at 2pm for the afternoon. I am a Bangers and Mash fan and had that for lunch and it felt great I was eating true English fare, local food as such and washed it down with some cold beers. It is so good to catch up with people from tours and have a gasbag and chat about everything, so we had a few pints and wiled the afternoon away till 4pm when I had to make a move to catch yet another Tube to catch up with my Hostees at Edgeware Road.
I love catching up with my Hostees. They are a breath of fresh air every time I see them. They are always interested in what I am doing, they are generally up to speed with my blog and we literally just talk the hour’s away will it is time for us to leave. We were going to go and visit the Olympic Village for our outing today, but the weather had turned a little nasty and to be honest I was running out of steam and felt a little off colour. I think it is just the remnants of the cold have had for the last 2 weeks, but I was just feeling dodgy. But I stuck it out as this will be the last time I am in London till Christmas and Cheryl and David try and not do the Christmas flights so it maybe a little while till I get to see my 2 Chicago mates for a while. So we decided to just select a local pub, not too far from the hotel. I was very tempted to have Bangers and Mash again, I know I just had it for lunch, but that is how much of a fan I am of the great English meal. But I decided to try something else and had the Pork Belly and garlic mash and I have to say it was a bloody awesome meal for pub grub. Even the Hostees were impressed with the quality of food and they are true foodies through and through. Time passed and at 8.30pm it was time to say our final goodbyes. I am going to miss our catch ups but I know that we will meet again somewhere whether it be in London, USA somewhere, Chicago or you never know Ethiopia. There was even talk of Singapore in November, so we will see. I love you guys and am thankful that you are both in my life.
Tuesday was a day with Em. I had to go back to The Nepal Consulate to collect my passport. I love when you have been somewhere once and then have to go back; the feeling of knowing where you are going in a foreign city is awesome. It took me the same amount of time to pick up my visa as it did yesterday to drop it off and I was in and out within literally 3 minutes. I then caught the Tube to South Kensington where I met Em at 12.30pm for some lunch and then we headed to the Natural History Museum to see a limited exhibition on Scott, the Antarctic Explorer. The National History Museum was a beautiful building and a sight to see in itself. The Natural History Museum is one of three large museums on Exhibition Road, South Kensington. The others are the Science Museum, and the Victoria and Albert Museum). The museum is home to life and earth science specimens comprising some 70 million items within five main collections: Botany, Entomology, Mineralogy, Paleontology and Zoology. The museum is a world-renowned center of research, specializing in taxonomy, identification and conservation. Given the age of the institution, many of the collections have great historical as well as scientific value, such as specimens collected by Darwin. The museum is particularly famous for its exhibition of dinosaur skeletons, and ornate architecture — sometimes dubbed a cathedral of nature — both exemplified by the large Diplodocus cast which dominates the vaulted central hall. Originating from collections within the British Museum, the landmark Alfred Waterhouse building was built and opened by 1881, and later incorporated the Geological Museum. The Darwin Centre is a more recent addition, partly designed as a modern facility for storing the valuable collections. Like other publicly funded national museums in the United Kingdom, the Natural History Museum does not levy an admission charge. Both the interiors and exteriors of the Waterhouse building make extensive use of terracotta tiles to resist the sooty climate of Victorian London, manufactured by the Tamworth-based company of Gibbs and Canning Limited. The tiles and bricks feature many relief sculptures of flora and fauna, with living and extinct species featured within the west and east wings respectively.
We headed directly to the hall where the Scott exhibition was housed, paid our 9GBP and then entered into another world of 1908. I am mesmerized by the events of past explorers, especially there story of survival (or lack of) behind their adventures and to think just how tough it was for them over 100 years ago. What took us 11 days to visit Antarctica, took them 6 months, albeit they were coming from Great Britain, but once they were there they stayed for 1-3 years. I could not imagine living in winter conditions with the supplies and accommodation they had let alone now. It is an amazing story and one that I want to share with you. It is a long one but I think well worth the read. Grab a coffee this will be a long entry.
Known as the Terra Nova Expedition (1910–1912), officially the British Antarctic Expedition 1910, was led by Robert Falcon Scott with the objective of being the first to reach the geographical South Pole. Scott and four companions attained the pole on 17 January 1912, where they found that a Norwegian team led by Roald Amundsen had preceded them by 33 days. Scott's entire party died on the return journey from the pole; some of their bodies, journals, and photographs were discovered by a search party eight months later. It was tragic and wonder if they had of made the pole first if that may have changed their fate returning to their waiting team.
Scott was an experienced polar commander, having previously led the Discovery Expedition to the Antarctic in 1901–04. The Terra Nova Expedition, named after its supply ship, was a private venture, financed by public contributions augmented by a government grant. It had further backing from the Admiralty, which released experienced seamen to the expedition, and from the Royal Geographical Society. As well as its polar attempt, the expedition carried out a comprehensive scientific programme, and explored Victoria Land and the Western Mountains.
After Discovery's return from the Antarctic in 1904, Scott eventually resumed his naval career, but continued to nurse ambitions of returning south, with the conquest of the Pole as his specific target. The Discovery Expedition had made a significant contribution to Antarctic scientific and geographical knowledge, but in terms of penetration southward had reached only 82° 17′ and had not traversed the Great Ice Barrier. In 1909 Scott received news that Ernest Shackleton's Nimrod Expedition had narrowly failed to reach the Pole. Starting from a base close to Scotts’s Discovery anchorage in McMurdo Sound, Shackleton had crossed the Great Ice Barrier, discovered the Beardmore Glacier route to the Polar Plateau, and had struck out for the Pole. He had been forced to turn for home at 88° 23′ S, less than 100 geographical miles (180 km) from his objective. However, Scott claimed prescriptive rights to the McMurdo Sound area, describing it as his own "field of work", and Shackleton's use of the area as a base was in breach of an undertaking not to do so. This soured relations between the two explorers, and increased Scott's determination to surpass Shackleton's achievements. As he made his preparations for a further expedition, Scott was aware of other polar ventures being planned. A Japanese expedition was in the offing; the Australasian Antarctic Expedition under Douglas Mawson was to leave in 1911, but would be working in a different sector of the continent. Meanwhile Roald Amundsen, a potential rival, had announced plans for an Arctic voyage.
Sixty-five men (including replacements) formed the shore and ship's parties of the Terra Nova Expedition. They were chosen from 8,000 applicants, and included seven Discovery veterans together with five who had been with Shackleton on his 1907–09 expedition.
Scott had decided on a mixed transport strategy, relying on contributions from dogs, motor sledges and ponies. Motor traction and the use of ponies had been pioneered in the Antarctic by Shackleton, on his 1907–09 expedition. Scott believed that ponies had served Shackleton well, and he was impressed by the potential of motors. However, Scott always intended to rely on man-hauling for much of his polar journey; the other methods would be used to haul loads across the Barrier, enabling the men to preserve their strength for the later Glacier and Plateau stages. In practice, the motor sledges proved only briefly useful, and the ponies' performance was affected by their age and poor condition. As to dogs, while Scott's experiences on Discovery had made him dubious of their reliability, his writings show that he recognized their effectiveness in the right hands. As the expedition developed, he became increasingly impressed with their capabilities.
Unlike the Discovery expedition, where fundraising was handled jointly by the Royal Society and the Royal Geographical Society, the Terra Nova Expedition was organized as a private venture without significant institutional support. Scott estimated the total cost at £40,000 (£3 million at 2009 values), half of which was eventually met by a government grant. The balance was raised by public subscription and loans. The expedition was further assisted by the free supply of a range of provisions and equipment from sympathetic commercial firms. The fund-raising task was largely carried out by Scott, and was a considerable drain on his time and energy, continuing in South Africa, Australia, and New Zealand after Terra Nova had sailed from British waters. By far the largest single cost was the purchase of the ship Terra Nova, for £12,500. The Terra Nova had been in Antarctica before, as part of the second Discovery relief operation. Scott defined the objects of the expedition in his initial public appeal: "The main objective of this expedition is to reach the South Pole, and to secure for The British Empire the honor of this achievement." There were other objectives, both scientific and geographical; the scientific work was considered by chief scientist Wilson as the main work of the expedition: "No one can say that it will have only been a Pole-hunt ... We want the scientific work to make the bagging of the Pole merely an item in the results." Wilson hoped to continue investigations, begun during the Discovery expedition, of the penguin colony at Cape Crozier, and to fulfill a programme of geological, magnetic and meteorology studies on an "unprecedented" scale.
Terra Nova sailed from Cardiff, Wales, on 15 June 1910. Scott, detained by expedition business, sailed later on a faster passenger liner and joined the ship in South Africa. In Melbourne, Australia, he left the ship to continue fund-raising, while Terra Nova proceeded to New Zealand. Waiting for Scott in Melbourne was a telegram from Amundsen, informing Scott that the Norwegian was "proceeding south"; the telegram was the first indication to Scott that he was in a race. When asked by the press for a reaction, Scott replied that his plans would not change and that he would not sacrifice the expedition's scientific goals to win the race to the Pole. In his diary he wrote that Amundsen had a fair chance of success, and perhaps deserved his luck if he got through. Scott rejoined the ship in New Zealand, where additional supplies were taken aboard, including 34 dogs, 19 Siberian ponies and three motorised sledges. Terra Nova, heavily overladen, finally left Port Chalmers on 29 November 1910. During the first days of December the ship was struck by a heavy storm; at one point, with the ship taking heavy seas and the pumps having failed, the crew had to bail her out with buckets. The storm resulted in the loss of two ponies, a dog, 10 imperial tons (10,200 kg) of coal and 65 imperial gallons (300 L) of petrol. On 10 December Terra Nova met the southern pack ice and was halted, remaining for 20 days before breaking clear and continuing southward. The delay, which Scott attributed to "sheer bad luck", had consumed 61 tons of coal.
Terra Nova arrived off Ross Island on 4 January 1911. Scott was "astonished at the strength of the ponies" as they transferred stores and materials from ship to shore. A prefabricated accommodation hut, measuring 15 m x 7.7 m, was erected and made habitable by 18 January. The aim of the first season's depot-laying was to place a series of depots on the Barrier from its edge (Safety Camp) down to 80° S, for use on the polar journey which would begin the following spring. The final depot would be the largest, and would be known as One Ton Depot. The work was to be carried out by 12 men, the 8 fittest ponies, and two dog teams; ice conditions prevented the use of the motor sledges. The journey started on 27 January, "in a state of hurry bordering on panic", according to Cherry-Garrard. On 4 February the party established Corner Camp, 40 miles (64 km) from Hut Point, when a blizzard held them up for three days. A few days later, after the march had resumed, Scott sent the three weakest ponies home (two died en route). As the depot-laying party approached 80°, Scott became concerned that the remaining ponies would not make it back to base unless the party turned north immediately. Against the advice of Oates, who wanted to go forward, killing the ponies for meat as they collapsed, Scott decided to lay One Ton Depot at 79° 29′ S, more than 30 miles (48 km) north of its intended location. Scott returned to Safety Camp with the dogs, after risking his own life to rescue a dog-team that had fallen into a crevasse. When the slower pony party arrived, one of the animals was in very poor condition and died shortly afterwards. Later, as the surviving ponies were crossing the sea ice near Hut Point, the ice broke up. Despite a determined rescue attempt, three more ponies died. Of the eight ponies that had begun the depot-laying journey, only two returned home.
On 23 April 1911 the sun set for the duration of the winter months, and the party settled into the Cape Evans hut. Under Scott's naval regime the hut was divided by a wall made of packing cases, so that officers and men lived largely separate existences, scientists being deemed "officers" for this purpose. Everybody was kept busy; scientific work continued, observations and measurements were taken; equipment was overhauled and adapted for future journeys. The surviving ponies needed daily exercise, and the dogs required regular attention. Scott spent much time calculating sledging rations and weights for the forthcoming polar march. To ensure that physical fitness was maintained there were frequent games of football in the half-light outside the hut.
The winter journey to Cape Crozier was the brainchild of Dr. Edward Wilson. He had suggested the need for it in the Zoology section of the Discovery Expedition's Scientific Reports, and was anxious to follow up this earlier research. The journey's scientific purpose was to secure Emperor Penguin eggs from the rookery near Cape Crozier at an early embryo stage, so that "particular points in the development of the bird could be worked out". This required a trip in the depths of winter to obtain eggs in an appropriately early stage of incubation. A secondary purpose was to experiment with food rations and equipment in advance of the coming summer's polar journey. Scott approved, and a party consisting of Wilson, Bowers and Cherry. Travelling during the Antarctic winter had not been previously tried; Scott wrote that it was "a bold venture, but the right men have gone to attempt it." Cherry-Garrard later described the horrors of the 19 days it took to travel the 97 km to Cape Crozier. Gear, clothes, and sleeping bags were constantly iced up; on 5 July, the temperature fell below −60 °C – "109 degrees of frost – as cold as anyone would want to endure in darkness and iced up clothes", wrote Cherry-Garrard. Often the daily distance travelled was little more than a single mile. At Cape Crozier the party, with great difficulty, built an igloo from snow blocks, stone, and a sheet of wood they had brought for the roof. They were then able to visit the penguin colony and collect several Emperor Penguin eggs. Subsequently their igloo shelter was almost destroyed in a blizzard with force 11 winds. The storm also carried away the tent upon which their survival would depend during their return journey, but fortunately this was recovered, half a mile away. The group set out on the return journey to Cape Evans, arriving there on 1 August. The three eggs that survived the journey went first to the Natural History Museum in South Kensington, and thereafter were the subject of a report from Dr. Cossar Stewart at the University of Edinburgh. The eggs failed, however, to provide proof of Wilson's theories.
On 13 September 1911, Scott revealed his plans for the South Pole march. Sixteen men would set out, using three motor sledges, ponies and dogs for the Barrier stage of the journey, which would bring them to the Beardmore Glacier. At this point the dogs would return to base and the ponies would be shot for food. Thereafter, twelve men in three groups would ascend the glacier and begin the crossing of the polar plateau, using man-hauling. Only one of these groups would carry on to the pole; the supporting groups would be sent back at specified latitudes. The composition of the final polar group would be decided by Scott during the journey.
The Motor Party started from Cape Evans on 24 October with two motor sledges, their objective being to haul loads to latitude 80° 30′ S and wait there for the others. By 1 November both motor sledges had failed after little more than 50 miles' travel, so the party man-hauled 336 kg of supplies for the remaining 241 km reaching their assigned latitude two weeks later. The other parties, which had left Cape Evans on 1 November with the dogs and ponies, caught up with them on 21 November.
On 4 December the expedition had reached the Gateway, the name given by Shackleton to the route from the Barrier on to the Beardmore Glacier. At this point a blizzard struck, forcing the men to camp until 9 December and to break into rations intended for the Glacier journey. When the blizzard lifted, the remaining ponies, which were in an advanced state of exhaustion and could pull no further, were shot. The party began the ascent of the Beardmore, and on 20 December reached the beginning of the polar plateau where they laid the Upper Glacier Depot. On 22 December, at latitude 85° 20′ S, Scott sent back Atkinson, Cherry-Garrard, Wright and Keohane. The remaining eight men continued south, in better conditions which enabled them to make up some of the time lost on the Barrier. By 30 December they had "caught up" with Shackleton's 1908–09 timetable. On 3 January 1912, at latitude 87° 32′ S, Scott made his decision on the composition of the polar party – five men (Scott, Wilson, Oates, Bowers and Edgar Evans) would go forward while Lt. Evans, Lashly and Crean would return.
Meanwhile the polar group continued towards the Pole, passing Shackleton's Furthest South (88° 23′ S) on 9 January. Seven days later, about 24 km from their goal, Amundsen's black flag was spotted and the party knew that they had been forestalled. They reached the Pole the next day, 17 January 1912, and discovered that Amundsen had arrived there on 14 December 1911. He had left a tent, some supplies, and a letter to King Haakon VII of Norway which he politely asked Scott to deliver. Scott wrote in his diary: "The Pole. Yes, but under very different circumstances from those expected ... Great God! This is an awful place and terrible enough for us to have labored to it without the reward of priority." He concluded the entry: "Now for a desperate struggle [to get the news through first]. I wonder if we can do it”. After confirming their position and planting their flag, Scott's party turned homewards the next day. During the next three weeks good progress was made, Scott's diary recording several "excellent marches". Nevertheless Scott began to worry about the physical condition of his party, particularly of Edgar Evans who was suffering from severe frostbite and was, Scott records, "a good deal run down." The condition of Oates's feet became an increasing anxiety, as the group approached the summit of the Beardmore Glacier and prepared for the descent to the Barrier. On 7 February, they began their descent, but were finding travel harder and had difficulty locating their depots. Despite this, Scott ordered a half-day's "geologising", and 14 kg of samples were added to the sledges. Edgar Evans's health was by now deteriorating rapidly; a hand injury was failing to heal, he was badly frostbitten, and is thought to have injured his head after several falls on the ice. "He is absolutely changed from his normal self-reliant self", wrote Scott. All the party were suffering from malnutrition, but as the largest man, Evans felt this most. Near the bottom of the glacier he collapsed, and died on 17 February. On the Barrier stage of the homeward march the four survivors suffered from some of the most extreme weather conditions ever recorded in the region. The weather, and the poor surfaces ("like pulling over desert sand" – Scott, 19 February) slowed them down, as did Oates's worsening foot condition. Scott hoped for a change in the weather, but as February drew to a close the temperature fell further. On 2 March, at the Middle Barrier Depot, Scott found a shortage of oil, apparently the result of evaporation: "With the most rigid economy it can scarce carry us to the next depot ... 71 miles away." They found the same shortage at the next depot on9 March, and no sign of "the dogs which would have been our salvation." Daily marches were now down to less than five miles, and the party was desperately short of food and fuel. On or about 17 March, Oates, while apparently lucid, stepped outside the tent, saying, by Scott's account, "I am just going outside and I may be some time." This sacrifice was not enough to save the others. Scott, Wilson and Bowers struggled on to a point 18 km south of One Ton Depot, but were halted on 20 March by a fierce blizzard. Although each day they attempted to advance, they were unable to do so, and their supplies ran out. Scott's last diary entry, dated29 March 1912, the presumed date of their deaths, ends with these words:
Every day we have been ready to start for our depot 11 miles away, but outside the door of the tent it remains a scene of whirling drift. I do not think we can hope for any better things now. We shall stick it out to the end, but we are getting weaker, of course, and the end cannot be far. It seems a pity but I do not think I can write more. R. Scott. For God's sake look after our people.
Without news of Scott, anxieties slowly rose. Atkinson, now in charge at Cape Evans as the senior naval officer present, decided to make an attempt to reach the polar party, and on 26 March set out with Keohane, man-hauling a sledge containing 18 days' provisions. In very low temperatures −40 °C they had reached Corner Camp by 30 March, when, in Atkinson's view, the weather, the cold and the time of year made further progress south impossible. Atkinson recorded, "In my own mind I was morally certain that the [polar] party had perished”.
The remaining expedition members waited at Cape Evans through the winter, continuing their scientific work. The search party set out on 29 October, accompanied by a team of mules that had been landed from the Terra Nova during its resupply visit the previous summer. On 12 November the party found the tent containing the frozen bodies of Scott, Wilson and Bowers, 18 km south of One Ton Depot. Atkinson read the relevant portions of Scott's diaries, and the nature of the disaster was revealed. After diaries, personal effects and records had been collected, the tent was collapsed over the bodies and a cairn of snow erected, topped by a cross fashioned from Gran's skis. The party searched further south for Oates's body, but found only his sleeping bag. On 15 November, they raised a cairn near to where they believed he had died.
It was a sobering story and there were pieces of the expedition to look at, life size photos taken by the photographer Wilson and also some video footage which was just amazing considering it was over 100 years old. Even the quality of the photos was crystal clear even if they had been touched up, to see life size pictures of these men wanting to do their country proud was thought provoking. Knowing that they were going into unchartered territory and dangerous conditions and they accepted this all in the name of their country.
From here we caught the Tube to Tower Bridge as I wanted to see the Olympic rings. It was a beautiful day, the sun was high in the sky and there wasn’t a cloud to be seen. It was busy with the left over people from the Olympic Games. I like Tower Bridge. I like the colour and how it looks different from other bridges. We decided to walk past the Tower of London walk along the banks of the Thames, cross the bridge and then head home from there. Tower Bridge (built 1886–1894) is a combined bascule and suspension bridge. The bridge consists of two towers tied together at the upper level by means of two horizontal walkways. The bridge's present colour scheme dates from 1977, when it was painted red, white and blue for the Queen Elizabeth II's silver jubilee. Originally it was painted a mid-greenish-blue colour. Tower Bridge is sometimes mistakenly referred to as London Bridge, which is the next bridge upstream. Construction started in 1886 and took eight years with five major contractors and employed 432 construction workers. Over 11,000 tons of steel provided the framework for the towers and walkways. This was then clad in Cornish granite and Portland stone, both to protect the underlying steelwork and to give the bridge a pleasing appearance. The total cost of construction was £1,184,000(£100 million as of 2012). The bridge was officially opened on 30 June 1894 by The Prince of Wales (the future King Edward VII), and his wife, The Princess of Wales (Alexandra of Denmark). The bridge is 244 m in length with two towers each 65 m high, built on piers. The central span of 61 m between the towers is split into two equal bascules or leaves, which can be raised to an angle of 83 degrees to allow river traffic to pass. Tower Bridge is still a busy and vital crossing of the Thames: it is crossed by over 40,000 people (motorists, cyclists and pedestrians) every day. The bridge featured in publicity for the London 2012 Summer Olympics. In June 2012 a set of Olympic rings was suspended from the bridge to mark one month to go until the start of the games. The rings cost £259,817 to make, measured 25 by 11.5 meters and weighed 13 tones. At the end of the Summer Olympics the rings will be replaced by the Paralympic symbol.
After crossing Tower Bridge we walked the other embankment of the Thames towards the Tube following the looming structure of The Shard which is a skyscraper in London. Standing 309.6 meters high, it was topped out on 30 March 2012 and opened on 5 July 2012. The Shard is the tallest completed building in Europe, and is also the second-tallest free-standing structure in the United Kingdom, after the 330-metre concrete tower at the Emley Moor transmitting station. The tower has 72 habitable floors, with a viewing gallery and open-air observation deck – the UK's highest – on the 72nd floor, at a height of 245 meters. The Shard was designed with an irregular pyramidal shape from the base to the top, and is clad entirely in glass. Its structure was completed in April 2012. The Shard is to contain office space, a 200-bed 5-star hotel, three floors of restaurants, ten apartments (priced at approximately £50 million each), and a public viewing platform. At the time of the Shard's official opening in July 2012, there were still no confirmed occupants, though it was expected that there would be full occupancy by the end of 2014.
We were lucky when we got home that Paps had started on dinner . We had a lot of banter going on back and forth over the last 12 months about Bangers and Mash so I was in for a gastronomic treat from the hands of Chef Papster. I was very spoiled when we started with camembert cheese and crackers and not just any old camembert it was melted in the microwave and served, which I have never done before and it was delicious I have to say. Who would ever think to melt the camembert? Then Em also had a surprise up her sleeve with an entrée of ….Haggis…… I have never had haggis before and as Em had prepared it especially for me I couldn’t say no, so with my eyes closed I had my very first bite of animal intestine and I have to say I kind of liked it if I took the picture of a dead sheep and his insides on my plate out of the equation……. And she dressed it up so nicely from a ramekin and topped with a cherry tomato and served with sweet potato mash…. If I was to put a taste to it was like eating a spicy sausage, maybe that’s why I liked it? I am a sausage fan from way back….. The piece de resistance was Pap’s Bangers and Mash and we had a choice of sausages, I chose a lamb and mint and a pork and raspberry and they were absolutely magnificent. Paps could clearly take the title for best bangers and mash and shout it from the roof top. It was an amazing meal all washed down with some white wine I couldn’t have asked for a better way to finish the day. Well actually we did one more thing and we watched part one of the Mountain Gorilla Blu Ray that I had bought Paps for his birthday and to be able to share the gorillas story with people that I had travelled with to Rwanda to actually see these magnificent animals was pretty special to say the least. We were just in awe reliving our experience that we had with our amazing hour we had with them last July. I sometimes forget what I have done on my Odyssey and it was nice to be able to relive this with my Africa mates and to think we were really there……… really????? AMAZING……..
Can you believe all that was Monday and Tuesday only. London is a fascinating town and you really could spend weeks and weeks here and still not see all there is on offer. I do love London and every time I have come back I have seen new things-this trip being the 5th of the Odyssey not counting my transfers at Heathrow I know that I will be back again, well I am in December, but I know this will be a city I can always come back to and know there will always be things to see and friends to catch up with.
