Visiting Portsmouth Once Again…
Visiting Portsmouth, once again, I took a walk.
Leaving my very Victorian and splendid hotel, I walked along the seafront, passing the hovercraft port and helter skelter as I strolled.
Clambering up onto the monumental sea walls and naval defences, I looked down onto the beach. It’s a narrow strip of shingle that runs under the wall and culminates at a stone built tower, once used as a winch house and gun battery. When the old port was under naval attack, a great chain would be raised across estuary…..winched up between two such towers, on opposite banks, it would prohibit entry.
My mind wandered back to 1805, when Nelson took his final stroll along these walls, prior to sailing into his own destiny and destroying Napoleons fleets at Trafalgar.
Moodily I sat in a bench at the top of the tower and looked out to sea.
A ferry was arriving, full of day trippers from the Isle of Wight….some waved at me….. I waved back.
Striking out again, I covered the short distance to Camber Quay, and walked between the cars and boats, around the ancient dockside. Once upon a time, Raleigh and Drake will have moored their ships here, but today it’s the home to a small number of pleasure boats and a couple of fishing boats.
Ahhhh…. I can smell the coffee!
Bridge Tavern sits on the end of the quayside….. a footbridge used to connect it to the fishmonger opposite…
Imagining the salty language and olde accents of my forefathers ( as they spilled ale), I ordered a double espresso.
My mood lifted !