Thursday 9 September 2010

Chatham Dockyards and Hastings


The trip for Rudolf and Connie has nearly finished. They fly back to Australia tonight. It has been great having them here and we will miss them heaps. We have also visited all the places that we have forgotton - will certainly be returning to them now that we have time to spare.
The historical dockyards at Chatham were an unexpected find - a treasure that is hidden away from the average tourist. We arrived at 10.30 a.m. and left at 4.00 and only covered half of the area. We visited the 'wall' experience, which was a recreation of life at the dockyards as it would have been in the 1700's. The rope making demonstration and talk was also extremely interesting - they still make traditional ropes. We looked at the museum which protrayed life from Henry VIII when the dockyards first opened to their closure in 1984. We learned that there had been a war with the Dutch navy, who actually entered the bay and destroyed quite a few English ships! There were three ships in the docks which you could view - a destroyer, a submarine and a sailing ship. They were not designed for people my height! Of course there are other parts of the dockyard that we did not view so must return again soon.

Yesterday we travelled to Hastings and I have forgotten just what an interesting place it is, i.e. the old fishing area as well as the open land at the tope of the cliffs. The photos were taken in front of the fishing sheds (used for drying nets) in Hastings. Another place to return to - especially the walk on the top of the cliffs.

No comments:

Post a Comment