A day in the docks

Mr.R and I are spending our last few days in pretty Kent trying to fit in calls to movers and last minute things to do along with some sightseeing. Saturday noon saw us making a trip to the Historic Dockyard at Chatham,which is only about 25 minutes by car and so seemed like a nice place to spend the afternoon.

We were wrong.

It was a bitterly cold day and we were freezing in the biting windy afternoon; it didn't matter whether we were indoors or outdoors walking about the place. Even with three layers of warm clothing and every inch barring the face covered, we still trembled. Some days are just not meant to be ventured out into.

Other than that, the trip was quite nice. The Dockyard by itself is historic, going back several hundreds of years. Maritime enthusiasts would enjoy themselves thoroughly looking at the ships, the lifeboats, being told stories of how ships were built and the history of the 3 ships that are a big part of the attraction.Mr.R and I chose to go down into a submarine, the HMS Ocelot, which I quite enjoyed. You can't imagine how cramped the living space is although from outside the submarine is HUGE. To get through each section, we had to swing through a oval shaped entrance that was quite fun. The old ladies in our sight-seeing group did have some trouble though. The 'Wooden Walls' exhibition - the experience of ship building seen through the eyes of a 15 year old carpenters apprentice was also quite fun.

Made me think : Mumbai has a rich, varied maritime history too. It would be great to have something like this at Mazagaon Docks, Ferry Wharf, Colaba or even the Port Trust. All that land that's being eyed by builders can be used for something instructive that tells us about our legacy.

Or perhaps they do have a place and I don't know about it. Perhaps you do?