Tag Archives: Weather

LightVessel LV72 – Juno

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Catching occasional glimpses of a famous merchant vessel used to guide the way for ships during the D Day landings, I meandered around the tracks and back roads of Skewen before finally ending up on the waters edge alongside the River Neath. Perched in the mud was LV72 – Juno. Built in 1903 by John Crown and Sons in Sunderland this lightship is now ‘rusting and resting’, embedded in the sticky estuary mud and, to be honest, is a sad sight. Having been a lightship for Trinity House she was moored off the Normandy coast on 18th June 1944 and was used to mark the edges of minefields and give safe passage – remaining on station until 27th January 1945. In the spring of 1973 she was sold and after plans for a nightclub conversion failed, she now sits on the bank slowing eroding back into her surroundings.Trinity House Photograph - D DayLightvessel LV72 Juno

Artic Mode

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Its funny how a single image or smell can provoke such a strong memory response, I have been spending time organising, uploading and editing my images, poems and text ready for printing and binding and came across a few images I forgotten about from the 2013 trip – funny how easy I can be jogged back into artic mode…Scandinavia 65

Smells like rain

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Last few days have been with a pillion which always bring a new dynamic to travel. Trying to acclimatise to the predicted 38 degree temperatures to be expected at my next major stopover but even mid and southern France have been experiencing an unexpected heatwave. Today weighty thunderclouds bubbled in the sky for a few hours before discarding their steam generating load onto the roadside and drying grasses – being caught on the edge of this was delight for the senses with smells and humidity changing by the minute.

Sunflowers in the rain

Eastern Europe (rain like little knives)

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Today started auspiciously enough, turning up like a drowned rat at the P&O port in Dover elicited enough sympathy from the check-in team that they bumped me up to the earlier ferry – just as well considering riding conditions over the Channel. Initially I made good time stopping for mandatory coffee when ever a road side café loomed into the horizon. About 100 miles north of my overnight stop the sky darkened over a period of a few minutes and lightening danced on the horizon north of Troyes. Without a gentle lead into rain the heavens opened and the road became an impassable sea of rocks and mud scattered by oncoming traffic and churned to slurry in the maelstrom – like all good hero’s I took refuge under the canopy of the petrol station and made my way onto Bar Le Duc – its takes a while to get into the rhythm of mileage – tomorrow is a new day and the forecast looks promising.