WHAT MAN CAN ACHIEVE

In the early 1970's, due to the increasing high water levels at London Bridge (think melting polar caps) the Thames Barrier was built. Costing around 500 million pounds sterling and consisting of six gates weighing roughly 1200 tonnes each, covered in stainless steel, you can understand why I have always wanted to see this wonder of man's engineering in person. Today looked like the only chance I was going to get to visit the location and of course it was raining. I still went. You approach the site on the South bank by walking through a park and then immediately as the greenery haults, you are confronted by the barrier stretching accross the river. The tide was out when I arrived and I was so in awe of it's majesty that I didn't notice the rain coming down stronger as the wind picked up. The image of the bicycle is an obvious occupant of the rivers banks. The other image is what I ate in the visitors center/cafe (a scone with jam and chocolate milk) as I sat alone, apart from the staff.