Our final day and Karen was keen to get packed up and out of the Hotel. Breakfast was back to the being the spartan offerings of the first day. This morning’s amusement was brought by the lad taking our order who only spoke about 3 words of English. I ended up ticking the boxes of our choice of hot items on his pad for him. Karen being ever the diplomat said after he had left that he had probably just arrived on a dingy overnight.
Before we left the room, I filled in the helpful feedback form in the room. I had to use a ‘pto’ to continue my comments on the back. It wasn’t all bad as if had been then we would have left early, but there were several constructive comments that I felt would help management.
We drove the 2 miles to Chatham Docks which was the original purpose for this trip and ‘checked in’ with the tickets I had purchased online. After this we walked back across to the Dockside shops so that Karen could visit the M&S outlet and get a coffee from Costa.
Returning to the docks we booked in for a tour of the Ropery and then of the Submarine HM Ocelot. We would then do the Call the Midwife tour at 2.30pm before leaving.
The docks are enormous covering 88 acres. The place seemed deserted as we wandered around in the warm air with the sun trying to break through.
The Ropery tour was very good. The building is ¼ mile long to make very long ropes and is the longest left still working in Europe. Before that we were given a demonstration on a much smaller scale on how ropes are made. Or rather I gave a demonstration as I was ‘roped’ into helping. At the end I was given a piece of the rope I had actually made which was ‘cool’.
The building itself was impressive. Inside although they still make ropes in it during the day, the space is also rented out as a set for film & television. They were still clearing up after filming for a new movie about a young Gandhi the day before.
Then we wandered around the adjacent building which had an exhibition regarding the various ships and submarines that the docks had constructed before closing in 1984. The ships built here included HMS Victory.
It was then time for our submarine tour. Karen was nervous as it involved steep ladders and some hatches that you had to clamber through. The hatches did prove challenging for both of us as they were high off the ground and wide but we just about managed it without having to use a plunger to extract us.
The submarine HM Ocelot was the last built at Chatham for our Navy and was used extensively during the cold war on missions that are still classified. The missions lasted for months at a time. On board it was horrible. You either worked or laid on your miniscule confined bunk. There was nowhere to sit or relax or wash. It took and presumably still does take a certain type of person to be able to live like that. We were only down below for less than 20 minutes but the fresh air smelt so sweet as we climbed back up again. Karen vowed never to go on a submarine again.
It was then time to find some lunch and so we wandered back to the main café. I had a baked potato whilst Karen had a Fish Finger sandwich. Both pricey but reasonable.
After this we walked around one of the enormous sheds that held the National collection of RNLI historic lifeboats, including one from Lowestoft and the original Henry Bloggs boat from Cromer.
It was then time for the Call the Midwife tour taken by a rather jolly lady called Dawn who was dressed in a period midwife costume. The tour started slowly in my opinion for someone who doesn’t have an encyclopaedic knowledge of the show. Apparently, they had been filming here in the last week and the cast had posed for photos with the tours. I had missed my chance to have a phot with ‘Minty’.
We moved onto places and buildings that had featured in keys moments on the show, most of which Karen recognised. I was just as impressed when Dawn described where other things had filmed here, including Loki, The Crown, Bridgerton and various Sherlock Holmes.
It reminded us of being on a studio tour in Hollywood and was very entertaining and very interesting.
The tour concluded with replica sets and props that the production company had set up as the proper studio sets in Chertsey are not open for visitors. The attention to detail was excellent.
Aficionados of the show would have already known this but I learnt that each of the 13 Series have moved the calendar on a year and they are now up to 1970. It is meant to educational as well as entertainment in that it tries to addresses social issues of that year as well as each year’s medical advancements.
Suffice to say Karen lapped it all up and really enjoyed every bit of the tour.
I can safely say that our visit to the Docks were a big success and I would highly recommend them for a full day out.
We made a swift exit after the tour for the long walk across the site back to the car. I was keen to get through Dartford before the main rush hour. We still had a 15-minute delay getting through the tunnel. I cannot imagine living in this area and having to cope with this traffic every day. There needs to be another crossing to relieve the congestion.
The rest of the journey was busy but not too bad and in just under 3 hours we were home after a successful trip, in time to drop off the car for its annual service and MOT.
