Walthamstow Marshes & Lea River nature area

Wetlands around London are on my "to do" list. These include Walthamstow Marshes as I imagined they would be an area of wetlands. As I was in the area and had time, I decided to visit. I hadn't read up on the area so knew nothing about it - so was disappointed to find it is not a marshy area as I expected, but just a common.

Firstly I looked at Hackney Marshes which is surrounded by the River Lea and the navigation channel. 

As I could see it was just an area of common, I didn't bother to explore. I had a quick look at the nature reserve, but wasn't sure if the centre would be open after Covid-19 so decided to go onto Walthamstow Marshes.

I saw a few people picking sloes, so I picked a few as well. Years ago I used to make sloe gin which was absolutely delicious. Sloes grow on blackthorn trees. It's probably a bit early to pick them but I don't generally see them in my area.

I used the underpass to get to Walthamstow Marshes. I was again disappointed to see two areas of common and  no marsh. Firstly I looked at the horses at the riding centre. 

I had a look at the common but it was uninspiring so I didn't stay long.

Wikipedia describes it as "a 36.7 hectare biological Site of Special Scientific Interest in Walthamstow in the London Borough of Waltham Forest. It was once an area of lammas land – common land used for growing crops and grazing cattle. The marshes are one of the last remaining examples of semi-natural wetland in Greater London. They contain a variety of plant communities typical of a former flood plain location, such as a range of neutral grassland types, sedge marsh, reed swamp, sallow scrub and areas of tall herb vegetation. Associated with this diversity of habitat are several species of plant and insect which are uncommon in the London area.".

Not far away is the Walthamstow pump museum which I visited last year, and also the Markfield Beam Engine which I also visited last year.

Next on my list to visit is the London Wetlands Centre.

Heatwave in Death Valley, USA

 The heatwave in UK has finished and we are now back to "normal" seasonal temperatures, in mid August 2020. However a few days later, the highest temperature ever recorded on Earth occurred in the Death Valley in the USA. 

On 18 August the temperature reached 54.4 C in Death Valley. It is the hottest reading ever reliably taken on the planet and was recorded at the Furnace Creek weather station. See Sky News report. And a report from The Metro -

I went to Death Valley on 4 April 1994. We drove down into the valley from Death Valley Junction. 

Stopped at Zabriskie Point and had a nice view over the badlands - volcanic rock and sandstone, barren and in contrast to the blue sky. 

Then to the info centre at Furnace Creek. Paid $5 fee for the car and watched a video. Much of Death Valley is below sea level, the lowest point being 282 ft, the lowest point in the USA.

We had a picnic at the oasis campsite before driving around the valley.

Went south on the Badwater Road but only as far as Artists Drive. This is a loop around some very pretty rocks, coloured red, orange, pink and in some places green and grey. Very nice. 

Artists palette - volcanoes erupted, mineralized hot waters seeped up to colour the rocks.

Then we took the road to Stovepipe Wells Village, along the valley floor, and past the sand dunes which were really blowing in the wind. Nice views over the salt areas. We headed out taking the Wildrose Road. Climbed from 5 ft to 2000 ft within miles. Nice small and scenic road.

I wrote about Death Valley for the Brunei Times -

Cruise ships moored along south coast of England

Having only got into cruising in Jan 2019, this came to an abrupt (temporary?) stop in March 2020 with the worldwide Covid-19 pandemic. I had a cruise for April cancelled, so rebooked it for May, which was also cancelled. Currently, August 2020, no cruise companies are operating before November. This means there are hundreds of cruise ships moored around the world! Like airports, cruise terminals and docks charge high prices for parking, so cruise ships are moored at sea. 

Many ships under CMV which operates from the UK were moored at their home bases of Tilbury (on the Thames) and Avonmouth near Bristol. This shows the ships at Tilbury on 1st May -

And by August just the British ships were left :

Many other ships are in the English Channel. August view from Cruisemapper :

The BBC had a good article on 12 August, "Coronavirus: How ghost cruise ships became a summer tourist attraction". An enterprising man takes tourists out to see the ships.

The ships do have to go into port every now and again to refuel, as they all have a small crew onboard. 

Another interesting article from BBC, on 20 April, "Coronavirus journey: The 'last cruise ship on Earth' finally comes home". Because of Coronavirus, many ships had to curtail their itinerary and sail across the world to get home. Some were able to swap passengers with other ships e.g. if the ship was going north but had Australians who needed to get home, they would transfer to a ship going south. 

I got home from my Amazon cruise towards the end of February. Coronavirus was already big news and the Diamond Princess cruise ship off Japan had passengers affected and the ship was quarantined. 

And now it's just a waiting game for cruise companies to decide it is safe to travel and of course for ports and countries to reopen. 

--

UPDATE

18 Aug several papers had an article about a British crew member stuck on the cruise ship Norwegian Jade. The passengers left in April and the ship has been docked in Naples, Italy since June. The British crew member has been onboard for almost a year. He's allowed to go onshore but hasn't been paid since April, only gets a small allowance of £7.60 each day. See Metro report.

Brighton and August 2020 heatwave

 Brighton is the closest seaside resort to London and I have been there hundreds of times during my life. And nowadays I visit at least once a year.

In August 2020 the south of England was experiencing a long heatwave and many beaches were packed, despite the social distancing for Covid-19. And after months of lockdown and restricted travel, naturally people are keen to make the most of the good weather. The media was full of photos of crowded beaches and parks as people went out to enjoy the sun.

I'd had some holidays cancelled due to Covid-19 restrictions and hadn't had a night away since I returned from my Amazon cruise in Feb. So I decided to Brighton and have 1 night away. 

As it was still during the heatwave I knew Brighton would be packed. I arrived early, before 10 am. I went straight to the beach, as I had no intention of spending time there, I just wanted to see it and have a quick paddle. It was fairly empty, but compare my 10 am photos with the one at 2 pm and the press photo (Sky news) taken later in the day.

Just to prove I paddled -

I went on the pier, which had a one way system for social distancing -

The gulls must be glad that visitors are back in Brighton. The gulls are notorious for stealing food from people and I always sit and watch, watching the eyes eyeing up their next target!

The heatwave started at the end of July, the 31st was the 3rd hottest day on record, with 37.8 C at London Heathrow. Brighton was actually cooler than London, the latter was 36.4 C on the 7th. Local temperatures on the 7th -

A term new to me, "tropical nights" when temperatures don't drop below 20 C all night -

By 12th August morning, we'd had :

Rain and thunderstorms kept being forecast but nothing happened in my part of London, until a slight drizzle on 13th morning and it was slightly cooler. By that evening the heatwave had gone. Phew!

Trafalgar Square Fourth Plinth & Extinction Rebellion protest

Trafalgar Square's Fourth Plinth sculpture was recently unveiled, so as I was nearby, I decided to go and have a look. When I arrived in the afternoon on 9 August 2020, I saw a lot of police vans parked in the square, and workers hosing down the steps. There was a small group of people mixed with the police. When I saw an Extinction Rebellion jacket, I Googled what was happening, and found Extinction Rebellion were holding a protest to mark International Day of World's Indigenous Peoples.

They had poured vast amounts of fake blood on the steps and turned the fountain water a luminous yellow, in solidarity with indigenous people dying in Brazil. By the time I arrived, cleaners had virtually finished hosing the steps, although they were still stained red. And the fountains were an odd shade of yellow. 

Protesters had been lying in the fake blood pretending to be dead, they wanted to raise awareness of number of indigenous people dying from disease in Brazil. Brazil has been really badly hit by Covid-19. More than 100,000 people have died in Brazil, BBC report.

Extinction Rebellion (abbreviated as XR) is a global environmental movement with the stated aim of using nonviolent civil disobedience to compel government action to avoid tipping points in the climate system, biodiversity loss, and the risk of social and ecological collapse. But I wonder if they give any thought to the amount of water that was used to clean up their mess. And I hoped the dye was harmless as the pigeons were drinking and bathing in the red water.

Photos from Huffington Post and Metro :

Surprisingly the protest didn't seem to make many national newspapers.

The Fourth Plinth. Over the years, this has had some weird sculptures, in my view. The latest one is definitely odd! It was put up at the end of July. I'd gone past on 3 July when the plinth was empty -

The new sculpture is called The End, it features a dollop of whipped cream with an assortment of toppings: a cherry, a fly, and a drone. The drone will film passers-by and you can log onto a live stream. 

Described as representing “exuberance and unease” and a “monument to hubris and impending collapse”, The End, by British artist Heather Phillipson, will stay in place until spring 2022. It is the 13th Fourth Plinth commission and the tallest so far – at nearly 31 ft. See ITV News report.

Me as caught by the drone -

And finally, Tourism Malaysia office and a Pride bus stop -