We awake to the sight of thousands of ships lining up opposite the beaches of Normandy. Well in my imagination. I’ve been reading a lot about D Day.
The sound of bikes is an ever present background effect in Peel this week. Even at four thirty in the morning. Do they not sleep? I guess when you are lying in a tent the early morning light stirs you into activity. Nip to the toilet block, or hedge, fill the kettle and switch on the camping stove. Twirly to head to a caff.
More racing today but we are headed out to Glen Mooar and the Spooyt Vane Waterfall. Never been! And I’ve been living or visiting here since nineteen seventy four or thereabouts. Can’t remember exactly it was so long ago.
Back to lunch in Peel followed by a swim in the Western Swimming Pool up by the campsite, past Shoprite. Then chill out around Peel. Pick up an ice cream from Davisons maybs.
There probably are many thousands of people in the area of the DDay landings today. Tens of thousands. I doubt you could find accommodation and I suspect these days people don’t find sleeping in fields and hedgerows all that attractive. I wouldn’t, even though there would be a high degree of authenticity in doing so.
For one there are lots of cows in Normandy and you would bound to be woken by a curious herd licking your face n stuff like that. Better than bullets I suppose.
It is really hard to imagine the situation on the ground during the invasion. Enemies trying to kill each other. Bears no relation to our normal lives these days. Certainly not mine. We have a lot to be thankful for.
I’ve just finished the Stephen Ambrose DDay book. It’s notionally supposed to be the definitive history of the landings and it does go into a lot of detail but it is really only the history from the American viewpoint. It glosses over the British and Canadian efforts. Not a criticism. You just have to accept it is more an American history rather than the definitive history of the whole invasion.
In other more mundane news I have five days supply of clean clothing left with nine days left on the trip. This means a visit to the launderette on the prom is on the cards. I must say I haven’t been to a launderette since circa 1985/86 when I lived in Waldeck Street in Lincoln and frequented the one near the end of Burton Road opposite the Strugglers. I am irrationally excited about this.