Monday, November 01, 2010

A wander around the River Front and Marina

If you want great short walk at this time of year, you can't go far wrong by starting at "The Deep" and walking along the riverfront, (especially if you can borrow someone elses camera, as I did with Pat's FZ38 Bridge camera for these shots.)
this is the scene looking east towards the Roll on Ferries and Saltend.
Here is a wide angle view looking in the same direction, with the old remains of the wooden supports that are all that remains of the large shipbuilding area that once occupied this site. As you can see the sea defences are very substantial and stretch unbroken (in one form or other) right to the sea.
Same spot, but using the the powerful telephoto function of the FZ38, these Ferries are very substantial vessels!
Turning around to face west I spotted this old petrol barge heading towards the mouth of the River Hull. They have plied the river as long as I can remember, though they are slow, they can carry a huge amount of fuel, so remain an economic for of bulk transport.
The barges are ideal for the shallow water of the river Hull, and can even go up river when the tide is pretty low, as it is here, where we see it approaching the Tidal Barrier, a great metal blade that drops down to seal the River Hull when the Spring and Autumn High tides threaten the coty of Hull (Much of which is below sea level!)
The Barges bow wave gave patterns i just had to record!
Crossing the River Hull on the foot bridge we get a good view along the side of "The Deep" and the railings make an interesting lead , in and pattern. the FZ38 handled the flare pretty well.
This is the side on view of the deep, which seems to have been designed to mimic a speeding boat, even to the pattern low down on the side that looks rather like a bow wave.
The "Nose" of the Deep houses two cafes and there is an observation platform too
The reflection of the water are on the glass windows of the main cafe, you can make out the tables if you look carefully
And so on towards the Marina, there are several new buildings in the regenerated dock areas, but so far they seem to remain empty!
Here is a memorial to a time forgotten by history, when over two million emigrants passed through Hull and the other Humber Ports to entrain for Liverpool and the passage to America.


And here is the Eastern side of the Marina, absolutely chock full of boats, though few of them could be afforded by people who live in Hull!
On the left are the old bonded Warehouses, which were derelict and dangerous playgrounds when I was a kid, with many floors that were damaged here and there by bombing, we loved them!
They have now been redeveloped into "Apartments" for the well to do boat owners.

Heres the boat that represents Hull (Allegedly) in the annual round the world Yacht races As you can see there are lots of things to see and photograph, it is well worth a visit and there are lots of Cafes and Pubs if you need refreshment.