5b. English ‘Mangrove’ Swamp
On the same event as the 3-element beam in the brambles, Chris had found the nearest English equivalent to a Mango Swamp, in a disused chalk quarry in Gillingham, on the opposite side of the River Medway. To get between the two sites meant navigation through the Medway towns of Strood, Rochester, Chatham and Gillingham, which is no easy task with the one way systems in there.
This site being a quarry, was mostly below ground, and had a minor road down the west side. The area was fenced from that side, but had holes in it made by the local kids. If you dove in from that side following a transmission, a 45o slope took you head first into a flooded section of the quarry, but from the water thorn bushes grew, hawthorn and the ubiquitous blackthorn, growing straight out of the water. Just like a mangrove swamp. The transmitter was on a slight promontory from the east side of the lake, and was accessible with perfectly dry feet, IF you were patient enough to track north around the water. Many competitors were not so patient and got tangled in the thorns in up to 15’ of murky water. All it needed to complete the tropical picture (apart from the weather) was the addition of a few piranha and snakes, some swear there were snakes at least. Perhaps that accounts for the bull run track through the waters west of the transmitter. 1500’ of fine enamelled wire completed the confusion, although the local kids had had some of it away by the time of the event; we left it there for them to play at getting down latter.