Turbine Triptych (Creating Clouds), Queenborough

The cold weather started to bite today and the prospects did not look good again as the cloud cover came back after our early morning run. However, I checked the forecast and it said it was going to be sunny so I managed to convince my brother that we should go on a micro trip to Queenborough. It's a place we'd never been to before but is only a couple of miles from Sheerness which we've visited a number of times.
Queenborough is on the Isle of Sheppey and is where the rivers Medway and Swale meet the Thames Estuary. It has a rich maritime history. Admiral Lord Nelson is reputed to have learned many of his seafaring skills in these waters and also shared a house nearby with his mistress, Lady Hamilton.
When we arrived the sun had reappeared and it was a glorious day, albeit with a biting, bitter wind. The town itself looked rather lovely in the cold, bright winter's light and we soon found somewhere to park. A short distance away was the monumental sea wall and as soon as we saw the waterfront vista we were mesmerised so felt we had to take some images for the day there. I decided on a triptych of views with the Isle of Grain power station in the distance (see the extra two images for the other two). I loved how the emissions from the three chimneys looked as if they were creating the clouds in the sky. The power station has had a couple of iterations. The earlier version had the second highest chimney in the country at one point, it stood at a very mighty 244m (801 ft) and was visible from a wide area of North Kent and parts of south Essex. This earlier oil powered power station eventually fell foul of tightening emission targets and was pulled down (chimney included) in 2015. The new version consists of three combined cycle natural gas turbines (hence the three smaller chimneys) which is a lot cleaner and supplies electricity to over one million homes.
By the time we'd walked along a fair bit of the sea wall we were getting very cold indeed despite having plenty of layers on so we headed back the way we came, this time with the sun on our backs so that helped us warm up a wee bit. Just the other side of the sea wall, when we were back in the centre of the town, we found the Old House At Home pub and so just had to pop in for a beverage. It was lovely and cosy and our two pints of Stella cost us the principal sum of £8.80 - a bargain!
It would be soon time to head back but we decided to investigate a bit more of the town first. It was then we discovered the Creek that runs through the town - it looked beautiful with the blue skies above it. Queenbrough is still a fishing town and the fleet itself ties up in the Creek when not out at sea.
We had a lovely time there and will definitely go back again to take more photographs and learn more about its' history.