The Imber bus.

On paper, Imber is a perfect dark, destination.
Requisitioned by the military
At the heart of Salisbury Plain
Never given back

Abandoned.

A lost village.

Now used for military practice.
At the heart of the live firing range.

Many people visit Imber on the Imber bus day.
The counter in the church porch read: 1443 visitors.
Cars line the road.

Families..
Push pushchairs and small infants past the danger signs and inside the houses....
Which are just empty shells.

Imber treated as a film set.

This year I still haven't really got all of it sussed...
But I understand a lot more than I did.

Last year I didn't get any of it...
This year I understood that Imber on the Saterday closest to the 20th of August, is a day dedicated to buses.

The Imber bus walkthrough - Part one.

The buses begin their journey across the plain from Warminster train station.

There is plenty of car park space before you reach the station, turn left off Station road.
Toilets are also to be found here.

At the station there will be many buses.

1. All buses go through Imber except buses going to Chitterne - The Chittern bus travels via Knook Camp.
2. All destinations can be accessed via the Gore Cross Interchange.

Gore Cross to New Zealand Camp.

The bus trundles up a narrow road towards a lay-by, and a heap of earth, beyond which there is some kind of camp being built:

Two buildings demolished and replaced with 11 multi-functional structures, known as ‘stone tents’.The new facilities will provide a modern, multi-purpose training camp that can be used as a Forward Operating Base or to replicate a terrorist camp, refugee camp and a Non-Governmental Organisation Base, or as part of a complex manoeuvre environment. It will also provide an exercise base for troops training in the local area.

A bridleway is sign posted on the opposite side of the road.
Though windswept and bleak, this is an excellent place to picnic.
I assume a bridleway to be free of unexploded ordnance...

We waited for the bus to return
It didn't....

The next bus stopped at a lay-by further down the road and turned around there.
disheartened, we walked back to Gore Cross.

~END of walkthough. TBC.

Vado film.
Begins at Warminster car park, one or two buses parked here.
Then the buses at the station
Over the plain.
Then to New Zealand.

We return to Imber
Then back over the plain towards Warminster.

Broadway Tower.

The day begins in Cobham road
We go past the Droitwich transmitters
To Broadway tower

Built to see the stars...

Dear in the park
A memorial stone, for the crew of a plane that crashed

Britain is riddled in holes.
A 20 foot ladder
To a box
In which three men
Waited for the nukes..

A pressure gauge
Pascals
Ionisation chambers
Pin hole camera...

1650 holes
To monitor nuclear war.

The cafe...
The road home
Fish Hill.

Glamping.

Beautiful handmade
Topped with copper
A stream runs behind..
Fields go on forever.

The owner walked us to the house and left us with the key...
I opened the door to find a fire lit in the stove
Candles
Incense.

The bed grows out of the floor
Strewn with rose petals.

On a tree stump table
Almond cake and strawberries and cream
A bottle of Prosecco on ice...

Saturday we had a picnic.
The day began cool and cloudy
By midday and azure sky and a sun as bright as crystal

We lay down the rug under a hawthorn tree
Sleeping to wake in a golden feild of flowers and butterflies

We walked down to the stream
The water a noisy rush of mirror and light...

Tewkesbury festival 2016

Scene one: the road that begins all journeys.
Scene two: On the field....

All other scenes: describe Tewkesbury festival.
The stalls.
The Morris dancers..
Hearing the battle reenactment narrated, as sport.

Flags and people
Delicious food
So many pretty things.

Tewkesbury becomes a noun
To be 'Tewkesburied': so hot and so out of one's head that time and direction resolve into endless loops without direction or polarity...

Birmingham -Saturday afternoon - music.

Note the specific use of the word Paradise in the context of Birmingham.

• Top of New St.
• Alpha tower - with a seagull. 
• Vegan festival band.
• Jazz band trapped in pit at new library.
• Bees.
• New Street busker. 
• Last scene, the lovely Faculty Coffee.

Halesowen to Old Hill, round Birmingham to Mucklow's Hill...2015

This journey took place over one year ago.
Circa March 20th, 2015.

A somewhat depressing journey perhaps?
Now become history.

It languished in my video folder, unprocessed and unloved.

We begin.
We descend to Halesowen.
We ascend to Old Hill.
There I board a train.

In the city of Birmingham I visit Oasis, walk past the golden door. Stand before the library - now in ruins.

I catch the train back to Rowley Regis and don't film until I'm standing in a field about to walk onto the pavement running parallel to Mucklow's Hill road...

End.

It was a cold day.

West Midlands to Somerset. Glastonbury Tor.

The film begins in the kitchen. It is Thursday morning. Melvyn Bragg is on the radio talking about Margery Kemp.

The M5 was blocked due to a terrible accident in the early hours of the morning, and the number of cars trying to make it through Tewkesbury made the journey impossible!

We ate sandwiches in the car whilst stopped in a lay-by, then went home.

This has not been included in the film.

Friday morning we headed out again.

First stop Tebay of the South, otherwise known as Gloucester service station. I include a view of the Daily Mail's front page top give a flavor of Britain today. Tebay of the South is a low-rise, low-impact building. 

Soothing to the senses. 

Avoid news papers.

We bought a Danish

Chocolate and almond.

It was superb.

Onward....M5 through Bristol.

Onward to A roads 

Then Glastonbury.

We walked up the High street and turned right.

The footpath took us up Dod lane.

X marks the spot - looking from here, towards the church of St John the Baptist.

Second X we look up to the Tor.

I didn't know that this path would take us to a narrow road - but it does - so if I were you, and next time I'm here, avoid this way to the Tor.

Instead of taking Dod lane, walk on a bit further, past the Chalice well and look for another path close to Chalice well, up to the Tor.

Next film
On top of the Tor.

• People.
• A crow...
• Sheep...
• The remains of the church felled by an earthquake.

Ah...the amazing music in the toilets in the car park...

Then M5
A road.
End!

Halesowen number 9 stop to The Delaunay, Covent Garden.

6:40 am black, damp, cold
Icy morning.
At the bus stop waiting for the 9.

The bus goes up Manor way
A golden road
Sodium light gilds the darkness.

The sky is becoming blue
Sun rise..to New Street.





Inside the station
Waiting for the London-Midland train....

And then we are in London, an unusually deserted tube station.
Dust haze like mist, fogs the air.

Then we are in Heddon Street
Flowers, candles, drawings and most interestingly, letter
Left where Ziggy Stardust was....

Then to Pret for coffee...
Then Persepolis for falafel and tea sweetened with safron-sugar, flavored with cardomon...

Next to an abandoned church
Art exhibition.
Outside, Egyptian geese and the sun is setting.

The last part of the journey
To the beautiful Canada Water station...
Metal cladding on the walls reminding me of Event Horizon.

The sky once more dark
Stars and moon
And more cake and coffee,  at The Delaunay.