# Harwich Beacon Fort - Sep 2013



## UrbanX (Sep 10, 2013)

I hate exploring solo. Ever since I tried it and ended up in A&E alone, I vowed never to do it again.

However I had just bought a new GoPro head camera and was desperate to try it out. I sequentially asked 12 other explorers if they’d come out with me, all said “Yes” and then “No”. Determined to get out, I went it alone.

There’s a mass of in depth information on this place, probably too much, on sites like SubBrit & Wikipedia. I won’t try and put it into my own words, I’ll just get it wrong.

I headed straight to the observation tower:




The view over the rest of the site was impressive, I felt like a kid in a sweet shop not knowing where to explore next!







No handrail tho…




View through the metal shutters towards the docks.




(I’ll apologise now for the number of photos which have a silhouette of me in them. Harwich is on the East coast, so all of the emplacements face East, and I visited in the morning…)

The first emplacement:









I actually became quite comfortable being on the site alone, especially at the higher points, and I decided to relax for a few minutes just staring out to sea.




Anyone know what this is? Some sort of conveyor system?



I love how this site is just covered in unusual shaped concrete structures.






Hmm, then I noticed a brand new mountain bike leaning up inside this one:




Maybe I wasn’t alone?

As I came round the corner into the last tower I bumped into a guy kneeling in the doorway, furiously err…’helping himself’

_“Shit!”_ I declared
_“Shit!”_ He declared.

As we made eye contact he blew his load. He looked mortified, I looked the other way and tried to pretend I hadn’t noticed anything (not very convincing) I looked back to see him quickly waddling away towards the bike. “I’m never bloody exploring solo again” I muttered to myself.







As I was making my way out of the site (being careful not to follow matey boy too closely) I heard a large group noisily entering the site. Definitely time to go. 

Cheers for looking:


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## krela (Sep 10, 2013)

That thing you want to know what it is, it's an shell/ammo lift.


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## UrbanX (Sep 10, 2013)

krela said:


> That thing you want to know what it is, it's an shell/ammo lift.



That's what I initially thought, then thought "No, it can't be that's a bit Hollywood"
They must really been expecting to get through the rounds up there!


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## krela (Sep 10, 2013)

Oh yes, a good team could fire anything from 3-6 rounds per minute on a naval gun I think, and you don't want to be storing too much ammo above ground as it's a huge explosion risk (I think most emplacements would have enough above ground storage for 15-25 shells) so it needs to be transported from underground to aboveground pretty quickly.


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## alex76 (Sep 10, 2013)

great stuff mate haha... do you think matey boy had anything to do with the graffiti on the left side of pic 15  :laugh:


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## flyboys90 (Sep 10, 2013)

Ace shots you,ve captured it well.


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## Mars Lander (Sep 10, 2013)

Great story , report and pikkies. good on you for going solo am the same i just wont. Very odd with that bloke!! whats the gopro like we keep debating get one. which one did you get


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## UrbanX (Sep 10, 2013)

Mars Lander said:


> Great story , report and pikkies. good on you for going solo am the same i just wont. Very odd with that bloke!! whats the gopro like we keep debating get one. which one did you get



I got the Hero 3 - White edition (lowest spec) 
looking at the extra features of the higher spec - 120fps instead of 60, and 11MP stills instead of 5. 

I made the decision that I'd not use either of those so saved £160 for mounts and a trip to Europe  

The thing I do really need to learn is when it's on and when it's off - when it's head mounted you cant see the light! I had a few occasions I was about to jump / climb over something then I would turn the camera OFF, turning it back on afterwards! D'Oh! 

It's permanently set on wide angle, which is fine by me! 

The Wifi on it is amazing. It's completely controllable from your phone, you can flick through live photos, turn it on / off, live stream it etc. I had mine charging on my parcel shelf at a drive through, went to check my phone, and lo and behold I could see the grinning idiot behind me on my phone! 

I'll PM you the video of the day, I didn't pop it up here as it has the comical access included on it!  

I had it set to 720px, I cant be doing with the memory nommage of the full HD! 

Downsides: It's crap in the dark (looks like phone footage) and battery life is only just over an hour.


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## Mars Lander (Sep 10, 2013)

Cheers man, very informative, Projectmayhem has one too you see so I just wanted to compare notes, they seem pretty ace but like you say it 's the battery life that's not the best I guess, but I think we're sold on getting one


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## UrbanX (Sep 10, 2013)

I think I'll probably treat myself to some third party batteries from the money saved in the downgrade! 
At 720px (30fps) a 32GB Micro SD can hold over 6.5 hours of footage. So batteries will go well before memory does!


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## Mars Lander (Sep 10, 2013)

Yeah he has a bundle of batteries he just leaves the thing on constantly haha are you saving on memory tho at 720p as even tho its half the res of 1080 it shoots at twice the frame rate i.e. 30/25fps 1080 vs 60/50p 720 unless you can turn the fps down to 30/25p in 720 too ? .. ah well am sure will have fun finding out when we finally get one later in the year


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## Lightbuoy (Sep 11, 2013)

One of me fave local explores is this. Only Secca I've encountered here are the giant seagulls!!!

Nice pics as always -tip top stuff ol' chap!


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## Infraredd (Sep 12, 2013)

I'm amazed there aren't more stories of random off the wall encounters in reports on this site. All of you go to dangerous places, take insane risks and stunning pictures.


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## Sshhhh... (Sep 12, 2013)

Fantastic looking location and great shots! Ewww,the man, I wonder who was the most embarrassed!


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## The Wombat (Sep 18, 2013)

Excellent photos, and an amusing storey to go with it.
solo explores are higher risk, and its usually more fun to share the experience with someone else. That said, sometimes ive had to do a few on my own, and taken that risk.
never had any encounter like that though!


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## UrbanX (Sep 19, 2013)

The Wombat said:


> Excellent photos, and an amusing storey to go with it.
> solo explores are higher risk, and its usually more fun to share the experience with someone else. That said, sometimes ive had to do a fee on my own, and taken that risk.
> never had any encounter like that though!



Cheers dude! 

TBH I don't have a great track record of solo visits. Having a lucky escape after the head injury mentioned above. (Just made it to A&E before passing out, lucky to still have my hearing, etc.). I was just so set on it, and couldn't believe I'd asked 12 people separately and had been let down by all of them! 

TBH My first instinct was "Junkie" as he was on the floor shaking...  

Lol, if you didn't see on FB: I got this funny mail from my website this morning, about going there: 



It would have been a lot more convincing if it wasn't sent in the early hours of the morning...and if he'd got Essex Councils URL right...


Totally agree with you about having someone to share the experience with. 

Although I laugh about the w**king incident now and chose to share it - I can't help but feel if there had been four of us, it would have been a lot more humorous!


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## leepey74 (Sep 19, 2013)

Awesome pics  Looks like an amazing site!!


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## Dirus_Strictus (Sep 19, 2013)

krela said:


> Oh yes, a good team could fire anything from 3-6 rounds per minute on a naval gun I think, and you don't want to be storing too much ammo above ground as it's a huge explosion risk (I think most emplacements would have enough above ground storage for 15-25 shells) so it needs to be transported from underground to aboveground pretty quickly.



It is worth noting that, dependant on ordnance fitment, many of these guns used bagged propellant charges and not fixed munitions. Calico bags containing pounds of cordite, even when contained in transit tubes, are not the nicest objects to have stacked around one! Thus in many installations of this type there will bee two lifts, one from the shell magazine and one from the propellant magazine. 

The range of the gun was controlled by the number of propellant bags placed in the breech. This is why on some of the range 'charts' one occasionally finds painted on the interior walls of these emplacements, there is mention of varying numbers of charge bags.


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## shane.c (Sep 19, 2013)

Good pics thanks for posting,


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## whitelaw (Sep 20, 2013)

Is the large concrete tower an old Coastguard station? There is one similar, er- oh - not allowed to say where - lets say its near an airfield right on the South Coast near EGKA. (For those in the know.) No chance of access, but its there anyway.


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## krela (Sep 20, 2013)

whitelaw said:


> Is the large concrete tower an old Coastguard station? There is one similar, er- oh - not allowed to say where - lets say its near an airfield right on the South Coast near EGKA. (For those in the know.) No chance of access, but its there anyway.



No it's an observation post.


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## Andymacg (Sep 22, 2013)

excellent pics they are, although the background of the second picture is giving me nightmares, lol Trinity and Landguard terminals over at Felixstowe , always wondered what the fort like thing was i could see from Landguard terminal, now I know and I think a trip next time im over Harwich was is on the cards


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