Strangers On The Shore At Lower Upnor

Today was my brother's last day of freedom before he has to return to work tomorrow. He's really enjoyed his time off over Christmas and the New Year but I could tell he was getting stressed about going back to work - he is unable to work from home so still has to travel up and down to London every weekday despite the massive surge in the Omicron variant of coronavirus.
We decided a micro trip was required so headed out to Lower Upnor, which is on the foreshore of the River Medway. The weather has been unremittingly grey for what seems like days on end but we got our big jumpers, coats and scarves ready and made ourselves venture out.
Unfortunately, as soon as we arrived we realised we had not consulted the tide times and the tide was fully in so we could only walk a few hundred yards along the river path before we had to turn back along it towards the village itself, which is where my main image was taken.
There were quite a few people out walking but as soon as most of them realised the tide was in and they couldn't walk very far they appeared to get back in their cars and head home. So by the time I took this image there were only a few stragglers left. I then began to embrace the weather and enjoy the cool still air and looking across the river to Rochester with the boats calmly bobbing up and down in the water - it felt really peaceful.
After our somewhat truncated walk we decided to see if we could get a pint in one of the local pubs. One was closed but luckily the other, The Pier, was open. When we arrived the landlord asked us to take a seat and he would take our orders as soon as he could as he was on his own - a combination of staff shortages and covid absences. He still managed to greet us with a smile, be warm and friendly and wish us a good day when we left - what a trooper!
My second image is of one of the gently decaying boats next to one of the boatyards which sit along the shoreline.