Embark on a journey along the famous Thames river, beginning from the centre of time itself. But it is not the crowded bankside people usually visit that you will be discovering. Instead, we take you off the beaten track, with one of the best Master Storytellers this land has to offer.

Your tour guide will be Adrian Beckingham, aka The Man from Story Mountain. Come and hear for yourself why https//:www.adrianbeckingham.com has won national awards for his storytelling. Adrian's storytelling and tours has for over 25 years enchanted audiences for clients like The British Museum, English Heritage, The National Trust, Glastonbury Festival (every year since 1994), and now his favourite new home, Tor's Tours.


You will witness the birthplace of a king, sit in the throne of a tsar, rub shoulders with pirates (Adrian is a Pirate Of London and has been known to crew Sir Francis Drake's famous Golden Hinde pirate galleon). You will see a London very few tourists ever get to tread, snug little parks and wildlife reserves, city farms, Britain's second favourite tree. Venture if you dare down to sections of the shoreline in the footsteps of 'mudlarks' and see what treasures you can find there.

Take in the feel of history as well as beauty here, amidst the inevitable sprawl of human industry and housing. Walk where for centuries the city collected exotic riches from far away lands, from rice and grains, to coffee, silks, animals. But take on too the essence of what happened during the bombings of World War Two, and the courage it took to stand firm when all seemed lost. You will feel very much a local as you walk back streets between poor housing then alongside the leafy green riverbank promenades of some of London's most exclusive real estate.

You will discover marinas where once a large whaling station stood. As a previous National Coordinator of Greenpeace Australia, who led the team that turned away the 1991 Japanese whaling fleets, it would be hard to find a more impassioned or informed guide than Adrian.

Stand at the place where once a fishing village stood, and learn some of the sites and sounds of what life would have been like. This very place is also the spot where centuries later, Queen Elizaeth I knighted Sir Francis Drake after his return from the Pacific. There his small galleon 'The Golden Hinde', aboard which Adrian has privateered, single handedly defeated the Spanish galleons and returned to the UK with enough gold to pay off the national debt. But did Elizabeth I really knight Francis Drake, and where is his galleon now? Look underfoot for many of this city's best kept secrets.

There is a chances to visit an interesting alternative gift shop should anyone here is an opportunity to do some last minute shopping before catching a flight home. Our tour ends at the very place where the Mayflower collected The Pilgrim Fathers and set sail for America on 'The Mayflower'. Visit the hidden away little park there as part of the monument to this historic place.

This delightful, informative tour offers much serendipity. You will leave glad you have seen and understood this city at a far deeper level. And no doubt there will be a smile on your face.