Yes, as you stand in this tranquil spot, little do you realise
that you are but a few yards away from the San Andreas Fault and
indeed that downtown San Francisco and the Golden Gate Bridge are a
couple of minutes ride by airship over the ridge to the south.
Indeed this very spot was at the centre of an audacious (and
doubtlessly evil) plan to set off major simultaneous earthquakes on
both the San Andreas and Hayward Faults in order to flood Silicon
Valley (Just to our north) leaving the perpetrator in command of
the world wide market in silicon chips (mmmmmmmm chips....)
Yes surprising as it seems we are now standing above the spot
where Mayday made the ultimate (but appallingly acted) sacrifice
and blew herself up in order to thwart the evil plan. It was just
below our feet that those immortal words were uttered (with a
display of acting that made Roger Moore look animated and engaging)
"Get Zorin For Me!!!!".
For Amberley Chalk Pits Museum was used as a location in the
filming of the 1985 James Bond Film "A View To A Kill",
(incidentally Mr Moore's last outing as Bond).
The Museum was used for the outside shots of Zorin's "Main
Strike" mine, the centre of the evil plan previously outlined. In
one of my favourite sequences, the film features the incongruous
sight of Zorin's Airship taking off from the chalk pit and flying
over the hill behind only to appear over downtown San
Francisco!
A view over the chalk pits can be had from the high ground near
the cache location or just down the lane over the low wall.
Unfortunately a lot of trees have grown since filiming and some of
the views are now obscured. Nevertheless this is the place where it
all happened!
Please take care of small children and dogs as although the
chalk pits are well fenced there are some gaps.