there was the white porcelain hulk of a broken sink unit , glistening and out of place in a hollow at the base of a gnarled tree , close to a muddy slide in the embankment side , revealing a possible means of ingress to the houses not so very far beyond , and the blackened and burnt out shell of a motorbike , pushed just off the track but not so well concealed that it could not be seen by every passer-by .