Day 18 – Tuesday 25 April 2000 - Brightlingsea to Colchester

8.5 miles walked today

240.5 miles walked in total (average 13.36)

I was walking at nine o’clock today, after spending breakfast time chatting to a Scottish couple, Victor and Sheila, about walking, computers and Pokemon!  They are visiting grandchildren in Clacton and have been introduced big time to the new children’s craze while staying down here.  Victor is a very keen walker, but Sheila isn’t – so Victor and I exchanged notes for a while.  He’s quite like me in that he doesn’t believe in being pressurised to walk, but that it should be easy and enjoyable.

It’s very difficult to remember this though when your feet are killing you and you have to dash to the toilet regularly with little or no notice.

An American couple staying at the B&B didn’t understand the concept of walking at all and offered me a lift!  This I politely declined.

It’s been very breezy and cloudy today – it rained during the night, although I didn’t hear it.  I had all my clothes on again today, including the fleece.  The boots, however, are still in my bag.  Soon after I started walking, Pitty, the old boy from yesterday, passed me in his car and stopped to check that everything had been OK.  What a star!

I was fairly soon on footpaths out of Brightlingsea and followed Alresford Creek past an old mill and a conservation area (Site of Special Scientific Interest).  There weren’t too many people out today – I guess they’re all back at work after the Easter break.

I followed a dismantled railway to Wivenhoe – it seemed to be a very popular path, judging by the footprints, cycle tracks and amount of litter.

Wivenhoe’s a pretty little place with the houses along the front having their own moorings.  Just past Wivenhoe station, the path becomes part of the National Cycle Network from Hull to Harwich and there’s a very odd looking totem pole which the Royal Bank of Scotland have erected as one of a thousand mileposts.  It informed me I was four miles from Colchester.

Unfortunately, I had to very quickly backtrack to the loos at the station as my stomach was calling again.  I’m not enjoying the constant calls of nature, but I am enjoying the fact that my trousers now feel quite loose!

I was feeling seriously fed up as I walked into Colchester – possibly the only person to enter the town crying – I really wasn’t enjoying it any more and wanted a rest.  Colchester was to be my destination for the day.  I followed the signs for the Tourist Information Office, but found a B&B before I got there.

I’m going to stay in Colchester a couple of nights so that I can have a chance to explore and rest my feet.  And, because of the state of my heels, I even plan to buy some flipflops!

(In four days, I’ve walked fifty miles around the edge, but ended up only nine miles from where I started at Manningtree!  Unfortunately, my foot is still bleeding after three days, so I’ve given up for a while to try and let it recover.  At least I won’t have to go and get the lumps cut out now – my walking boots seem to have done for them already!)