12 miles walked today
330.5 miles walked in
total (average 13.22)
Vicky Church (B.Eng, ARGE*) and myself (BOE**)
left Ashford this morning at 7.30 am and were in Rochford and ready to walk
just after nine o’clock.
We didn’t have a promising start as the footpath
took us into an industrial estate where we proceeded to get lost. When we finally got out onto the right road
and located the next footpath (which also led nowhere), we decided to cut our
losses and keep to the roads for a while.
It wasn’t long before we found a path which took
us through farmland – dried peas and brussel sprouts, followed by potatoes and
the odd courgette plant. At Little
Wakering, the path led into the pub garden of the Castle Inn – very handy –
where a line dancing festival was in progress.
At least, the American flags were flying and Billy Jo Spears was blaring
from the speakers, but there no dancers to speak of. Apparently, the landlord was also expecting a
“bucking bronco” to be there, according to the posters, but we didn’t see him
either.
After a quick drink, we carried on, on paths and
roads to Great Wakering to have lunch in a shady part of a graveyard. (According to our taxi driver later in the
day, the temperature reached 31 degrees at 1.30 pm today. We can quite believe it.)
After lunch, we were back on roads to
Shoeburyness, but had to keep out of the firing range. We did trespass a little though – just to
show that rebellion doesn’t necessarily exclude walkers.
Back on roads to Southend, which was (predictably)
heaving with holiday makers, hen parties and numerous weddings, judging by the
amount of decorated cars we saw. We even
saw an open top bus with a wedding party on.
We had great difficulty finding somewhere to stay – one place was so
awful, it didn’t bear thinking about what breakfast would involve. It was cheap, but the landlord stank of beer
and BO and even procured two men from an adjoining room for us – thanks, but no
thanks.
After discussion, we got a taxi back to the car
and then spent ninety minutes driving whilst ‘phoning tourist offices, Talking
Pages, Directory Enquiries, guest houses and pubs in the Good Pub Guide. We finally struck lucky at the Ferry Boat Inn
at North Fambridge – where Vicky and I had
lunch on a previous walking weekend. The
pub has six weatherboarded apartments at the back of the pub with the most
comfortable beds I’d ever seen – really high and soft – like the Princess and
the Pea! And for exactly the same price
as we were asked for in the hovel in Southend – excellent!
A very good end to quite a trying day – it’s
probably been too hot to walk anyway and, despite the suncream liberally
applied all day, Vicky and I have some very odd stripey suntans, thanks to
walking with the sun on our left for part of the day, not to mention the
rucksack straps. How very attractive!
*
All Round Good Egg ** Barbecue Organiser Extraordinaire
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