October 31st, 2024
It’s been nearly a year since I last adventured in the East Midlands and I’ve wanted to go back but travelling there becomes more and more troublesome the further I get from Cambridge. So to amortise this slightly I did a two day trip starting at Melton Mowbray where I finished last December, stayed overnight it Nottigham and then continued the next day along the Trent towards Newark.
This was my first visit to Nottingham and I expected it to be super sketchy but actually it seemed fine. I saw the famous Trent Bridge cricket ground as well as the castle and obligatory Robin Hood statue.
Anglers on the River Trent
I didn’t make it all the way to Newark though, as some combination of tiredness, darkness, lack of map, and unexpected absence of river crossings caused me to abort the mission at the hitherto unheard of village of Fiskerton.
October 26th, 2024
It may come as a surprise to some but this is my fortieth year. I told a whole bunch of people that to celebrate it I was going to challenge myself to walk forty miles in one day. So far my longest outing had been just shy of 34 miles. I had meant to slowly build up to it, maybe adding one mile a month, but due to the hot summer and some other things I was dealing with I completely flunked the training regime. But I decided to have a bash at it anyway, having found a reasonable looking route from Colchester to Saffron Walden via Braintree.
I woke up at some ungodly hour and set off before sunrise.
Sunrise near Colchester
Here’s a top tip: if you measure a 40 mile distance on Google Maps using rough straight lines, the actual distance is going to be a lot longer. By the time I got to Braintree I was already two hours behind schedule and I’d only just passed 35 miles when the sun set in sight of Stansted airport.
Now I could probably have bailed out at this point but I was feeling quite energised and I’d brought a flashlight and a head torch so I just powered on and blasted through the 40 mile mark.
Sunset somewhere near Stansted airport
After about 45 miles I’d had enough. Everything was painful and I staggered the last few miles to the station in Newport (Essex) just short of my original goal. Total time was just over sixteen and a half hours with a brief break for lunch. The fiftieth birthday challenge seems doable now though, eh?
October 10th, 2024
Continuing around East Anglia I found myself in Clacton again staying at this wonderful B&B called “The Chudleigh” run by a lovely woman named Carol. After I told her I was walking all the way to Colchester she gave me an extra muffin to take with me.
Along the coast I passed through Jaywick, infamous for being one of England’s most deprived neighbourhoods. Honestly it didn’t look that bad, similar to some of the small coastal settlements near where I grew up. Many of the houses like those below were built as holiday homes for Londoners and not intended to be lived in permanently.
Jaywick
I needed to make one last ferry crossing to get over the river to Brightlingsea. However instead of a ferry-summoning bat the Brightlingsea ferry runs on a strict hourly schedule and even has a dedicated app!
The unorthodox design of the Brightlingsea harbour app
I nearly missed the ferry and ended having to wave madly to get it to come back to shore as I ran towards it. After I got on board the captain asked me if I was “the one who pre-booked”. Apparently none of the other passengers were aware of the app.
River Colne near Wivenhoe
After that excitement I walked inland towards Colchester via the picturesque Wivenhoe. Not something I can say about Colchester itself unfortunately, which seemed to be a bit of a dump and was confirmed on a repeat visit two weeks later.