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squiz Member Member#: 6644 Location: Registered: 27-05-2007 Diary Entries: 3071 |
31st August 2017 Mt. Biking: Tollesbury and along the Blackwater Wind Direction: Wind Stength: Surf / Sea State: Air Temperature: Sea Temperature: Weather: sunny periods Max Speed: Distance Covered: Thursday 31st August – Bike **** Tollesbury and along the Blackwater – sunny periods. We have arranged to go and see the new Grandson in Surrey again this weekend so with yesterday’s rain now past and no wind forecast we are free to get away in the van for a few days:) Mag had to take Jay and a much recovered ‘Fanta’ (one of our Son & Daughter in law’s three cats living at our house) to the vet early. Then we loaded the van with some basic requirement’s including the bikes on our old and broken bike rack, the new one I ordered isn’t arriving until tomorrow! Then headed the 46 miles to Tollesbury Marina in Essex a place we had stayed in the van before:) We were held up for a short time near Tiptree but did get to smell the famous jam factory! We managed to find a great place to park with the muddy creek on the right, the tide well out, and with a nice man-made beach and swimming lagoon to the left and behind us with loads of kids enjoying the warm weather in inflatable boats and canoes. The best game several older children were playing was to walk/crawl across the muddy creek getting covered in mud and then wash it off in the swimming pool, it looked great fun but Mag didn’t want to give it a try! We had a salad for dinner with fantastic views towards Mersea Island with the big red lightship which is now the base for adventure holidays just across the maze of creeks with flocks of starling whizzing about. Then I undid the bikes and we headed off on a route we walked last time. Starting off going back the way we came in past the four large wooden lofts to the footpath past the sandy beach to the marina with all its boats marooned with the tide still out and onto the river path which leads to the nature reserve. There was a sign saying ‘ No Right to Cycle’ and were not sure what that meant as it didn’t actually say no cycling, so ignored it like everyone else had done as the tracks in the mud showed! The path sits on top of the sea wall with a vast area of creeks to the left and marshy grazing land with sheep to the right. The huge Bradwell power station was ahead of us on the other side of the Blackwater and West Mersea’s beach huts clearly visible on the left. On reaching the Blackwater we came across the first of several war time bunkers with fantastic views of the river estuary with loads of mud and small wicker fences that help stop erosion but with the tide out it was a bit on the smelly side! We soon came to what was once many years ago a railway line down to a pier which had a ferry to Clacton long since gone:( We then came to a split in the path, you could have continued further up the estuary but we decided to head inland on a narrow footpath lined with blackberries. Again, it’s a good year for blackberries and we stopped to try them:) We had to lift our bikes over several styles but soon found a country lane with some nice cottages including one giving away delicious windfall pears, even including bags to take them so we helped ourselves to a few. We were soon back in Tollesbury village and back at the van for a well-deserved cuppa. We had a relaxing hour reading and watching the world go by, the sky did blacken and the wind picked up for a short while but we didn’t get any rain. Then went for a walk out through the creek maze to the lightship and back to the van for a beef tea, yummy too. With the sun setting, the wind very light and the tide now coming in we had three ladies turn up, two on paddle boards and one in a canoe to head out for a sunset paddle, when we win the lottery I will get a couple of inflatable paddle boards as they look like great fun:) With high water at eight and the road not going to flood we are safe to stay here for the night and look forward to more adventures tomorrow:) Photo Gallery here |
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