England Coast Path: Mersea Island to Rowhedge

Another week comes to an early end.

morning all me again hello this is how to Mur feat a set of hiking videos uh which probably could be edited quite comfortably down into a one and half hour special for the entire trip um I am well I don’t know where I am really peld in 12 it said um this is this is section 38 or 37 maybe of the England coast paath to be I haven’t seen a sign since salcott yesterday so no way corns for me so I’m basically uh on my way along a red line that exists on a planning map mostly so I’m kind of using my initiative a bit at the moment but that’s good 8:15 on uh Wednesday the 1st of May hello what on there notification bar okay um yeah well May Day course it’s Wednesday so traditionally Mayday is a bank holiday in the UK uh but it’s a Wednesday so we’re getting the bank holiday on the 6th of May which is next Monday after I’m back home so that’s good bonus holiday for no extra time off there we go see here we go this is lead no trace this I I did indeed Camp here I’m not ashamed to admit it and I was it was a good spot actually completely undisturbed all night and this morning I mean it took about an hour and a half to pack up this morning I was a bit sluggish slowing down a bit I think but yes look this is what you do you leave nothing but a flat patch of grass and that’s not even dead grass I mean it’s one night of being squashed that will that will bounce back up and grow like the rest of it before long no campfires no rubbish that’s what you want all right so stay plan uh so I’m going to langen HHO which is about 4 miles that way for a morning stock up they got a little shop and hopefully a bench nearby in a bin I will Gorge extensively rebuild my stamina I ache a lot I didn’t sleep very well but I don’t sleep very well anyway intense so but I still feel underneath the aches there’s a core of perseverance let’s call it that will let me keep going today very it rained well I mean as you saw on the video rained about 8:00 yesterday uh in the evening I thought it was going to rain at 1:00 3:00 onto the weather but if it did it didn’t wake me up so but again everything covered in condensation on the tent I had the flaps open and everything and I just think it’s it’s just going to do that it’s combination of the atmosphere conditions and my breathing I think I’m quite hot inside my lungs specifically uh yeah so I have put a wet tent away again I just have to stretch it out in the stairwell when I get home and let it dry for a couple of days it should be all right for when any M you sets in of course it means it is a bit heavier must be about not done about a whole liter of water on that tent at the moment maybe maybe anyway so moving on so yes Langan ho this morning and then around to fingering ho um I to sort of improvise a bit of a projected ECP route through there then we cross a little bridge and then we go up to I can’t remember what it’s called rham something like that there was there was a small village and then up to Colchester itself there a there’s a dis there’s a suburb of Colchester called Hive on the southern end which is probably where we’re going to pass through I’m not going to Colchester Town Center but hi might have a few shops and things and we cross the river coln sometime early afternoon I suppose and then head back down the other side past some various different little Villages and things and I’ve picked out a spot on the River Bank near an Old Railway Bridge which no longer exists which I’m thinking the the the footing of that might be might make a useful spot we’ll see so I’m over halfway you can see I’m wearing the other shirt clearly I’m on the second half of a hiking week I’m wearing I’m wearing the uh the second half shirt so yeah clean clothes this morning which is a small Comfort which will soon fade I’m sure very I mean the combination of less of th’s rain and just morning Dee anyway makes it’s got the the grass rather wet so I’ve got the old Gators on and I’m not doing the top cuz that was very long grass last night when I get across this through this gate and style up ahead there uh it’s going to be very short grass cuz it’s absolutely full of sheep and cows that’s why I didn’t want to go any further yesterday that should make for some easier going and yeah I’m just going to have to dry as I go get some suntan stuff on again I haven’t got much good reception where moment so I need to get to somewhere where there’s a few bars and then check the weather but I don’t believe it was going to rain today this looks quite fine this keeps up even for the morning I’ll be good but as ever anarak waterproof trousers Etc it’s all there oh Bird Box owls or something castels don’t know don’t if it’s occupied right I’m going to get back to the main road and then trudge along it dangerously for a little bit and then I get to cut sideways and make country shortcut to langum langum langen Ho something like that starts to blur together after a while speak again soon yeah ni to get off the killer main road now to a side road I think I have to go through here is all very private but it does say please keep to the foot path so they welcome me and I’m not a bicycle horse or a dog on a lead so that’s okay so yeah the other side and then left and then I can cut up that way and then onto some country lanes and then into langho I think good he know your visit has been oh whatever CCTV yeah I’m not doing anything wrong oh big solar farm up here just seen a couple of electrical engineering trucks come through I should be going that far along here though little Community shop there very friendly people stocking up get head off soon [Music] langho no that one yes that one what we doing just coming up to 10:00 it’s good a whole day ahead of me just a distant gunfire fusades that direction big chunk of the coast corner is um mod firing range so we’re sort of zigzagging our way around and around it a bit twisty and there’s no signs at all um one day will be a coast path presumably I’m going to use my own navigation skills to zigzag my way through I’m heading for fingringhoe which is sort of over that way kind of some country park down there um and then back up to some sort of bridge that will take me across another River back onto the main river and that take me to towards Ro hedge which is the next place yeah quite hard going the blisters are distracting certainly getting on both feet now really overpacked I think or just not trained enough for that kind of weight bit of both iect [Music] noisy track tractor see for uh dealing with some very marshy country yeah I mean I’m just thinking this time last year somewhere around Gillingham uh I jacked it in basically cuz my knee started uh click you know basically throbbing every time I bent it I thought that was a serious enough excuse to quit early and do only four days so that’s pretty much the point I’m at now but my knee’s fine it’s the it’s the feet I don’t remember the blisters being this bad but then I think they might have been I don’t know I have had blisters like this before I’m sure of it but uh I just filled up all the water at the shop so now I’m back to full weight and I’ve uh had a lot to eat as well at least a kilo of food so I’m back to sort of full weight again on the backpack which is you know perhaps a little too heavy so who knows I don’t know I mean whatever my whatever plan it’s get to Colchester today before I even decide about bailing early but uh no I don’t I don’t want to apart from the blisters I think I’m all right and generally I power on through the blisters and then worry about it in the following week but I don’t know we’ll see we’ll see [Music] more inclined to keep going than not but we’ll see by the time I get to hie on the bridge at Colchester hie itself has a station pretty much there so there’s a whole Branch line on the opposite side of the col that goes down to clampton with a couple of stations pointing at a hedge imagine you can see through the Hedge but yeah there’s a whole Lo there’s basically a branch line that runs from Colchester down to Clack I’ll be taking it to come home so and there’s several stations along the way so at any point on the on the far side of the col I can just get on a train come home so that was a useful contingency I’ve been seeing seeing a lot of buses in all the little Villages I’ve been exploring this this week so far so it’s good a reassuring sight actually a bus means I can get out of here if it all goes wrong safety line you know just got to sit for a little bit and then carry on trudging does feel like charging it’s all roads at the moment quite a lot of road work which I suppose is good but also bad Dodge duck into Hedges away from traffic a lot of the moment sound like I’m not enjoying myself but I am really so that’s uh that’s fingering ho Wick Nature’s Discovery Park thing uh it just goes down there’s nothing else there come back again uh I don’t actually want to go down there I need to take this short path across here Cuts along and then takes me North to f rho proper I think these are all broadly where the England coast paath will go one day oh it’s hard going though basically it hurts when I walk hurts more when I stop so uh yeah I’m seriously considering stopping at um at high at Colchester now Mak this a four day after all I don’t know what I’ve done wrong I’ve overpacked or underprepared or something but uh yeah when the fun stops stop and all that I don’t really want to do any permanent damage to myself don’t know that I would but always meant to ease into this gently but uh maybe maybe my very very original plan of just going to Colchester was the right one but I can if I if I stomp on today and uh continue the route I was going to do anyway uh I think I should get to hie around 4:00 somewhere near a station which will give me time to get home again today across the trains if they’re not all in a in a muddle in a state and then I don’t know think about something else to do for the remaining two days I would have had to have spent down to Clapton maybe reschedule that for September or maybe an interim trip in Midsummer who knows I mean if I really really pushed it and I really don’t want to if I really pushed it I could potentially day trip some of this stuff I’m still broadly on the absolute limit I mean the furthest away I’ve been day tripping on this C path thing was Satan first week after I got rained off on week seven of the Southwest coast path and I ended up from pretty much finishing the last day I sort of jacked in the last day because of concerns about hypothermia uh I came back and did that by with the car it was a bit of a drive but don’t know at 200 OD miles or so but uh doable if you’re obsessed with a passion like I am and this is about the same distance away from where I live plus the M25 is you know Whimsical but but a good road when it works I could very much I mean some of this stuff I’ve done this week so far I don’t think I could have day tripped because there’s no public transport between a and b and and it was all sorts of linkages that would have made it very difficult to get any serious Mage done but who knows the bit from Colchester down to Clanton don’t know or maybe I’ll do a little backpack week in the weekend you in the in the summer perhaps trying and work out how much of this I don’t need quite a bit of I think and then also you know get on the couch to 5K or do some sort of exercise it’s it’s not the physical fitness I’m all right I’m not you know having heart attacks or my knees are okay my legs are okay it’s just the soles of my feet not used to this much weight for this long I think that’s basically it but there are it does you know it’s a WIS every every step which is you know sort of making me not really enjoy this much I’m normally say happy gol lucky and of course every time I stop and drop the B and sit down when I stand up again it’s God cuz all the blood’s got rushed into the affected area whilst I was whilst the weight was off them makes them super tender when I uh stand on it again and then it takes another 100 m or so to even get that that level of pain back down to the original level of pain I know may I just chug some paracetamol and hope for the best trouble is that that way lies permanent damage cuz you sort of dull it all and then you think I’m fine just run your stumps ragged as you are completely oblivious to it uh so I’m thinking just carry on with today as as planned till about midaf afternoon when I reached the bridge at Colchester and then head for the Station instead draw a lot stick a pin in it still miles accomplished I mean I had yeah I still think that’s about 60 miles done anyway even at that point so was worth what yeah much like the uh the um Margate week I suppose quit while I quit while I can you know only I can really judge my own state of body and mind feel free to comment all the way add as many comments as you like about what a wuss I am but frankly that’s up to me but yes I don’t know first time with a big bag on for over a year and I put about must be at least three or four extra kilos in there since last time extra bits of clothes and I packed a load of cold weather stuff cuz I thought it would be chilly it was last week but now this is perfectly normal temperature for the time of year at the moment will be for the rest of the week so that’s pair of uh thermal leggings some extra hats gloves Etc a whole jumper a warm winter Jumper in there and then I got an extra liter of water which is has Prov to be useful but I don’t know I was managed with two before it got a bit touch and go towards the end of the of a day but but then there was always more shops around I don’t know don’t know that’s clearly affecting my speed if nothing else H maybe I did push too hard in the last few days I seem to remember a few pieces to camera was smugly pointing out what extra mileage I’d done that day this is the cost I guess anyway the any way out from here for me for now is to get to Colchester which is pretty much along the Route I was going to do anyway which I think I can probably manage it’ll be G your teeth most of the way but uh not sure I’d want to add another two days on top of this to be honest it’s a shame it’s a nice day lovely scenery surroundings but all I can think about is my feet each time I put one down on the ground which is just not the right to be doing this chap I met on the first day going the other way he’s B&B in it doing it day day by day in B&B’s begin to think that might be the way in future Splash a bit of cash it’s not I can’t afford a B&B the camp out choice not not Financial necessity that’ss the logistics of it all means that you can either camp or hike 80 miles not both you know I didn’t know I don’t seem remember having any problems like this on my uh the stuff I was doing over the winter all around the Deni Mar and all that stuff the car I could use local buses and bmbs and things pick a reasonably Central one to base out of Colchester would have done yeah bear in mind if you draw a straight line from molden to Clapton on sea it’s only 20 mil I could probably train and bus to various jumping off points all up and down that route and it’s like it be quite similar for most of the way going north there’s not that many straight 80 lengths and then well maybe I’ll just you know get a bus between two different b&bs it’s all doable or maybe just drive up to these places use the B&B as a base work the car into it all somehow essentially turn it into a whole lot of car-based day trips and I don’t have to drive home again each time which is the Killer maybe that’s the way to do it pick a hotel in a nearby major town and just commute from there for the week there’s lots of options that don’t involve carrying a oh my God it must be 20 kilos I remember weighing doing oh I forgot to weigh it this time but I remember weighing it before some of the the corwall and Deon trips kind south of coast and it was 16 17 kilos in the bag must be 20 now and that’s yeah too much I think for what essentially amounts to a raw newbie again like me there I am making all the excuses again anyway let’s not worry about that let’s finish today and then we’ll do we’ll talk more when we get to Colchester well I’ll talk more in between obviously but not going to about my long-term health issues so that over there must be the other side of the coln a little white house can’t see the river itself is over the hill so we are heading upstream and where abouts that would be Wen HHO I don’t know not quite sure where we’re level with there a lot of little Villages all on the other side as well which we may now no longer see this week right head down trud on working back into fingering ho now coming back away from the River to cross the foot bridge I think I see a pub sign board there so if that’s actually open I might stop for a lemonade I could certainly use one it’s about 9 minutes past 12 hopefully they’re open Primary School Church not a lot else don’t think there’s any shops here lemonade will do me P yes with the ice love it live it must take decades to get that very good actually I think it’s westera we got Oles too couple custom ones on there so I go down that road next down the hill to River across the river turn right on foot path that follows the back to the main river and then it’s just stomp on up to the bridge don’t know done some checking as long as I get to Hive station by about half five today I should be good to go should be good to get home I’m protecting the about 4:00 but we’ll see cuz I still got to get myself you know home you know stumping about railway platform stairs and possibly a 2 mile walk when I get home as well depends what the bus is like so yeah probably a good point to cut my losses I’m not worried not disappointed it was a good run anyway we’re not there yet so I think that is W ho on the far side of the col once we across this little millhous uh mhouse Bridge thing we cut right and find our way back towards the proper River done with fingering ho on the peninsula here yeah slowing down a bit I think this is a problem cuz I’ve got to be at the station by half five it’s just about half 12 now well I mean Google thinks the straight line walking route from here along sort of the road is about three about 4 miles thinks it’ll take me 1 hour and 4 minutes not me not today no but even if I’m half that fast it still puts me there for about two or three plenty of options to get Homeward from there basically red line down to Stratford and then the Elizabeth line Paddington black line to back where I live yeah now I think I’m making the right call to be honest I mean I’m going to stick to the coast path back to the bridge and to the station but this was always my contingency plan and well I suppose I’m just using it really no shame in that so this looks a bit muddy but least we’re off the roads again they starting to hurt my feet of it plus also my left boot squeaks on Tac I don’t know why [Music] more Tim problems yeah you can see the sea ball there I’m going to pass across here and up on top of it and Away stomp on home good place just stumble out of the F and we are I’m technically cutting a corner here but needs must when there’s a train to catch anyway there’s no England coast pass here I’ve been looking and checking for for days [Music] back on the com there’s Ro hedge couple of nice looking pubs there but I already stopped for a lemonade quite recently also if I stop it hurts when I start again I know this is not right so just need to follow this up stream see where we end up well here we are Ro hedge still I’ve been doing some times and maps and calculations and things and I’m not sure I’m going to get there before the last train I’m really slowing down at the moment which is not good it like I’m doing the other part back over there at some point uh yeah the way my feet are blistering up and stuff I it took me took me an hour to get here from that last Pub and I don’t I don’t know if that’s a mile so and I just sort of slowing down I thrown some water away cuz I didn’t think I need it now um lost dropped two bottles into a hedge emptied two bottles out into the Hedge um so it’s 2 kgs lighter kept the bottles obviously want to reuse them but uh and you can feel the you can feel the difference yeah but it’s the damage is already done I think and I just think God I mean I’m in I’m considerable danger of missing the last connections back to home today so if there’s any other problems with the trains between here and there on the last one that could be it you can see the train line over there you just see it flashing through the I can hear it anyway here there it is so that’s the train line from Colchester to Clon which I would be using to come back in two days time but I don’t know I just D myself a Mis you early haven’t I which is a shame so I’m going to probably stop here there’s a bus from here that goes to Colchester soon and then from Co Chester I can just Mose you on back to home so that means I’m going have to come back here and finish this last stretch before I go on and over do the other side as well oh ow ow ow yeah I mean it’s much worse when I sit down for a bit and then stand up takes ages for it to numb off yeah I I mean yeah I don’t know if I’m going to do myself permanent damage it will heal eventually but it’s going to be a couple of weeks where I can walk confidently in the countryside again and be shuffling to and from the car from now on for a while yeah stupid you think I’d you know be somewhat seasoned to this have some some idea of what I’m doing but clearly not it’s been too long since I’ve done any serious hiking and I think I’ve got a much heavier bag than I’ve ever had before that was stupid as well need to pair down on that look at some ultr light stuff or just Jack in the camping thing and start B&B and day tripping and things again you know it’s the it’s the path that’s the thing not not the sleeping Arrangements you know nothing about my life Quest that dictates I must carry 16 kilos worth of junk around on my back when I do it so perhaps more B&B stuff I’m getting to that age I’m 49 this year so you know and I’m definitely heavier than I should be and I’ve got type two diabetes as well which probably ought to be keeping more of an eye on so all in all yeah I think that might be it for this trip I’m going to go and see if I can find this bus stop then and uh just try and sit down for most of the way back to my house from here but yeah roadhead is not bad I don’t know what that 50 Mi 50 to 60 something like that I have to measure it up but uh it’s all miles in the B on a section of England coast paath that at best is is poorly signed and worse is not there at all so uh yeah this is always going to be a difficult stretch of the world difficult part of the country and it is anyway I’ll have to come back and have a go at the other side of this River another time down to Clon and then pretty much once you’ve done Clon it’s up to Har and then back in land for another massive set of river restes so chipping away at this I think slow and steady wins the race or something my morals at a bit of a low as well as you might imagine so anyway I’m going to sign off here then and um yeah thanks for following and watching and stuff and I will definitely I have not given up I definitely will attend to the next bit in some fashion and you’ll see that soon enough but I think for this St if I’m going home I’ve had enough so see you later goodbye