Blog

Essex Way
by Greg Brock

On the 23rd of March 99 Kev and I decided to walk the Essex way. As Essex is extremely flat and boring we decide to walk it all in one go over the weekend of the 27/28 March 1999.

LENGTH - 81 Miles (130km)

START - Harwich Quay, Grid Ref: TM 259329

FINISH - Epping Tube Station, Grid ref. TL 465012

Travelling
On Friday 26 March 99 we travelled to Victoria bus station where we got on a coach to Harwich. Our first problem occurred at Colchester where we were meant to change from a National Express coach to an Eastern National coach. The driver of the Eastern National coach said we had the wrong ticket and wouldn't let us on. We then phoned National Express who said the Eastern National driver was wrong and they provided us with a taxi. We arrived in Harwich behind the Eastern National coach at 11:55pm.

The Walk
We started our journey at 12 midnight from the high lighthouse in Harwich. We had a bit of a problem finding our way because it wasdark but we managed to arrive in Ramsey at 1:15am after quite a lot of walking along the coast. At 2:15 we arrived at a very nice bird watchers hut where we slept. We went to bed at about 2:30am and got up at 4:30am because we were so cold. As we were travelling light we didn't take sleeping bags. At 5:00am it started getting light. 5:40am we came across another bird hut and slept there for an hour. We were soon hungry and cooked breakfast at 7:30 am under a slide on a bench, we also slept there for an hour. When we reached Dedham at 11:00am we stopped for some more food. 1:15pm we stopped for lunch just outside Boxted and as it was a nice day we also slept for an hour on the green.7:30pm we reached the halfway point (Coggeshall) where we cooked dinner. At 12:00 midnight we stopped at White Notley Station after 48 miles of walking and slept in the waiting room, as we were well tired. We left there at 3am (remember the clocks had gone forward at this point). At 5:00am we slept for another hour. 7:00am we cooked breakfast at Great Leighs. We still had a lot of walking left to do. We arrived at Epping Station (The End) at 7:40pm. We were so tired it was unbearable.

Details of route
Harwich - Little Oakley - Ramsey - Wrabness - Bradfield - Mistley - Manningtree - Dedham - Langham Hall - Boxted - Horkesely Heath - West Bergholt - Ford Street - Great Tey - Coggeshall - Perry Green - Cressing - White Notley - Fairstead - Terling - Fuller Street - Little Leighs - Chatham Green - Great Waltham - Pleshey - Good Easter - Pepper's Green - Willingale - Cannons Green - Chipping Ongar - Greenstead Church - Toot Hill - Epping

TOTAL TIME 42 Hours 40 Minutes.

TOTAL WALKING TIME 34 Hours 40 Minutes.