England Coast Path Part 24 Pitsea to Southend on sea

 

Monday morning, No Monday blues here because we are on the coast path about to walk another section today will be from...

Pitsea to Southend on sea 

Distance 11:95 Miles

Elevation gain 187 Feet

Time 04:10:00

So it's flat nice easy walking! well yes its flat but so wet under foot the mud is very slippery the first  Half a mile was on pavement so ok but then we turned off the pavement onto fields some of it like a river other parts lake like but the sun was shining a clear sky above.

Back on pavement with gutters full of running water we pass a lovey Saxon Church which is dwarfed by an electricity pylon.

Now on a gravel path sun shining  we follow the trail across a field & under the A130 Canvey way emerging beside the East Haven Creek which we follow to Benfleet station. I think it's good that the tide is out as the path is really slippery if we had fallen we could have ended up in the water!

Lesley taking it all in her stride

We reach Benfleet now back on pavement still following the East Haven Creek for a short while where we turn away from it & head up through fields belonging to the Hadleigh estate country park. Following some paved some muddy wet fields past the ruins of the castle.

Ruin to the Left

Continuing through Hadleigh park we can see the Tilbury cranes still haunting us a now very familiar sight on the horizon.

Rose Hips

Now we come to some very waterlogged fields well trodden no grass just mud.

Photo stop

Now we slither our way across the side of a sloped field until we meet pavement again. I thein about seven miles of this walk have been sliding around in Mud!

Finally we are at Leigh-on-Sea & it's pavement from here on Hooray!

We stop at Osbourne's  fishmonger & I have a lovely Crab & crayfish sandwich on Rye bread with a hot Chocolate.

Yummy

Straight forward from here pavement sea to the right passing all the usual sailing clubs etc.

On to Southend-on-Sea looking forward to seeing the pier & riding the train, Passing some lovely art Deco & modern housing & partaking in an Ice Cream on the way.

We arrive at the pier only to find it is closed on a Monday & Tuesday in the winter!

Dam, its good we have to come back to continue walking from here maybe we will get to ride on it yet.

Route

England Coast Path Part 23 Tilbury to Pitsea

 So here we are it's January 2023 & another year of walking is about to unfold.

Thursday 5th January at about 19:00 Hrs Lesley asks what are my plans for Sunday I answer why? she asks if I ''Fancy'' doing a bit more of the Coast Path as the weather looks to be ok, I say yes why not I have a couple of sections plotted out & by 19:30 Hrs the Premier inn is booked!

Tilbury to Pitsea

Distance 19:34 Miles

Elevation Gain 355 Feet

Time 06:17:00

Sunday 05:30 the alarm sounds & we are up & out of the door on our way to Tilbury, so yes we are over the River having finished our last walk in Gravesend.

Having booked a parking spot in the ASDA Tilbury through www.justpark.com we arrived, parked put on our wet weather gear & boots (as it was actually raining although not forecast) & still not fully light!

At 07:57 we started to walk leaving the ASDA carpark heading towards the Thames estuary, expecting to navigate our way through heavily industrial areas there were container storage yards but clean neat, tidy & modern.

We were pleasantly surprised to find it was that the old tilbury docks had been restored & the path well sign posted 

 We walk along the sea wall & can look across the river & see where we had finished the last walk by the old light ship. The weather had now turned dry & clear but wet under foot.

Light ship In Graves End

 The sea wall  

Tide out with Mud flats & a pilot boat

We come across the worlds end pub, Stage left enter Simon Pegg, no not really that worlds end pub.

We continued on,

Tilbury Fort on our left now under management of the English Heritage very neat & tidy with the gun emplacements visible.

Continuing to follow the sea wall we come across a flight of steps going up & over the wall with the ECP directed over it with a sign next to them saying....

With no fear Lesley was off, striding along leaving me behind but luckily the tide was low, pure luck no tidal planning here! 

Here are some pictures of the path & the Tilbury dock cranes which haunted us most of the way to Pitsea.

We now pass through wetlands with beautiful fishing lakes plenty of wild birds & goats.

After the wetlands the paths dry out, some are even tarmac, the cranes still haunting but we are getting closer too them.

Passed Basildon Town FC which, we end up doing a lap through their car park as one of the foot path signs has been spun! (Got some funny looks from the supporters)

A Rainbow cloud

Passing some beautiful sun lit trees we finally arrive at our destination, the station of Pitsea where a bus replacement service was operating, we board the bus & the heavens open, Torrential rain! How lucky were we? Our journey back to Tilbury Town station with the bus wipers working overtime was uneventful we were two of three passengers.

A short walk back to ASDA stopping at McDonalds for a hot chocolate, Nip into ASDA  purchase a nourishing pot noodle for dinner & a trifle for pudding. Into the car & off to our accommodation. 

Route