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