Coastwalk

Mersea Strood East → Wivenhoe

Distance: 13.4 miles
Ascent: 167 metres
Duration: 4 hours 3 minutes

Worried about water
« Mersea Strood West | Brightlingsea »

The Strood is the causeway that links Mersea Island with the mainland. The thing you need to know about it is that it floods at high tide. You should bear this in mind when parking your car at the start of a walk from The Strood. It was a tense bus-ride back for me from Colchester as I overheard passengers talking of the particularly high tide and how the water had "pretty much reached" the pub that I'd parked outside.

Today's walk was incredibly varied. It began by skirting a field full of bullocks, then a mile or so on the road. (One car stopped to check I was OK. "It looked as if the red car knocked you into the ditch," he said. I don't remember being struck; I guess that's a treat I have to look forward to.)

Continuing inland, the path crossed Fingringhoe Ranges - past mock buildings scarred by bullets from practice rounds - before reaching water again at Ballast Quay. The water here is the River Colne, and with the Rowhedge/Wivenhoe ferry out of action I had to walk upstream to the bridge at Hythe on the outskirts of Colchester.

The final mile to Hythe on the south-west riverbank was industrial, but on the opposite side the walk down to Wivenhoe was delightful. The well-surfaced path between the railway and the river snaked through the welcome shelter of the occasional tree.

It would have been a great close to the day, had I not had to endure the worry of that bus-ride back to my (thankfully dry) car.