Suportin' 'olland today are ya? Asked a man sat gazing across to Harwich. Why's that? I replied. Your both wearin' orange, he added. This explained why several people in the last few weeks had thought we were Dutch and our ignorance about sporting national colours had left us puzzled.
The short ride through new housing and frontage development terminated in a shingle beach for the ferry and fine views across to the busy Harwich port.
A ramp onto the ferry from the beach was helpful and we were soon bobbing across the water as the first of the day's rains started. Exiting the boat at Harwich was not so easy, a backbreaking lift onto the mooring followed by a flight of stairs precipitated the need for coffee.
On the pier in Harwich is the Light Vessel LV18, once host to pirate radio in the 1960's and used in the filming The Boat that Rocked
Essex was like coming home, county of birth but a lot of years since I have been back. We sat in the Cafe on the Pier waiting for the monsoon to calm down and chatted to a couple from Lowestoft with perfect Sufolk accents. When we told them we were heading to Walton, they told us about life there in the 60's, it was such a popular resort that almost all the residents provided B&B. They did this by moving all the children out of their bedrooms for the summer months to sleep in sheds and out houses in the garden.
We eventually left Harwich on the NCN 51 for a while before curving off to The Naze. This promontory is eroding at about 2 metres per year and threatening the Naze Tower built in 1720 for navigation so there is considerable work being done to try to protect it.
Walton has a spectacular array of beach huts on the front but the pier (third longest in the UK) is a yellow monster full of machines that eat your money.
After a few hours in various tea shops waiting for the rain to stop and check in, we opted for cheese and fruit for our dinner as a takeaway didn't appeal.
Figures:
Distance:- 34.7 km
Cycle Time:- 2 hours 36 minutes
Average speed:- 13.3 kph
Total Distance:- 4778 km
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