Mike has withdrawn from these two days without coming under starter’s orders. He’s been suffering pretty serious hip pain since shortly after the last walk and thinks that his race might well be run for the rest of the year, but he’s due to be seeing a consultant later this week for a full diagnosis.
However, David has joined us once again. He and John have been at a family gathering over the weekend at their father’s house and they’ve driven this morning to Witham station where they pick up Ben and Gary from the Liverpool Street train. Before we set off for Heybridge Basin, John receives a call from our overnight stop, The Star at Steeple. Apparently, one of the kitchen staff has tested positive for COVID. The rest of the staff are negative, but it won’t be possible to provide cooked meals this evening. Given that there aren’t any other pubs or restaurants in the immediate vicinity, The Star is happy to make some sandwiches for us free of charge, or alternatively we could order something for delivery from a local Indian or Chinese, and it would be fine for us to eat this in the bar. Something to ponder during the course of the day.
In the meantime, David drives us to Heybridge Basin where we park and walk the short distance to the lock gates outside the Old Ship. With an uncharacteristically cavalier attitude towards determining mileages, John crosses the lock before starting the logger, thus losing several yards from our recorded walking distance. The reason for his haste is the belief that the gates are about to be opened, but this isn’t in fact the case and so, notwithstanding the more relaxed approach of the member for Putney (standing outside the pub making initial notes in the hard copy log) we are not delayed and set off at 11 o’clock. Also uncharacteristically, John is the only one of us who isn’t wearing shorts on what is another warm and muggy day. Even Gary has learned his lesson from the last trip although David affects the belief – on more than one occasion – that there must be a pair of overtrousers in his rucksack!
The first hour of the walk is spent on pavements getting into and through Maldon and onto the south bank of the Blackwater. Here, the underfoot conditions revert to what we experienced for much of the last trip, namely raised grass banks – which fortunately, for the most part, are reasonably well cut back. The first stretch extends eastwards and soon, in the distance, we can see the power station at Bradwell which is towards the end of our planned route for tomorrow. However, about 3 miles out of Maldon, opposite the south side of Osea Island, we have to turn away from the river to follow the western bank of an inlet leading to a place called Maylandsea. This inlet is not only long, but also very winding – to such an extent that, on more than one occasion, we are walking 180 degrees away from Bradwell. In fact, it takes us nearly two hours to reach Maylandsea, although this does include a few unscheduled stops for some of us to rehydrate and apply sun cream, and for John to carry out running (or limping?) repairs to what seem to be increasingly troublesome and uncomfortable problems with one of his toes.
Eventually we turn north to return to the Blackwater but, almost immediately after we get there, we encounter another inlet. This one isn’t as long (or as winding) as the first, but it still takes around an hour to almost get round it and reach the end of today’s walk at a track leading inland towards Steeple. Had we been crows, our flying distance here from the start of the first inlet would have been not much more than a mile. Our walking distance has been almost 9 miles. The route into Steeple takes us through a couple of fields, past some farm buildings (which appear to be used principally for some kind of mobile beer outlet business) and along a road which brings us to The Star shortly after 5 o’clock. Following a friendly welcome from and chat with the 3 or 4 people around the bar, we consider what we’re going to eat over the first round of drinks. Having been told that a cooked breakfast will be available tomorrow, the free sandwiches option isn’t immediately discounted. However, David is strongly in favour of a curry and, as the mood among the other three of us is typically agnostic (i.e. indecisive), the menu from the local Indian is circulated for choices to be made. A potential difficulty arises when it emerges that the restaurant doesn’t do deliveries, but this is swiftly overcome when The Star landlady (Star in more senses than one) very kindly offers to drive and collect our order. A second round of drinks is called for, and the food order is duly placed and paid for by phone for collection at 7:30. We check into our rooms which are in a single storey building separate from the pub itself, and return to the bar an hour later to find plates and cutlery on the table, and the landlady away on her collection mission. It’s not long before she returns, and the various dishes which she brings with her are washed down with a bottle of white and a bottle of red. An hour and a half later, we are not only very full but also rather weary. Ben’s enquiries about the desirability of stickies are answered in the negative, and we’re back in our rooms by 9:30.
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