Day 147 – Canvey Island Sea Front to Pitsea: 11.8m: 4.3h

We reconvene in the hotel car park shortly before 7:30. The reception desk is closed and the door to it is locked but, having already paid for our rooms, drinks and supper, no check out admin is required other than to leave our keys in a box on the outside wall. As we walk along the street leading back to the leisure park, one of the few establishments which seems to be open is a Greggs, but we decide not to investigate its takeaway breakfast offerings in anticipation of finding somewhere on the esplanade which we reach at 7:50. However, as we resume our journey alongside the Thames, this prospect quickly becomes more and more remote. After not much more than 10 minutes, the limited retail outlets around the park have disappeared and we’re into a completely residential area and, 15 minutes or so later, we’re beyond the houses and walking past a series of what appear to be gas and oil storage depots. When we reach the end of this stretch after another 45 minutes and turn north, it’s too early for the Lobster Smack pub on the south west corner of the island to be open. Comfort has to be derived from the fact that our purchase of crab sandwiches yesterday has left us pretty well stocked with fruit, chocolate and cereal bars and, for reasons which are not immediately apparent, we convince ourselves that, after leaving Canvey, we might find a café in Benfleet. For now, we continue along a grass bank into an area of open countryside (the scenery on Canvey has been varied if nothing else). We’re not completely sure of the route we’ll take to get across the various creeks and inlets which run round and through this part of the island. One possible creek crossing proves to be a locked sluice gate and, a little way further on, there’s no path up from the grass bank to a road which crosses another creek. Two of us decide somewhat more quickly than the third that we’re not going to investigate less conventional ways of trying to make the ascent! Instead, we walk under the road and keep going along the grass bank, before eventually turning east and reaching the road over Hadleigh Ray which brought us onto Canvey yesterday. Back on the north side of Hadleigh Ray, it isn’t too long before we reach Benfleet station. However, as this isn’t a particularly major point on the rail network, it is perhaps not surprising that it doesn’t feature anywhere selling something akin to breakfast food, but a sign pointing towards a short tunnel under the railway line indicates that there’s a café at the other end. Our raised hopes are quickly dashed. The café is closed and, to all outward appearances, it’s a permanent closure. None of us experiences (or admits to doing so) a mirage of Greggs, but several comments are made about the folly of foregoing its delights 3 hours earlier. We return to the road on the other side of the station which, after a couple of hundred yards, bends to the right at a path which takes us into some fields. We walk through the fields along a track which soon curves to the south and follows the west side of the creek to the road which we walked under on the east side about 90 minutes ago. Again, we walk under the road and then turn right to continue on paths through some more fields towards Pitsea. Our pace increases on the final stretch which runs along the north side of the railway line leading to Pitsea station. John has worked out that, if we manage to catch the 12:21 train, we’ll be back in London sufficiently early for him to get across to Paddington at a time when there are 3 services to Kingham in the space of 1 hour. A later departure from Pitsea risks him missing the last of these trains and having to wait at Paddington for up to an hour for the next one. On such important considerations is the admin of the round England walk conducted. Anyway, our acceleration has the desired effect. We catch the 12:21 which arrives just after 1 o’clock at Fenchurch Street from where Ben and Gary catch their tube trains home, and John gets to Paddington shortly before the departure of a train which results in him getting home at 3:45 which he subsequently pronounces to be “the earliest ever by a long way”. This marks the end of our 2021 walks. We’ve made 7 trips and completed 205 miles which, given the restrictions which were in force earlier in the year, is perhaps more than we could have anticipated. And, shortly after this trip, we hear that Mike’s consultant has given him the green light to resume the walk next year. So here’s looking forward to February 2022….hopefully.