Day 148 – Pitsea to East Tilbury: 15.8m: 6.2h

Our 2022 walks start a month later than originally planned, due to John testing positive for COVID shortly before the scheduled February date. He’s now been negative for 2 or 3 weeks, but says that his energy levels are not at their highest and has suggested that we might take a break for lunch today. With this in mind, Ben and Gary have both prepared sandwiches (or have had them prepared) before leaving home. In other medical news, Mike has made a full recovery from his hip operation and is on the starting grid for the first time since last July. However, David has been suffering back problems and is unable to join us. John and Mike catch early trains to London and join Gary at Fenchurch Street for the journey to Pitsea. Ben has taken an earlier train, but has only been waiting outside Pitsea station for 5 minutes when the rest of us arrive, with the first task for John and Mike being to purchase lunchtime supplies from the station shop. We set off at 10:20 and immediately make a navigational error by turning left at the end of the parade leading from the station rather than crossing the road onto a path into some fields, helpfully signposted “England Coast Path”. Our mistake is quickly rectified, but it does mark the start of a day when the availability of paths along our route isn’t 100% certain and during which we have to stop to study maps and/or retrace our steps on several occasions. The path through the fields initially takes us westward, but we soon turn left and much of the next two hours is spent zigzagging our way through and alongside Vange and Fobbing Marshes (to include the Fobbing Horse flood barrier), generally in a southerly direction towards the cranes at the London Gateway Port on the banks of the Thames. However, when we emerge from the marshes, we’re still a little way north of the river and have to turn right onto a cycle path running alongside the A1014. We’re expecting this to take us to a point just beyond Corringham where we hope to find a road crossing and make our way through Mucking Flats to the river bank, but the path comes to an end about a mile earlier than anticipated. A pause for consideration of alternative routes reveals that there’s a pub in Corringham which it doesn’t take us long to conclude should be a suitable venue for our lunchtime break. Finding our way through some fields between the cycle path and Corringham takes 20 minutes or so, and we arrive at the Bull Inn at about 1:45. Beers are purchased and we’re told that it’s perfectly ok for us to eat our lunch at the tables behind the pub. We leave, duly refreshed, 20 minutes later and immediately encounter another navigational problem. We believe that we can reach the point where we’re hoping to cross the A1014 by going through the ground of East Thurrock United - aka “the Rocks”, and struggling at the foot of the Isthmian Premier League. We’re even assured that we can do so by some gentlemen chatting behind the main stand. But despite walking all the way around the ground, we can find no way out other than at the road which we crossed when leaving the Bull. We cut our losses and walk down that road to the point where it meets the A1014 and, with the traffic being pretty light, are able to cross there into the fields on the opposite side. Once through the fields, we come to a bridge which takes us over the far busier road leading to the Gateway Port and brings us to Mucking Flats and, shortly afterwards, the bank of the Thames. Our destination today is the Coalhouse Fort from which it’s a short walk to the Ship pub in East Tilbury where we’ve arranged for a cab to pick us up at 5 o’clock and take us to our overnight stop, the Best Western Hotel close to the M25 at Purfleet. Whether we get to the Ship on time will depend on how closely we can stick to the river bank. In particular, there’s a jetty on the edge of Mucking Marshes and it’s not clear whether we can simply walk past it or whether an inland diversion will be necessary. When we arrive there, we initially have to go along the landward side of a wire fence but over the fence, about 300 yards away on the other side of what looks like an old landfill site, the riverside path is clearly and temptingly visible. And it seems that we’re not the first people to be tempted because, lo and behold, there’s a section of fence where the wires have been forced apart to leave a gap which even Ben and Gary have to admit will not be difficult to deal with. So we scramble through the fence, cross the landfill site and regain the river bank. But our progress has been slow throughout the day, Ben has recently had to stop for his third al fresco “squat” of the whole walk (this one possibly being caused by the ham in his lunchtime sandwich which was well beyond its sell by date) and timely arrival at the Ship is still looking cuspy. John therefore phones the cab company to put back the pick up time to 5:30 and we continue alongside the Thames towards Coalhouse Fort. As it turns out, no diversions are necessary. We arrive at the fort around 4:45, so we have enough time to walk around the moat, finish on its south side, get to the Ship and have a leisurely pint before the cab arrives. It takes nearly half an hour to get to the hotel. We check in, get sorted out in our rooms, and reconvene in the bar over a pre-supper bottle of white – or pint of lager for Mike. There’s some slight confusion when we place our food order, but the result of this is merely that Mike gets an extra egg on the side with his burger. A further couple of bottles accompany the food and, to mark the beginning of the walking year in the way to which we have become accustomed, we conclude with a large sticky and are back in our rooms shortly after 9 o’clock.

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