(Image: field near Little Leighs)

Date: 20 April

Walked: 21.4 miles

Today was definitely one of two halves. Or rather two halves, interspersed with two lunchtime pints!

(Image: Colne River)

I woke early in the beautiful spot I’d wild camped in, to a tent soaked in dew. My early morning ambles took me alongside the Colne river to the edge of Aldham, where one of a number of WW2 pillboxes I’d seen had a notice explaining that the river was part of the Eastern Command Line. Just as with the pillboxes that line the lower reaches of the Thames, so these are left as reminders of our country’s not so distant past.

(Image: church at Great Tey)

Walking on, I saw my first lambs, a young deer lying dead, seemingly perfect and unharmed, on the path by the church in Great Tey, and a very welcome breakfast stop in Coggeshall, a village with more than its fair share of Tudor era buildings. A field full of alpaca eventually led to the peaceful churchyard in Cressing, where I sat for an hour reading and drying out my sodden tent, enjoying the sunshine and chatting to the church warden. And a 30 minute stroll later, I was meeting my friends at the Cross Keys pub in White Notley, where I spend a very happy three hours eating, drinking two pints of larger (I fear it was one more than I should have had…) and catching up in the sunshine.

(Image: Sandy Wood, approaching Fuller Street)

Then all of a sudden it was almost 4pm, I still had nine miles to cover and despite being late afternoon it was still unseasonably warm. The countryside, which looks it’s best in early and end of day light anyway, was all a bit workaday-dull except for a heavenly-scented, bluebell filled woods, and I dreamt of finding a B&B for the night and giving camping a miss. Luckily for my wallet, no such solution offered itself and after a half pint of lemonade in the beautifully situated Square and Compasses pub, I was on my way again, looking for a good, secluded spot to wild camp for the night. I found it in a small wood about a mile from Great Waltham, where I (totally knackered) fell asleep in a woods, listening to the hum of the traffic on the busy A131 in the distance.

(Image: Little Leighs)