Sunday 11th May 2025 Benfleet to Stanford Le Hope

Rather strange starting this blog when you would like to be positive … because how lucky I am that on a beautiful summer’s day I can just rock up and walk 15 miles along the England Coastal Path.

So lets get a few moans out the way:-

Several miles of this path are overgrown, head high nettles amongst others, a machete would have been handy.

Several miles of the path are rock hard underfoot where cattle have rutted the ground, real ankle twisting territory.

The signs today were awful, without the OS app there would be no chance.

I saw several traveller types, racing their horses on tarmac at 20mph in 25 degrees, driving a pick up truck alongside whilst they were ‘encouraging the horses!!’

Right that’s got that out of the way, so now for the good news:-

The train ride there and back cost about a fiver and gave some fantastic coast and beach views.

My cheese sandwich and banana lunch were awesome, although I did have to watch aforementioned horse racing whilst eating (not my choice, they pulled up in front of my roadside seat!)

The London Gateway Port is huge and mega impressive in an industrial sense, the largest deep sea port in the UK, it took me over an hour to walk around it.

I’ve seen more shipping containers today than at any other time in my life.

I saw some lovely flowers, buttercups and something?

I snapped a few folks having fun on jet sky things.

Anyways, that’s another 15 miles clocked up on the Thames Estuary and just a few more before we reach the pedestrian tunnel at Woolwich, where you can walk under the Thames!!