Another island walk today and we chose a sunny but blustery day to tread the high and exposed embankment loop. It was fine when the wind was behind us but a little more arduous when walking into it. Great paths though – so well maintained and much appreciated.

I’m still not 100% well so agreed to be part rambler/part chauffeur today – handy also in that the island is somewhat remote in terms of public transport. This being a large nature reserve, we parked up in the RSPB car park and, in the absence of any other walkers or twitchers, we got talking to the friendly RSPB man. He was so helpful in showing us the route on a map, informed us that the path was easygoing (I put my walking pole back) and pointed to his collection of wildlife photos. Amongst the pictures of birds, hares and butterflies my eyes were drawn to a photo of a snake! “Oh yes, we have adders here” he casually said, “You’ll find them basking on the sea walls.” And so a lot of heavy stomping went on today, to warn those pesky slithery things that ‘the Rambling Roses are coming, you better skedaddle!’

Besides that worry, it was a beautifully scenic walk, and as promised a huge variety of birds, colourful wild flowers and lots of perfectly tiny blue butterflies everywhere. We saw seals basking and swimming in the shallow waters too – always a treat.

Not sure how we did it but the island walk turned out to be a mile or two longer than estimated and the last stretch by the marina was particularly narrow and high. My energy levels were dipping by this time and I felt extra wobbly, had to concentrate fully so as not to tip over the edge. 9 miles in and I was really flagging – we could see the car parked in the distance and I was willed on by the thought of cheese and pickle sandwiches awaiting us.

And like the bull worry a few days ago, no adders crossed our path today – thank the Lord!

After our picnic lunch, Steve walked on to the pretty village of Paglesham. I donned my chauffeur hat and drove there, parked up in the shade and enjoyed my book for an hour until my fellow rambler completed his 12 miles for the day.

That completes our walking for this little breakaway to Essex. Steve has walked 80 miles in that time – I’ve only managed half of that!

We have loved the area, loved the exquisite house we’ve been staying in and absolutely fallen in love with Bertie – the resident ginger cat. Mary and Doug have said we can come back anytime and I have a strong suspicion we’ll be taking them up on that offer. “Au revoir” as they say, “until we meet again.”

Saturday 10th May 2025

A rather pleasant day today although walking 15+ miles after a 3 mile parkrun does make for a lengthy day … even more so because my normal walking buddy decided to rest up.

So it was a day walking either side of the River Roach, accompanied by a cacophony of cuckoo sound and the absolute treat of watching not just one game of cricket but two! 

It’s unusual to see one game of village cricket these days let alone two but it appears that Rochford CC, a small Essex village, are able to do just that!  Lucky them and lucky me.

Anyway enough sport distraction, this is a tale from the river bank – a gloriously sunny day, spectacular estuary views, birds a-plenty and a bus back home for dinner, having been dropped off in Paglesham by Mrs R just four hours earlier.

Whilst being recognised as the England Coastal Path it seems that not many folks have walked along this section, although in late spring the grass and cow parsley is in full growth mode, making it almost a case of wading through the waist high undergrowth!  The views though are amazing and can be doubly appreciated as you walk the other side of the river on the way back. This Essex coastline has endless such inlets to be covered.

I have to say, our coastal path walking has highlighted that parts of this delightful small island we live on remains pretty much undiscovered … you can walk for miles with not another person in sight. A lonely 15 miles completed, just the birds, cricket and sea shells to keep me company!!

Saturday 15th March 2025

…. and this sunny weekend it was the lovely David Jockel (DJ) that came to our aid. Without a second car, this section would have been so difficult to complete – or would have involved SO many extra (non-coastal path) miles to get to start and finish points. David drove from his Lincoln home on Saturday to meet us in Cleethorpes, joining us for the parkrun and then stayed with us all day to walk a section of the path, enabling us to have a car at each end. Sadly Ros couldn’t join us due to car troubles – we missed you so much Ros and I particularly missed our ‘walk and talk’ and being told off for being too slow!! The boys were so good though, they kept pace with me most of the way.

We filled up with breakfast in a seafront cafe before leaving Cleethorpes. It was an easy promenade walk to get us started and, being a bright weekend morning, it was fabulous to see so many people about – families, dog walkers … even folk without dogs! We walked on a path alongside the mud flats for a while until we spotted that things were beginning to get a bit marshy. So, with some jumping and getting feet a little wet and muddy, we picked our way back to a more solid path.

A definite lack of coastal path signage today meant that there were several decisions to be made – some of these turned out well, others didn’t. Where we gained mileage by finding unexpected bridges in places, and choosing sand dunes over inland paths, we lost out again later when walking down an embankment wall that led to nowhere! Don’t you just love a U-turn!

Apart from being 4 miles longer than originally planned it was a great day of walking, it’s so flat in this area. And as a reward, David treated us to a stunningly delicious ice-cream from ‘Applebys Ice-Cream Parlour’ in Conisholme, on our way back to fetch our car. All was well in our world … or was it!!?

Just as we reached our car in Cleethorpes, Steve made the discovery that he had left his camera with zoom lens in the car park at Donna Nook, where he’d sat for a few minutes to recover and record his day’s activity on Strava. We were convinced it would be gone but made the hour’s drive back to look anyway, we had to. We were flabbergasted and so grateful to find it was there – some wonderful person had even tucked it in against the post to obscure it a little. Prayers answered and all was well again!

12 miles of walking plus 3 miles running at Parkrun.

Sunday 16th March 2025

We met up with David in Mablethorpe, at the Seal Sanctuary car park. Bonus – it was free as out of season! David then drove us to where we finished off yesterday in Donna Nook, leaving Steve and I to tackle the coastal path as two, once again.

I have to say that overall it was a pleasant day of walking. We didn’t see much of the sea apart from in the distance and a short glimpse at the end. The path took us along the edge of mud flats but incredibly today we had some perfect signage that guided us in and out of some unusual areas – we might have doubted ourselves if the ‘King Charles III Coastal Path’ signs hadn’t been there. We were in good hands. We were steered inland at times and walked through some interesting villages. Finding ourselves on a section of road with no pavement, we took a gamble in heading back down towards the coast, along a farm track and along the edge of a few planted fields. Our gamble luckily paid off and we made our way onto a sea defence wall.

After a while this changed into an area of sand dunes, not our favourite as often soft underfoot but these were great as firm and grassy … although lined with sea-buckthorn which is extremely spiky. The dunes also provided us with some undulation – we like a bit of variety, this coastline has been very flat. We were joined in the dunes by highland ponies that are obviously being rehoused in these Lincolnshire lowlands. They didn’t seem at all phased by our presence.

Another diversion inland took us through the pretty village of Saltfleet. On a bridge, a fellow walker summoned us to see the Kingfisher … but of course it flew off just before we got there! I’ve always wanted to see a Kingfisher – thwarted again. We did see a redshank there though.

Then we were back to country lanes and grassy sand dunes – it was more like a countryside walk than coastal, but not complaining, we were protected from the wind. Unfortunately, in the last section of sand dunes, we lost all signage – although we seemed to be following a path of some sort, it just went on and on like a maze, we felt like we were going round in circles. We were LOST IN THE SAND DUNES!!! I began to envisage it getting dark and us being here all night … my anxiety makes me so dramatic at times – it was only 2.30pm!! Finally we got a view of some caravans and found a way out … and best of all, it was 100 yards from our car.

So a panicky end to a gorgeous day and … almost 13 more miles in the bag.

Thanks to DJ once again. Forever indebted to you for making this weekend’s 25 mile section doable for two old pensioners!!