Day 71 – Burnham-on-crouch to Brightlingsea

 

 Date: Sunday 1^st May  2011   Distance: 49.23 Miles

 

Burnham looked less attractive in daylight but we liked the clock tower. The people here didn’t seem too friendly and cars in too much of a hurry. We were passed by several police cars and an ambulance and then later we saw motorcyclists being tailgated by police on motor bikes- quite intimidating but perhaps a necessary precaution.

 

At Southminster a speed sign flashed us a smiley face and thirteen miles an hour!

Latchingdon, a small village of well built matured bungalows and houses. It had a surprising curiosity adjoining one and obviously part of it- behind a 12 foot high wire fence were thousands of metal artifacts piled up and back as far as you could see. Bikes, mowers, anvils, decorative iron gates, balance scales, prams aged and rusting were surely there as a collection. It would have been too dangerous to move any one thing from the pile. Some metal objects acted as objects d’art in the adjoining garden. An old sign half way down the pile said it was owned by the environmental ministry and another older sign said that it was open!

 

If it had been later in the day we could have watched the local Morris team at Mundon. We stopped for a coffee at Maldon after passing a lovely well used park with a little museum not yet open. Disappointed in the town but a Heritage Centre at Heybridge, down the road, looked interesting and the library utilised an old church. We passed some lovely churches today.

 

We took a lane off the busy road to Tolleshunt Major and stopped for a pint at the Bell where parts of the pub are 400 years old. We decided to push on not feeling ready for lunch and now peckish stopped at another olde worlde pub in Peldon, passing a proper village Maypole with May in blossom growing alongside it, at Tolleshunt d’Arcy. Apparently it is danced round on May Day but we saw no sign. The pub in Peldon was busy and disappointingly only doing a la carte meals on a Sunday. Disgruntled, it was back to the busy road again and we were overtaken by a hairs breadth by some roaring motor cyclists. Luckily for us Bob had steady hands but he was very angry!

 

A bigger pub called the Peldon Rose had everything. It was oozing character being Tudor in part and our baguettes came quickly with friendly service and the beer was lovely. Outside were gnarled old willows and a duck pond. Just a pity we had to go back on the busy road.

 

The route took us through Abberton and Langenhoe, then Fingrinhoe (strange names!) by a village pond with water lilies back dropped by another beautiful church. Next came Rowledge and through an industrial bit to Colchester and then we picked up the cycle path along the river. More people were cycling here and we kept stopping to let people pass. Then it was through the lovely village of Wivenhoe towards Alresford.

We had a bit of a hill to climb after the car-washing junction( 6 people washing one car!) then it was past the church via “bits” of cycleway and into Brightlingsea.

The wind whistled eerily through the masts of the boats and we struggled a find a landmark to fix on but we eventually found our lovely B and B at 1 Hurst Green near the Rosebud pub.

We struggled round the town looking for food, the nearest not doing food on a Sunday night and the others not appropriate or the same. The B and B would have done food but they had family staying and it smelt like bolognaise so that was a no- go for Bob anyway. Tired of traipsing round we found an Indian restaurant that did some English food. We both enjoyed something of the meal and it was relaxing or maybe that was the bottle of rather nice wine. Bob was disappointed he didn’t get his Sunday Roast but I got to eat a curry and the onion naan bread was superb.

 

Like Burnham we thought Brightlingsea a bit seedy but there were a few  lovely old buildings with traditional weatherboarding and our B and B was a 400 year old building with Victorian add-ons, picturesque from the front and full of character.