Day 72 – Brightlingsea to Harwich

 

 Date: Monday 2^nd May  2011   Distance: 34.37 Miles

 

After a good breakfast we left at 9 and found it even windier (30 mile an hour). At the car washing junction we turned towards St. Osyths, which seemed a quaint place.

Just before the town we looked at the ancient Priory which is up for sale .The gatehouse is a fantastic building of flint stones cut and arranged in patterns. Other parts are in a bad state of repair and most is fenced off. Later we passed signs saying “ Stop development at the Priory!”. At the beginning of 2015 appeals were still being made against plans for houses to be built here but I believe the splendid gatehouse will be retained.

 

 We passed hundreds of caravans on the way to the beach where we could ride along the edge of the sea and through to Clacton where we stopped for a scone (Bob had the cream) and drink at an old Butlins site.

 

The pier here has a funfair. The floor looked a bit too near the torrid sea for me and the concrete pillars were quite worn. The sea was a muddy brown but Bob thought the wind farm pleasant to look at rather than an expanse of the North Sea.

 

As we went by beach huts and larger chalets they seemed to get more elaborate. Some people were braving the rough weather on surfboards attached to kites or sails. The sun was shining but the North Easterly was cold and we were getting wind burn.

 

We cycled by more Martello Towers, one used as a  coastguard lookout and manned.

At Kirby-le-Soken, a little inland we  found a lovely pub, ”The Ship” which did real ale and fabulous meals. Bob got his roast dinner of really crisp belly pork (so much, he had a doggy bag) and I had a vegetable tart. People saw the tandem outside and came in to talk to us. One had seen us at Colchester. We were very loathe to leave everyone was so friendly.

 

We were free of the wind when we left for a bit and it was up and down a bit. Soon we began to see the derricks at Felixstowe. It was then Great Oakley, then Little Oakley, arriving at Harwich at 4 pm, exhausted from riding against a 30 mile hour wind apparently but it felt more like 60. We were glad to see the car!