I was really pleased to see a good turnout of 15 Poly Ramblers at Liverpool Street station where we assembled to catch our train to Manningtree and then Wrabness to start our walk along the Essex Way to Harwich.  Amongst them was my young nephew, Matthew, who joined us for the walk and in so doing massively reduced the average age of our group.

 On arrival at Wrabness, we spent a bit of time posing and taking photographs in front of its most famous landmark, Grayson Perry’s quirky and exotic House for Essex.  The day promised to be dry but cloudy and grey and that’s how it stayed with the occasional glimpse of the sun trying to break through.  Fortunately the rain apart from a few spots held off.

 As I explained in my opening briefing, the walk was very flat with no stiles.  We firstly walked through woods along the banks of the beautiful river Stour estuary which was silent and lacking the bird life that is normally present at the water’s edge probably because it was high tide and the winter migrant birds have yet to arrive.  We then struck out inland across farmland passing an old windmill until we came to the village of Ramsey.  Here there were two small shops selling fresh fish and the other a master butcher.  One  Poly Rambler bought a bag of freshly caught whelks which she said tasted superb and would be for her supper.

 After navigating our way across a busy roundabout, we walked across more fields until we reached the village of Little Oakley where at the Ye Olde Cherry Tree pub we had our lunch stop.  Those with a packed lunch sat in the pub garden and the rest of us ate at the pub.  It was a quick and friendly service and the food was excellent.  Two ramblers opted for an enormous Kahuna burger which even for my young nephew and his big appetite proved impossible to finish.

 After lunch we renewed our walk along the Essex Way and this time the path took us down towards extensive salt marshes from where we could see in the distance the North Sea coast and the busy container port of Felixstowe.  We started walking along a levee that took us into the outskirts of Harwich.  Our path eventually turned into a tarmac path at a junction with a row of brightly coloured beach huts from where it followed the coast to the end of the peninsula at the old port of Harwich Town.  Further on we came to two old Lighthouses built to stop ships going aground as they came into harbour.  These were among the earliest lighthouses ever built and superseded an even older one built further inland.

 The tarmac path took us along a windy stretch of the coast and it seemed to go on for ever until we came to the Harwich Museum where we crossed a green and turned down into the old historic part of Harwich, Harwich Town.  Harwich Town was once a thriving port and is full of characterful buildings with Harwich Historical Society plaques outlining their illustrious past on many of them.  Today it feels somewhat sad and neglected and the streets were empty.

 Most Poly Ramblers decided to catch the next train and get back to London.  A small number of us decided to wait an hour and while away the time at a café on the pier drinking a very welcome cup of tea and eating scones.  It was a fitting finish to what had been a fabulous walk with great company.

 Mary King. Photos by Mary, Jackie M, Chris, Susan