Roger's Long Walk (2024)

15/04/2023

Medical Update

I have spent this morning at Sevenoaks severe injuries unit and Pembury A&E on the basis that four days rest had made no change at all and my leg was still painful and swollen.

At Sevenoaks the view was that it might be a stress fracture but as they didn’t do x-rays on a weekend I should go to the Pembury A&E where they could do x-rays and find out.

At Pembury the x-rays did not show any stress fracture (although the doctor said one might not show up anyway in the first few weeks). Her view was that it was probably a strain for which the cure was rest coupled with elevation, icing and ibuprofen to reduce the swelling. However if it is not cured in the next three weeks I should go back for another x-ray to make sure it is not a stress fracture.

This somewhat kills the planned walk for this year - with luck I might manage something at the end of May or later in the year but I am most unlikely to achieve my original target.

I will keep you posted as things develop.

11/04/2023

Day 11 = 0 miles, so still 170 miles in total

After a lovely night last night I am now taking several rest days for a range of reasons including (I) the Felixstowe ferry only runs on weekends in April and if I don’t take that there is a multi-day walk to get back to the start of the Suffolk Coast Path and (ii) I really need a break as my left leg is playing up and needs a proper rest.

No doubt I was too ambitious too early in my trek around Essex, but at least I gained some miles which I can now spend resting and learn from the experience when I start again.

At this point I am planning to resume on Sunday for a five day trek through Suffolk and into Norfolk.

That will leave me around four days behind schedule but on the plus side the weather forecast was pretty rubbish this week anyway.

10/04/2023

Day 10: Thorpe-le-Soken to Felixstowe
13.5 miles
Running total = 170 miles

Another strange day. Set off from Thorpe-le-Soken at 9 in the rain. The route initially involved a combination of footpaths and roads - neither was particularly pleasant.

Although the surface was generally firm on the road edges there was always the chance of being splashed by a passing car going too fast through a puddle. Only happened to me once when I had cars coming both ways so the one towards couldn’t avoid the puddle and chose not to slow down!

On the fields the pace slowed dramatically as the surface was wet and slippery. On one particularly notable occasion the path cut straight across a recently ploughed field resulting in my collecting a significant amount of mud on boots, trousers and walking poles - most of which disappeared once the path went back to long grass.

I had a pub in mind for my lunch stop at Little Oakley, although past experience shows that just because a pub is marked in the OS, that doesn’t mean it exists.

This time it did exist, but a board outside with the week’s opening times stated “Closed on Monday”!

I continued and shortly joined the Essex Way which crossed several fields (on one of which the path was as slippery as an ice rink and I was only saved from falling on multiple occasions by my poles) and then joined the sea wall which I followed into Harwich.

At this point I was quite hungry, but Harwich bizarrely has virtually no sea front cafes and the few there were had closed.

Just before the ferry terminal I found The Globe, a pub (of sorts). There were three blokes inside, one of whom was the publican. He didn’t serve food, had no beer on tap and the draught cider turned out to be in boxes.

Nevertheless they were real gents, rang the ferry to find out the time of the next boat to Felixstowe and discovered that all boats had been cancelled for the day due to the bad weather - which by this point was positively sunny!

A new plan was hatched involving a five minute walk to Harwich Town station and then three trains to Felixstowe. I am currently at Ipswich waiting for the third to arrive. Total cost £6.50 versus £4 on the ferry!

Pictures below

On the outskirts of Harwich after the rain had stopped
Walking on the sea wall around Harwich involved a bit of spray dodging at times

09/04/2023

Day 9: East Mersea to Walton-on-the-Naze ++
19 miles
Running total 🟰 156.5 miles

A cold night last night in my little one man tent. On the plus side the facilities at the camp site were excellent - hot showers and music/news while you washed!

Was about a mile to the ferry and got there in good time. It was in the middle of nowhere and I only found it using their what 3 words!

Drop off was equally random and there followed a chunk of road walking and country paths until I came out on the coast at Jaywick.

At one point I was walking a path along a grass runway while a tiny light aircraft took off next to me!

A pleasant stroll along the beachfront past a golf course and through Clacton-On-Sea to the pier - clear sunny skies although the wind still had enough of a bite to keep my fleece on.

Once past the pier i turned more north and met the coastal fog that stayed with me until Frinton-On-Sea. The temperature also plummeted so out cane the winter coat again.

By the time I was nearing Walton, my phone battery was perilously low which meant I had to extract the solar charger from my rucksack which allowed me to google map my accommodation - which then turned out not to exist! The contact I rang told me he had been trying to leave Booking.com for ages, he had no record of my booking and it shouldn’t have happened as he wasn’t even allowed to let people stay overnight!

Luckily I found a pub with a room about 8 miles away - short train trip plus another mile on foot from the station!

I am now at the grandly named village of Thorpe-le-Soken.

Tomorrow is my last day in Essex and I can start on some proper coastal walking.

Below - first bit of proper coast walking in a while - just outside Jaywick
Approaching Clacton pier
And on the other side of it
Sunny again at Frinton-On-Sea

08/04/2023

Day 8: Tollesbury to east Mersea
18.5 miles
Running total 🟰 137.5 miles

To paraphrase my favourite football cliche, today was a walk of two halves.

The first half was approximately 8 miles of ECP around the salt marshes north east of Tollesbury. With the sun shining it was delightful!

At Salcott however the ECP terminated and the next leg (Salcott to Jaywick is only in planning stage and will be 50 miles when done).

Rather than try to follow it and not knowing how much of the planned route actually exists and in the absence of useful footpaths, I spent close to 10 miles on roads into East Mersea, most of which was unpavemented and quite busy. Plus the sun had gone and it was cloudy and cold. A very definite decline in the second half!

I am still about half a mile off the campsite, but I stopped for supper at the nearby pub and to charge my phone.

Pictures below:
View of the salt marshes
Boat on the Blackwater river
View of West Mersea
Canada goose on my path
And in flight

07/04/2023

Day 7: Maldon to Tollesbury
17 miles
Running total 🟰 119 miles

Today was amazing. Apart from the first 15 minutes out of Maldon through an industrial estate it was riverside the whole way and most of it in glorious sunshine.

Followed the Blackwater west almost all of the way with great views both sides and hardly a creek in sight.

The photos will tell the rest of the story.

In vertical order:

View of Maldon from the other side

Maldon’s Statue of Liberty. Actually it is a statue of Earl Byrhtnoth who lost the battle of Maldon in 991 AD against the Viking invaders

Last look back at Maldon

Pub reflection

Cars tentatively crossing the Ocea island causeway

View of the non-river side

And another one as the clouds start to build in the afternoon

The original Radio Caroline boat, or so I was told! https://radiofidelity.com/history-of-radio-caroline/ for the full story

And finally back at the nuclear power station last seen on Wednesday

06/04/2023

Day 5: Ramsey Island to Maldon
16.5 miles
Running total 🟰 102 miles

Set off at around 9am. Very overcast but no rain, at least until lunch time. Headed west up the river to Stangate Marina where the path signposting left more than a little to the imagination. Thank goodness for my trusty OS app!

Continuing on the path rounded Steeple Creek, Mayland Creek and Lawling Creek which became Mundon Creek at its end. Another multi-hour South/north trek to achieve around 1 mile west towards Maldon.

Once back at the river the path diverted west again to follow Southey Creek into Maldon while the Blackwater River headed off northwest and then southwest to meet up with the path in Promenade Park, from where a short walk to the hotel.

The white hut below is a coastguard kitchen at Stangate. In the early days of the coastguard the coast was split into guards with old naval hulks being beached to provide accommodation for officers and crew and the more important ones having a shore-based kitchen.

The others are a view across a ploughed field to Maylandsea, me after a squally shower and Maldon from Promenade Park.

05/04/2023

Day 5: Burnham on Crouch to Ramsey Island
21 miles
Running total 🟰 85.5

Set off at 9am. Very pleasant coffee and bacon sarnie for breakfast in a local cafe and a good chat with the owner.

In summary, walked down the River Crouch, turned north up the coast and the west up the Blackwater river.

Passed a lot of outfalls (which a quick google search identity as “the point, location or structure where effluent discharges into a body of marine waters such as a sea, ocean, etc.” - charming! Also assorted pumping stations and a range of pillboxes, including double pillboxes (known as Essex lozenges) and one minefield control tower, which is described online as

“This unusual structure is a Scheduled Monument and is incredibly rare to find in the UK. Historic England say that the only other surviving example of a purpose-built minefield control tower in the UK is 4.8km south of Oban in Scotland. The two-story hexagonal tower has walls over half a metre thick, built from brick and concrete, and a total of 17 machine gun openings gives the structure defence across 360 degrees.”

Unfortunately it was across a water channel so I couldn’t explore it.

The next highlight was St Peter’s Chapel in Bradwell, according to Yahoo the second oldest church in England. It was built on an early Roman Fort but there is nothing remains of that.

A few miles further on I walked past the Bradwell Nuclear Plant and reached the Bradwell Waterside Marina, where I realised that my online skills had badly backfired. I was expecting a nice tea at the Marina restaurant, but there wasn’t one. Turns out the restaurant is at another Bradwell Marina!

Three more miles to the Stone Inn which served the amazing Stongbow Cloudy Apple Cider - my new favourite drink and also had The Raj Indian Ocean curry house attached. One awesome Chicken Shaslik Bhuna later and I was done for the day!

Top left - Burnham Clock Tower in the morning light. Top right -The Essex Lozenge. Middle right - the very rare Minefield Control Tower. Bottom left - the tide is out as I leave Burnham. Bottom right -St Peter’s Bradwell. Finally - The Bradwell Nuclear power Station.

02/04/2023

Day 2. Pitsea to Shoeburyness: 15 miles

Met my neighbour at Pitsea and set off on a cold overcast morning. The path almost immediately took us across the bottom of an inclined field which was a bit of a quagmire. Heading up the hill to try to fine drier ground involved walking through briars and other very spiky plants. Ended up with both muddy boots and scratched legs!

That was the worst of the day though as the path firmed and the clouds progressively cleared.

By the time we rejoined the coast it was sunny and clear, albeit with a biting wind in exposed places.

We then had a walk of islands. Starting with Canvey and once we’d passed that Grain and Sheppey all the was to Southend. Some lovely views on the left - rolling hills mostly with one nice ruin.

Stopped for lunch on the outskirts of Leigh-on-Sea and it was seafront to Shoeburyness where the surprise of the day was Gunners Park - well worth a visit on a mild summer day.

Tomorrow I start heading north for the first time.

Total distance today was 15 miles.

Pictures below are Hadleigh Castle (ruin on the hill), the longest pier in England (in the background on the right of the photo), the remains of a floating dock intended to support the D-Day landings but abandoned off Shoeburyness because it sprang a leak and a view of Gunners Park

01/04/2023

Day 1

21 miles, including the two from ellenor to the ferry in Gravesend.

Big shout out to the ellenor team who saw me off, see first picture below.

Walked through the Windrush exhibition at Tilbury (send picture) and then headed off along the estuary for around 10 miles, passing Tilbury Fort almost immediately and then the Coalhouse Fort some distance on (next two pictures)

Between the two I met a Dutch couple cycling the other way with their dog in a trailer. They had just come to a narrow bridge and were unloading all their bags and getting ready to to carry it all over. I offered to help but didn’t argue when they said they were fine.

When the path got near London Gateway port it swung inland to go round it and that’s where the fun really started.

Almost immediately I came to an impassable puddle which I had to wade through - probably around two inches deep in places but thankfully the boots did their job and my feet stayed dry. A little further on I met a guy wearing wellies who happily told me there deep puddles further on and pointed to the water mark on his wellies that was higher than my boots.

I soldiered on and just before I got to the super puddle I noticed a slip to the left that took me on to a parallel and much dryer path, thankfully.

The rest wasn’t too bad. Apart from a mile plus tedious path along a dual carriageway followed by field after field after field after field through which the path meandered in a completely random way.

Finally arrived at Pitsea

Looking forward to tomorrow.

30/03/2023

Two days to go - not long now!

01/03/2023

1 March 2023, so there is now just one month to go before stage one starts. Training is going well - now carrying 10kg in weights and cans. Will move to 12 next week.

01/01/2023

A slight change of plan to Roger's Long Walk. This will still be a 2,500 mile (or 5 million steps) walk around England. However, I will now undertake it in three two-month stages over three years. The first stage will, I hope, start at Gravesend on 1 April 2023 heading north. I will be following the English Coastal Path in so far as it exists and other public footpaths where it doesn't. In the first two-month stage I hope to have walked the coasts of Essex, Suffolk, Norfolk, Lincolnshire, Yorkshire, Durham, Tyne & Wear and Northumberland to reach the Scottish border. I will then follow part of three long-distance national trails: St Cuthbert's Way (Berwick upon Tweed to Kirk Yetholm); the Pennine Way (Kirk Yetholm to Hadrian's Wall) and the wall itself to Carlisle on the west coast. I will then walk south along the coasts of Cumbria, Lancashire, Merseyside and Cheshire to the Welsh border which I hope to reach on or around 31 May 2023.

In the second stage, starting in June 2024, I will tackle the Offa's D**e national trail from the North coast of Wales to the Severn Bridge on the south coast and continue south and then west along the coasts of Avon and Somerset to the South West Coast Path, which runs from Minehead in Somerset through North Devon, North and then South Cornwall and South Devon to Poole In Dorset, which I hope to reach by the end of July 2024.

The final stage will start in Poole in August 2025 and run east along the south coast through Dorset, Hampshire and Sussex to Kent, and then around the Kent coast back to Gravesend which I hope to reach before the end of September 2025.

I will provide occasional updates before the walk starts and between stages and hopefully daily updates during the walks.

I welcome anyone who would like to join me, whether for a few hours, a day or longer and whether just socially or to help fundraise. Let me know in a message and I will contact you.

I will be fundraising for ellenor hospice in Gravesend and for Hospice UK. The QR code below will take you. Here is a link to my JustGiving page:

https://www.justgiving.com/team/Rogers-long-walk

15/12/2022

106 days to go. Nice long walk this morning (5.5 miles). Hopefully won’t see any of this stuff when the walk starts!

06/12/2022

Today was my first walk in quite a while. Just recovered from my first ever bout of Covid. I plan to start walking more regularly in December with trading officially starting in January. 116 days to go before the Long Walk starts

24/10/2022

Welcome to Roger's Long Walk. This will be a 2,500 mile (or 5 million steps) walk around England. I will start at Gravesend on 1 April 2023 heading north and hope to finish before 30 September 2023. I will be following the English Coastal Path in so far as it exists and other public footpaths where it doesn't. For the northern border I will follow part of three long-distance national trails: St Cuthbert's Way (Berwick to Kirk Yetholm); the Pennine Way (Kirk Yetholm to Harian's Wall) and the wall itself to the west coast. I will follow the Offa's D**e national trail through Wales.

I will provide occasional updates before the walk starts and much more regular updates after I start. I welcome anyone who would like to join me, whether for a few hours, a day or longer and whether just socially or to help fundraise. Let me know in a post and I will contact you.

I will be fundraising for ellenor hospice in Gravesend and for Hospice UK. The QR code below will take you to my JustGiving page.

Roger's Long Walk