To Brightlingsea!
I’m currently crocked with a particularly painful calf ping. Running is not an option. It’s too damp around the bloody Estuary Wilds to take on any cycling. And so a walk out to Brightlingsea sounded like a good idea. A quick look of the fixture list, and HEY! Brightlingsea Regent are at home. Job’s a good ‘un. If we get a shifty on then we can make it in time for KO, right?
But I never get a shifty on. I’m always stop, starting as I snap away at the exact same locations and wildlife shit that I have been capturing on camera for the past fifteen years. Oh well.
At least there was a bloody high tide as we strode out purposely past the Sailing Club. One of the rowing club boats was out, one was back at base. Soon we could see Audacity emerging on the horizon, battling it back to the Sailing Club hard on a crisp midwinter morning.
In the shared AirPods was Robert Elms, soon to handover to Gary Crowley. The four hour run of programming on BBC Radio London for a Saturday morning is as good as local radio gets.
The WivGigs crew was replaced by a flotilla of kayakers. I counted half a dozen paddling downstream in a formation. We thought at first that they had a bluetooth speaker and were having some of a pre-Christmas rave. It was a right old bloody racket. It turns out that it was some unknown birds, brooding and kicking up a fuss a little further up along the marshland.
A mid-walk snack was taken on Fat Bloke’s Bench, just before the Creek. The big fella would hopefully have appreciated the snack of choice - Lidl’s finest discounted stollen. TUCK IN, etc.
Past the Creek and the path ahead was deserted. Even for such a glorious midwinter morning, I was surprised that this stretch heading over to Thorrington was clear. At least I thought it was clear. I stopped by a bush for a comfort break. Seconds later and a dog walker emerged.
Whoops.
Destination Brightlingsea was reached. We cut across the back fields to avoid the main drag of endless traffic. We then got a little lost around some backstreet estate, before spotting the floodlights of Brightlingsea Regent.
Up the R’s, etc.
