I had been watching the weather reports with some interest all morning. The rain was pelting down relentlessly in Essex and the MetOffice was saying that that was pretty much what it was going to be like the whole day across the country. Originally I really wanted to go to Stonehenge or Avebury for the summer solstice night, and I even checked the weather reports for the Rollright Stones up in Oxfordshire too, and that was pretty much the same picture according to the weather men. When it brightened up at 3pm, I decided I wasn't going to let this good weather go to waste, so on a whim I whipped my camping gear up and headed out for Shoebury East Beach by foot to hopefully watch the sun rise over the coast in the morning.
Heading Out
My idea for this walk was to take as many back routes as possible to Shoebury East Beach. In my head I envisioned taking the route out of Rayleigh east through the fields, skimming Hockley Woods and continuing through to Cherry Orchard nature park and then, perhaps, through Rochford and Wakering.
The Journey starts at a path off of Bull Lane in Rayleigh.
Blue Skies all around! The rain had stopped and made for a lovely afternoon.
Southend on the horizon.
A pile of Burdock lies here, perfect for foraging later. I'll have to come back.
Into the Hockley Woods!
A copped part of the wood makes room for some lovely wild flowers.
Like these Foxgloves.
Ancient Ferns.
More evidence of coppicing.
Black sheep!
Looking from Hockley towards 'The Scrubs' woodland on the right.
Heading through 'The Scrubs'.
A gap in the trees between woodlands.
The Cherry Orchard Lake in the nature reserve.
I did make it to a Stonecircle for the solstice in the end. Albeit it's actually a modern one. And a climbing rock.
I was greeted by a drone while I stopped and had a drink.
Soft Feet
It's been a long time since I did any long distance walking, particularly in proper boots. It probably also didn't help that I was only wearing very thin socks either, but my feet were getting very sore. I realised I was never going to make it to Shoebury in time as my walking speed was a lot slower than I had anticipated because I was in some pain. I instead decided to head through Southend as it was the more direct route but even then, I still wasn't making enough headway. Unfortunately, I ended up cheating and getting the bus from Priory Park to the Asda in Shoebury. I still walked about another mile to the beach though.
Back in civilisation. Unfortunately.
Enough was enough. My feet were killing me.
Sunsets and Strawberry Moons
When I finally arrived at Shoebury East Beach, the sun was already setting behind me. The first thing I did was quickly set a tent up in the corner of the field hopefully where nobody would find it, and by time I had got the tent set up it didn't take long for the full moon to rise up on the horizon which was quite hypnotising. It was the first full moon at the summer solstice since 1967, and because of the haze on the horizon it was dubbed by the media as a 'Strawberry Moon'. I spent a good few hours listening to music on a bench in a sleeping bag (to get away from the gnats) just watching the moon rising up into the sky as the pale light from a setting sun slowly dissipated behind me.
By the time the sea had come in it was too dark to do any photography with my phone. Some people did turn up with a single chinese lantern (perhaps to celebrate the solstice) which when lit, slowly drifted out toward the mouth of the estuary, but other than that it was a peaceful evening. A part from the insects.
Finally here.
No sea. Yet. Unfortunately high tide didn't come until it was pitch black out.
Summer Solstice sunset. Goodbye Holly King.
Hello rare solstice "Strawberry Moon". (This was the first full moon at summer Solstice since 1967.)
Bit brighter now.
Time for a brew.
Not much of a picture, but this was the chinese lantern heading up into the sky.
My single man tent in the morning which I like to dub "The Coffin".
A cloudy morning was a bit disappointing.
But soon cleared up.
And became another beautiful day.
The route taken. If you want to ask more details leave a request in the comments section or use the contact form to the right of the screen.
The Morning
So I woke up at 4.30, but only seeing vasts amounts of mist I thought there wasn't much point in trying to get a glimpse of the rising sun. Later on at around 7am, the cloud dispersed and made for another lovely day. I got the bus back from Shoebury to Rayleigh with not a second to spare. When I got back I was angry with myself that I didn't go to either Stonehenge or Avebury given the brilliant weather they ended up having there, but then again, only a handful of people saw the moon rise above the horizon in the way that I had seen it, and being one of the few in that respect is, I suppose, priceless. In future, unless I'm going up some massively dangerous mountain range, I think I'll ignore the weather"experts" in future though. This Solstice walk has a bit more to it to me than simply going camping on a nice evening though. For me this was about using the symbology of the changing face of nature to try and convince me to change my own ways. I'm fed up sitting indoors and eating junk food, and I'm really hoping to turn a page and actually start changing in the ways that I want to. Exercising, going to new places and eating properly are going to be my new vices with any luck, and with a little bit of committment I hope to do just that. You can watch my introduction video which encompassed basically this walk and my introduction post on here in one video. Thanks and I hope you enjoyed this.
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