Log No 324. Sat 24th May 2014 - East Tilbury to Southend-on-Sea, 19 miles (5000 miles walked)

Last night I went to meet Mick at the station in time for his arrival at 2036 to him striding down the road, he had managed to get a slightly earlier connection from London.

He hadn't had anything to eat since lunch so we stopped at the Chinese and he ordered a meal to be delivered to the campsite in 45 minutes.

He got his tent up and everything organised just in time.

I woke to hear the rain coming down on the tent, it did ease slightly while we took the tents down but picked up again as we set off at 07.15.

It was just road walking in the rain through Stanford-le-Hope and Corringham into Basildon.

We had been going nearly 3 hours without a break so after calling into a camping shop for some bits & pieces we stopped in Tesco's for a cooked breakfast.

Suitably refreshed we came off the road to take the footpath alongside the railway.

The rain had stopped during our break but the longish grass on the footpath meant Mick's boots never got chance to dry out and he soon had wet feet, my newer shoes had no problem keeping my feet dry.

At Benfleet we crossed to the other side of the railway line and started walking alongside Benfleet Creek with Canvey Island on the other side of the creek.

This was a good wide footpath with short grass, obviously well walked but there were no benches anywhere, by 1 o'clock we had to stop so we just had to sit on the grass for a bit of lunch.

We joined the road at the small bridge to the unusually named Two Tree Island and stayed on it past the station at Leigh-on-Sea to Chalkwell where we got onto the sea front at Southend-on-Sea.


The pier at Southend was very long and had its own railway line down it, we got to Victoria Station for 15.15.

There was no campsite for us here so it was the train to Battlesbridge where Mick had booked us in the site there for two nights, this is our destination for tomorrow so it means we only need carry a light pack in the morning.

After getting the tents up Mick discovered he had 7 missed calls and a text from his son Chris saying "phone me".
Fearing the worst he phoned home to be given the news that Karen (Mick's wife) and Chris had just come home with a dog, Sasha, from the Dog Rescue Centre. They had to have their previous dog, Roxy, put down last month after 13 years.

I achieved two milestones today, the 19 miles walked today meant I have now clocked up 5000 miles on this trip and the total of donations received for Parkinsons so far has reached £6000 which has been my target, a big thankyou to everyone who has donated.