Essex Way day 2: Pepper’s Green to White Notley
A longer than expected second stage of my journey
I’m walking the Essex Way in five stages — one day a week — during August 2023. You can read about my first day’s walking from Epping to Pepper’s Green here.
Getting up early to walk is a lot easier when there are other people around you doing the same thing. Early mornings in Camino albergues have a rhythm to them as people start heading out and you find yourself drawn in with them. Waking up in my own bed before 6am and knowing I had to get myself down to the station for the 6.43 train again is not the same, especially when I was walking this stage solo so there was no one waiting at the station for me.
I made it out of bed and out of the house then had a shorter (and cheaper) train journey. This time I just had to get to Chelmsford where I could add another forty-five minutes to the total amount of time I’ve spent waiting for the number 59 bus, all the time watching the people head on with their normal morning routine while I was preparing for my walk. The bus takes a winding route from Chelmsford to Harlow and unsurprisingly, I was the only one of the few passengers getting off at the Pepper’s Green stop, where we’d left the Way a week before last time.
