This Week’s Walks

July 14th-20th, 2024

I decided to start a new series on here, just to chronicle the regular walks I do, both so I’ve got a more detailed record of them, and because it might motivate me to do some more so as to have something to write about.

I’ve been unable to walk as much for the last few weeks because of falling and twisting my ankle while I was running at Roding Valley Parkrun. I had to rest for a while and that reminded me of how good day-to-day walking is for me, not just the long epic treks. An hour or so roaming the pathways near me is good for clearing my head and working out ideas, as well as getting me closer to my monthly step count target.

So, this is what I’ve been up to for the last week:

Sunday 14th

I’ve been leading a series of walk’s for Blossome, my friend Kim’s charity that works with people who’ve lost family members to addiction. We’re piloting a Walking Through Emotions programme that helps people explore emotions through walking and being outside. The aim is to build them up to being able to do a long walking journey using the strength and skills they’ve learned over the programme.

This week’s walk was about finding confidence, and it was just a small group of us walking along the beach at Walton around low tide, looking for sea glass and fossils , then rounding the Naze, ascending up above the cliffs we’d just walked under and heading up the Tower.

The cliffs of the Naze are continually collapsing, you can even see dirt and stones tumbling down it, propelled by the wind

It went well and I found a piece of sea glass within minutes of setting out, and was sure this revealed I had an innate talent for spotting it. You won’t be surprised to discover I didn’t find any more. You might be surprised to discover what interrupted our walk: someone finding a bomb on the beach.

This is something not entirely unusual around here, as the east coast was a key military area during the Second World War with lots of ordnance travelling between it and the North Sea, of which some didn’t find its target, dropped into the ocean and now occasionally gets exposed and cast up by the tides. This was just a small mortar shell, and the army bomb disposal team brought out to look at it were rather sanguine at the prospect of disposing of it, but they did have to cordon a section of the beach off to do it, so we couldn’t go all the way round.

It’s not too dramatic when they close the beach

But a nice walk on a nice day, and my ankle was feeling good, until I woke up with it rather sore the next day and realised I still needed to rest it some more, so Monday to Wednesday I didn’t do much more walking than I needed to.

Thursday 18th

Woke up early feeling fresh and saw it was a sunny day with the forecast of it getting rather hot as the day went on. Most importantly, the days of rest had helped my ankle feel a lot better, so I decided to head out for a walk to start the day.

Nothing to special this time, just a loop of about four miles around south Colchester and the Garrison. Out round Abbey Fields, down Layer Road, across the path below the Garrison, then along by the cemetery and back home. Rather quiet out there, with school holidays upon us there weren’t as many kids walking or cycling to school out there, but I did see a couple of groups of soldiers on training runs all looking very comfortable as they ran at a pace I can only dream of attaining.

Friday 19th

A day I wanted to run, but got sensible and stuck to walking. Up and out early this morning for a drive to Northern Gateway to meet up with some of my friends from Running Colchester. Two weeks ago Arthur Whiston, a member of our club, was killed on his bike on his way home from a run. He was well-known and well-loved, a legend of the local running scene and his passing has been marked at many events. This was one of them, a Friday morning run around the Northern Gateway development that he regularly joined in with. I got there early for an initial walk, then met up with friends there and walked part of the route — a Strava crown pattern for our King Arthur — as they ran ahead, then met them back at the cafe there to remember him some more. A sad day, but a good way to remember him.

And then after walking at Parkrun the last couple of weeks, this morning I was finally able to run again. I went down to Mersea Island to escape the heat and part-jogged and part-walked the route around Cudmore Grove to test how well my ankle was healing. The good news is that it’s feeling stronger (and, more importantly, less painful!) so there’ll hopefully be more walks to talk about this time next week.

Staying cool amongst the trees

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