This morning I visited my parents in South Woodham Ferrers and decided to take the boys along with me, as my parents love seeing them , with the plan that we could take a walk along the river after out visit. It was around midday that we pulled up in the gravel carpark that sits on the banks of the River Crouch overlooking the river and Hullbridge on the opposite side. Boots on, rucksack over shoulders, dogs chomping at the bit and away we went….
The sky was overcast with a chilly wind blowing as we made our way along the path at the top of the seawall. As we approached a slight bend in the river I could see the cranes on the small jetty opposite were busy working on something on a kind of ‘barge’ looking thing tied alongside. As I walked further ducks and wading birds could be seen milling about along the waters edge searching for any tasty morsels of food they could find. I love seeing waders pushing their long beaks deep into the estuarine silt as they search for worms and crustaceans to feed on.
The river does a bends quite a bit here and a bench has been placed along this stretch which allows for a great view down river towards North and South Fambridge as well as the large area of marshland just past Hullbridge. I decided to have a wee sit down here and just take in the scenery as I had a drink of water and a bite on a chocolate bar. Although not that heavy it does feel good to take the rucksack off every now and then.
The river further along splits into two and part of it runs back towards South Woodham Ferrers whilst the main part runs towards the Fambridges. I continued along the path which takes you to the outer parts of Willem De Ferrers recreational park and then followed another track which takes you away from the river and back towards the car park where I started, and this creates a ‘loop’ in the route I walked.
As you can see from the map below the path I took is a loop which runs around the sea wall defence which creates a kind of peninsular. The fields you see in the above pictures are within the loop and had quite a few sheep grazing in a couple them and a big flock of geese noisily feeding of the grass in another.
All in all it was a lovely few miles to wander around and relax, nice and level with a couple of benches situated along the track to have a nice sit down if wanted. I have recorded the route in my KOMOOT account and if you would like to follow the exact route I took then click HERE and the link will take you there.
