Walton-on-the-Naze

 Walton-on-the-Naze

Walk to the Naze Tower - 12th July 2023

The week of 10th July saw us head to Walton-on-the-Naze in Essex for a short holiday. It's a nice old fashioned seaside resort. The town is a little run-down, caught in a bit of a time warp, though there is a bit of redevelopment happening. The pier is in need of some TLC - though the arcade was humming - but the beaches are fantastic, bounded as they are by the sea walls and, on many stretches, the colourful beach huts and it suits me fine. 

Midweek, while the rest of the family were having a more relaxed day, I decided to take a walk along the front towards the Naze Tower. I had no intention of going all the way, still wary of over-working the knee, having already played on the beach with the kids and walked up and down the pier, as well as around the site we were staying out, so I started out fairly sensibly. 

The weather was perfect; sunshine, fluffy clouds, glistening sea. I left the road, took the few steps down to the prom that ran in front of the colourful beach huts and began a leisurely bimble towards the cafe in the distance. I met a lady sitting outside one of the huts who was only too happy to pass the time of day and then I ambled on, the cafe getting closer. 

Hipkins cafe top left of photo

There was a slope up to the cafe itself, Hipkins, with tables outside and again a rather old-fashioned interior. But that's what so nice. I ordered a tea and found a seat looking out to sea and relaxed in the sunshine. 

Looking back towards the pier

Somewhat refreshed, I decided I may as well walk on a little further. The sea wall was higher along this stretch and there were more numerous groynes into the sea. And to the left, the under-cliff began to rise up, the slopes covered in brambles and other wild flowers, with a few hollyhocks that had seeded themselves, along with red hot pokers. There was a profusion of butterflies. And then the Naze Tower could be seen some way above on the skyline. Shortly, the path ahead became host to what looked like virtually a whole school descending, the pupils carrying rucksacks and clipboards and some with striped metal poles. I discovered they were doing a project on coastal erosion. On my first day in Walton I had been approached by a trio of schoolgirls who were conducting a survey on the same subject and wanted my opinion on the town's sea defences, clearly an important subject these days. I waited for the last of the students to pass and decided I had come this far, I may as well go up to the Tower itself. What I hadn't bargained on were the five or six flights of concrete steps that led up to it. But I made it and took some photos of the tower before going inside. 

I didn't bother with the cast iron spiral staircase that led to the upper floors, but did buy a rather nice painting of fishing boats before walking across to the Essex Wildlife Trust Discovery Centre where they had a shop and cafe. I bought a cold drink and sat outside for a much needed break. 

So, again rested, did I go to the main road and catch a bus back or walk? Considering the fine nature of the day, I decided to keep walking. A cut across the grassed car park led to a little private road with some very picturesque houses. A couple were busy in the garden and I asked if the path continued on at the end. Yes it did, so I soon found myself walking across the cliff tops, once again surrounded by butterflies. There were paths intermittently leading back down to the beach, but I kept on for a few minutes until one path in particular took my fancy. 

There's nothing quite like ambling down to the sea between hedgerows and I was instantly reminded of such a path at the Lizard on Cornwall. Happy memories.

Once back at the sea front a retraced my steps, pausing to sit a while on some steps down to the beach and watch the clouds sailing and musing on the rather large phallic symbols the boys from the school had drawn in the sand, probably after the teachers had passed ahead, before finally making my way back to park site and meeting up with the family again. 

A beautiful day and a beautiful walk.

More photos, as always, in the gallery

Stratford East London

 Stratford and the Olympic Park

Thursday 6th July 2023

Well hello there. It's been quite a while. A frustrating few months when the walks got shorter and the knee more painful. But, we finally have a new one, which is something of a double-edged sword at the moment. Yes, it has to be better than the old one (eventually) but it is taking a while to settle and be less troublesome. Knee replacements are painful. And I mean painful. They can take months to heal and, in the healing, cause as much frustration as before you had it. 

However, we're now four months post op and hopefully getting somewhere. Exercise and pain relief is the key. And patience, which is something you tend to run out of quite quickly when all you want to do is get out there and walk! 

Something of a breakthrough came a couple of weeks ago when my brother and I decided to take a train trip to Stratford in East London to do some shopping. Not usually the first thing on our agendas, but he had a few days off and wanted to do something and by taking the Metropolitan line to Finchley Road we could hop on the Jubilee Line straight through. So it was that we found ourselves in the Stratford Centre, which was somewhat disappointing as we had expected a large shopping mall. Before we discovered we were on the wrong side of the station, we took a little bimble out into the High Street and there was some interesting architecture overshadowed by all the high rise blocks going up. At least some of them had something to recommend them - if huge apartment blocks can have recommendation - in that the designs were rather more interesting than what is currently being shoved up in Watford! But, as I said, we discovered that the Westfield Centre was on the other side of the station (told you we weren't really into shopping), so we crossed over and began our trawl around the shops. I was actually looking for a particular brand of shoes, but was disappointed to find a very small collection in one of the stores. So we went for a bite to eat and then decided to take a walk into the Olympic Park, somewhere Martin hadn't visited. 

By this time my knee was starting to twinge quite a bit. I'd already taken a couple of pain killers earlier, so I persevered and we first took a look inside the enormous aquatic centre, where we were told Tom Daley had just turned up for a practice. Sitting alongside the pool sweating in the 'swimming pool heat' we finally spied Tom emerge on the far side with a few other divers and they walked round to the begin their practice, climbing up to the boards, diving, climbing out and doing it all over again. I took a few photos as no one said we couldn't and there were no signs and then we thankfully made our way outside into the fresh air. 

Martin then decided he wanted to take a closer look at the Orbit, or the ArcelorMittal Orbit to give it its correct name. Having walked all around the outside, we decided we wanted go up to the viewing platform and take some photos, but having stood in the queue for several minutes, we found out there was a private function being held and the platforms were unavailable that afternoon. 

"The Orbit"

We took a detour around the aquatic centre and came by a sculpture "Since 9/11" by Miya Ando. It was created using steel columns from the World Trade Centre recovered from Ground Zero in New York, commissioned to teach students about the events, causes and consequences of 9/11, so that by living together in peace, harmony and tolerance, such events can never happen again. 

'Since 9/11' by Miya Ando

It was time to head back to the station. By now the knee was becoming really painful and I was getting slower and slower. But we got there eventually and a couple more tablets washed down with a bottle of water and the long train ride home helped to ease the discomfort. 

It wasn't until I checked my phone App that I realised I'd walked about 13,500 steps and just over 6 miles. No wonder my knee hurt!  It would take a few days' rest and some care to recover. But it showed that I could begin to do my walks again, if I was sensible.This time I had probably overdone it.

More photos in the gallery