6^th April 2014

Well I have finally escaped the clutches of kent and made it to essex  so yesterday I left you after spending the evening with the 2nd cliffe scout group. It was great and being compared to bear grylls only better was a lovely compliment I hope I can live up to! I don't remember what I put in my last blog as I was exhausted and was dozing off whilst trying to write it. Every time I jolted awake my finger had randomly typed gibberish lol.

Anyway after that I headed to the Tilbury ferry jetty to meet an extraordinary man I had met at the three bells pub in cliffe. He insisted that I should cross using the ferry and that I won't have to pay as he was the man who run it on Saturdays. As it turns out he was the captain  well although I knew I would be breaking the rules he was very insistent so I simply had to recede and accept his kind offer.

Getting to gravesend to catch the ferry was a mission in its own right. I wanted to stau close to the river Thames as much as possible but the task was impossible. Despite my best efforts, every road and track I went down lead to some kind of dead end. Eventually though I followed a road that took me into the town. I immediately used Google maps to locate an outdoors shop as I was running low on gas only to discover it had been closed for two years! Typical. ..

With no other options around I hiked to the ferry to be greeted by the captain waving from the cockpit. He shouted down to the lower deck "that man there doesn't have to pay!" On board I was ushered up some steps and joined the captain for a unique view of the thames. As it turns out his son was an actor on a British programme called "the bill" and he knew a few executives at the tv company, so he offered to say something to try and help with promoting the challenge. Awesome 

Well after I disembarked the boat I found myself in essex, the next county I would be navigating, a new culture and new accent to experience. I wondered what I had in store for me over the next week or so.

I took a short breather and headed for the worlds end, a pub where I would be meeting up with Beth Read, an old friend I had met through worldwide canoeing and kayaking a web site I had developed back in 2010. It was great to finally meet beth who brought me a chicken sarnie, some fruit and some baby wipes. She bought me half a larger as I charged up my phone and backup battery then we both headed east along the thames to coalhouse fort. It was now starting to get dark and I really needed to start looking for a place to stay. Fortunately we came across an old ww2 bunker. Perfect, it was dry and sheltered. We both explored the location and I choose one of the rooms to bed down in. Beth left and headed to the nearby train to go home. She also made an appeal on the st johns Facebook page to se if she could arrange for much needed supplies to be sent to.

I had a great and much needed sleep although the air mattress did deflate due to a puncture some weeks previous and this morning I found myself a little uncomfortable laying on the hardened concrete floor.

Last night I was a little worried about the planned route as it appeared to be a little remote however on closer inspection this morning I have discovered a few towns not far from the trail. Its a lot cooler today and overcast so gonna get a brew on and head off