6th 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
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