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I'll warn you now that I don't expect this year's trip to be anything spectacular. I wasn't covering... This year's dead snake has come unusually early. Less than two hours later, a live one would slither... Maldon. When I passed here in ... Maldon. There's water in the horse trough. A view out of Maldon. Maldon. Houses painted in the Essex style. Some quiet roads. Tiptree is where they make the jam. I would see a tourist sign for the factory lat... Newly baled hay. Here's the machine that's doing it. Essex's cities give it a bad reputation but most of it is actually rather pleasant. When I stopped in Maldon, I booked a place to stay tonight. Here it is. There was a sign warning of ducks on the road. I suppose this is a kind of duck. Well, today's wasn't a long ride but there were no problems so we'll see what happens tomorrow. I'm not sure those ropes are necessary. Inside. The shower is a bit awkward. The big wide shower head is at about the height of my eyes and it's in ... There is a fireplace in the bathroom thought, which you don't often see. I think this tent attached to the hotel must be permanent. It's there on Google Earth. That little dish antenna up the long pole looks a bit odd. The hotel's lake. A lounge. Intriguing! There was some rain in the night. The forecast did predict it but yesterday was so sunny that I didn... I had been hoping to go to Harwich today to catch a ferry. On previous occasions, I have gone all th... Scenery. Somebody said they were enjoying the pictures of pretty Essex villages so here's another. This one i... Messing. Scenery. Easthorpe. This sign is obviously quite new and unusually, it puts more than one name on the same line. The entrance to Colchester Zoo. It must be feeding time for something. I could just about hear a kee... The signs for a cycle route directed me round the outside of a big Army barracks. I didn't think I s... An Orthodox church, which looks like it has the clock and bell tower of a much smaller church. I meandered throught some back streets to stay off the main road. It was a bit of an architechtural ... Then there was this grey terrace. This is the building used by the local Liberal Democrats. The next road has yarnbombing on all the trees... ... and the postbox. This road has two pubs, one of which has a public defibrillator on the outside. After this, I passed... The reason why I've come through Colchester is because there are no bridges over the River Colne dow... I saw a cycle route sign for something called the Wivenhoe Trail. I want to go to Wivenhoe so I'm ta... This is where the water enters the river. The River Colne and the village of Rowhedge. This is in case I still have any followers who are interested in level crossings. The Wivenhoe Trail. It looks like this cycle route has been renumbered from 1 to 51 but most of this sign still talks ab... I knew Wivenhoe had some connection to Miss Marple but I had to go online to find out what it is. Th... Blackberries? In the first half of August? They tasted okay. I was fighting quite a strong headwind for the last few kilometres into Clacton. I don't mind though... The bowls club in Clacton-on-Sea. Clacton. The beach. An offshore wind farm. Crazy golf. On the beach. According to the plaque, this is for sailing model boats. Clacton beach. The pier. Clacton beach. On the pier. Tonight's bike parking. Clacton. Strange name. My hotel. The view from my window. To me, one of the main features that gives a hotel character is short flight of stairs. This is odd. I had never seen a bath mat rolled up in a string bag before yesterday. Now I've seen t... The owner warned me to be careful of the hot water. I haven't turned the tap on yet but I expect it ... A seagull on the next building. I wonder why room 5 has a combination lock. Gardens. Clacton Pier. There is still a strong wind blowing straight off the sea along the length of the pier... Rather diminutive palm trees. Clacton. Inside the building at the front of the pier. This wouldn't be the game to play if you didn't like huskies. Once you get past the helter skelter, the pier seems a bit more old-fashioned. Clacton, seen from its pier. Kites. A very small roller coaster, and a stall whose prizes are cuddly doughnuts. Turbines. Breakfast. I haven't bothered to create precise maps of tomorrow's route like I normally do because Dutch cycle... A slug next to where I parked my bike. Clacton-on-Sea. At the moment, I'm walking because today I somehow have to make a 20 mile journey take 10 hours. Wal... Televisions, computers and electricals? Most bike shops don't have that many bikes! Sheltering from a brief rain shower. The bike fits quite well here. This car's tyre valve has a crown. There are some decent sized palm trees growing in this road. Did somebody not slow down? The Bicycle. A chapel being converted into a house. I have booked a room for Monday night in an unusual hotel whi... Towering hay bales. In the distance on the right, I can see the cranes of the docks. Coastal scenery. A close-up. A bench where I wasted a bit of time. Beach huts. I'm beginning to feel apprehensive about tonight's sea crossing. The cranes are in Felixstowe, on the other side of the combined estuary of the Rivers Stour and Orwe... A close-up of the ship and cranes. Sand blowing along the beach. I can feel it sandblasting my back. Near here, there was a 600 metre f... Oh. I thought Harwich was in Suffolk. The high lighthouse in Old Harwich. A road of painted houses. It would have been fun to go up there but not with my heavy bags. Harwich. Harwich. A crane from 1667, which was powered by people walking in the wheel which you can see inside. It has... A memorial to people who died in the 1953 North Sea flood. The Wellington Road Mural, created in 1995. In the foreground is the little ferry across the river. I never saw it move. In the background... ... is the terminal for my ferry to Holland. It won't be here for a while though. I've just looked o... Britain's last manned lightship, which apparently now houses a museum of pirate radio. Must be Saturday. These guys got me to take a photo of them. Not this photo. A different one using one of their phones... It looks like the lifeboat people have got a shout. Three minutes later. "Please lock your bikes to the fence. Thank you." Harwich Town railway station. I've used Harwich International station in the past. This is the end o... The view from the mound of the Redoubt Fort. The fort was built between 1808 and 1810 and is surroun... The signs say that the fort closes at four o'clock. What I didn't realise before coming up here is t... Dishes. Somebody at work recently found out about ... The port of Harwich, which for a change I am approaching along the old road through the village of P... An interestingly-shaped bike. the man's bike has a trailer with another child in it. Here comes the ship. Sunset. The small dot in the sky, above the nose of the camper van, is Jupiter. This camera is capable of ta... A group of cyclists who have just arrived. They are by no means the only ones. I don't think I've ev... A few of those are motorbikes. Waiting for some lorries to cross our path. There are more bikes coming down the ramp. In the car deck. The cabin comes with a fairly rag-tag bunch of coathangers. The pier where I sat for a couple of huors this afternoon. You can see the silhouette of the tower o... Old Harwich with the moon Jupiter. Felixstowe docks. When I saw the big OOCL ship in the daytime, all of the cranes above it were parked and nothing was ... Felixstowe. The same ship.