Walk The Essex Way - Stage4
STAGE FOUR; GREAT WALTHAM - WHITE NOTLEY TERLING
*It's our own stage.
Our Stage 4 starts from here, Great Waltham.
On the gate, there was this sign 'Bull in the field'. Actually didn't see bulls but cows in this field, luckily they were in the distance.
Everything was fine at the beginning. Weather was fine, sunshine, view was great and path was clear for walking.
We got wrong ways a few times, but corrected.
We reached Little Leighs church. It looked lovely with flowers. Inside was also nice. We had a lunch and rest here.
But dark clouds crept up on us from behind. According to the weather forecast on that day, light shower would have come around 4 pm and heavy shower after that. We expected shower at the end of this stage, but it came early.
We passed lovely cottages.
I felt like I became a frog... We evacuated and sheltered in St Mary the Virgin church near there in Great Leighs. It has a round tower, but unfortunately the door was closed. It was still raining. We had rest a bit under the roof.
Eventually, rain didn't stop. We decided to walk again in the rain with watery terrible shoes... Squash, squash and squash...
We were supposed to walk to White Notley, but decided to give up at Terling.
A ford was long and deep in Terling. I'm disappointed we couldn't reach to White Notley, but it was a good decision. We did do well. Thankfully, our saver came to pick us up. Next walk starts from Terling.
Read other stages;
*It's our own stage.
Our Stage 4 starts from here, Great Waltham.
On the gate, there was this sign 'Bull in the field'. Actually didn't see bulls but cows in this field, luckily they were in the distance.
Everything was fine at the beginning. Weather was fine, sunshine, view was great and path was clear for walking.
We got wrong ways a few times, but corrected.
We reached Little Leighs church. It looked lovely with flowers. Inside was also nice. We had a lunch and rest here.
But dark clouds crept up on us from behind. According to the weather forecast on that day, light shower would have come around 4 pm and heavy shower after that. We expected shower at the end of this stage, but it came early.
We passed lovely cottages.
Soon after we crossed A131, finally dark clouds caught us and it started to rain. At the same time, the path became more wild. We were wearing rain-jackets, but our jeans were soaked from the weeds. It wasn't a shower, but proper rain. It didn't stop. We also could hear thunder somewhere as well.
Our agony started. We passed this redundant stile while laughing and talking, so easily missed another stile near there (on the left of picture) which we needed to cross. There was a dead end. I mean I could see a road but a fence was locked. So we came back to this stile and correct the way. This path was a bit bushy with high nettles. My hand was attacked by nettles... Eventually this path connected to a road I saw over the fence...
Rain fall continuously... The next agony was horses. They blocked our way... They were not bulls, but I scared to walk near them in the same field. We waited for a while outside the gate until they moved.
Then, the third agony was a 'boggy field'. The direction said 'may be boggy', so we expected it, but it 'was' definitely boggy. It came suddenly just before the Cole Hill road. It looked like normal wet field as the same as any other field, but if you step on the ground, your shoe sank and water come up. It was like a bottomless swamp! Water got inside the shoes, disaster!!! (Picture is after walking a boggy field). My leg sank down to the ankle.
I felt like I became a frog... We evacuated and sheltered in St Mary the Virgin church near there in Great Leighs. It has a round tower, but unfortunately the door was closed. It was still raining. We had rest a bit under the roof.
Eventually, rain didn't stop. We decided to walk again in the rain with watery terrible shoes... Squash, squash and squash...
We were supposed to walk to White Notley, but decided to give up at Terling.
A ford was long and deep in Terling. I'm disappointed we couldn't reach to White Notley, but it was a good decision. We did do well. Thankfully, our saver came to pick us up. Next walk starts from Terling.
