Length: 17.7 km (11 miles)
Toughness: 5 out of 10 Plenty of "undulations" but no steep hills - the going is pleasant
London Liverpool Street: 10-02 hrs Greater Anglia service to Ipswich
Arrive Marks Tey: 10-57 hrs Change trains
Leave Marks Tey: 11-01 hrs Greater Anglia "Gainsborough line" service to Sudbury
Arrive Chappel & Wakes Colne: 11-07 hrs
Note: Greater Anglia usually hold the connection at Marks Tey for 10 minutes before the Gainsborough line train departs. If the train from London is running late and you miss the connection, it's either an hours wait or - and recommended - share a cab to Wakes Colne. Senior railcard holders who can get to Liverpool Street shortly after 09-30 hrs, take the 09-38 hrs Greater Anglia service to Colchester Town, arriving Marks Tey 10-33 hrs. This allows for a more relaxed interchange and a coffee at the station cafe whilst you wait for the train to Wakes Colne.
Return
Bures to London Liverpool Street, changing at Marks Tey: 16-39, 17-36 and 18-33 hrs and later
Rail ticket: buy a day return to Bures (pronounced "Bewers")
This walk along the Colne Valley in Essex takes you over pastures, meadows and farmland and through a number of villages with "Colne" in their name. We stop for lunch in the pretty village of Colne Engaine at the village pub, the Five Bells. It recently changed hands and I'm hoping the new owners are maintaining the very high standard and fine cuisine set by their long-term predecessors. I guess we will find out on the day (it used to be one of my favourite lunch-time pubs on a SWC walk).
After lunch the walk continues through a fine mix of open country, woods and over farmland via Preston Lake to the village of Bures, which straddles the Essex-Suffolk border. If you have time to kill before the hourly service from the local, tiny station (a halt) you can take refreshments at either of the two remaining pubs in the village - one in Essex, one in Suffolk
T=1.46
Walk Directions are here: L=1.46
2 comments:
Managed to stay on the train to Bures, so ended up doing the walk in reverse. Luckily I had the company of my sister. It worked quite well in reverse, feeling cooler walking by the river after lunch. Didn't manage to bump into anyone doing the walk the right way round!
Just n=4 of us on the walk in the posted direction - a disappointing turnout given we were saying goodbye to one of our long term, mid-week SWC regulars, Pauline "Tartan Rug", who is about to leave London and move to Edinburgh. It transpired many of her walking friends were up in Scotland on the Braemar trip, so their absence was excused - almost. Never mind, I hope we gave Pauline something akin to a send-off, enjoying a libation or two with her at lunch in the Five Bells and again at walk-end in the Eight Bells. I'm sure my fellow SWC mid-week walkers join me in wishing Pauline all the best with her move to Edinburgh and her new life there.
As for today's walk, it was lovely. It was a w=sunny-and-warm-to-hot-day, fortunately tempered by inland breezes during much of the walk. The countryside was green and lush, with many fields carpeted with splendid displays of buttercups. Paths were lined with an abundance of cow parsley. Your lambs were in the fields with their mums, sheltering in copses from the sun. And a cuckoo "serenaded" us in the afternoon as we headed for Prestons Lake. Later in the walk we were relieved to find the "nasty undulating footpath" had for once been cleared - thank you Essex CC Countryside Department.
On arriving in Bures we just missed the 16-39 train by seconds - if only I had not made a complete horlicks of crossing a stile a little earlier (I got stuck on top) we would have made it ! No matter, it gave us the excuse to head down the road to the Eight Bells, where Pauline demolished the remnants of the lunchtime Chilean Sauvignon plonk, and the rest of us partook of beers or Coca Cola.
Home in time to watch a British team lose on penalties to the Germans - plus ca change..........
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