Short 14: Hadleigh Castle Country Park (by moonlight) T=Short.14
Train: 18:13 Leigh-on-Sea train from London Fenchurch St. Station (18:17 Limehouse/18:23 West Ham), arriving Benfleet at 18:53 – buy a day return to Leigh-on-Sea
Return: Trains back from Leigh-on-Sea are at: 20:57; 21:13; 21:20; 21:43; 21:50; 21:57; 22:13; 22:20; 22:43; and 22:50
Distance: 3.5 miles or 5.5 km
Difficulty: 1 out of 10
November is the month of the Beaver Moon, named as such because this is when beavers begin working in earnest on their winter dams, often at night by the light of a full moon. Although I do not envisage seeing any beavers working away on dams along the Thames; hopefully, we will have nice views of the full moon over the estuary. Some of us did a longer version of this route last year and the moon was soooo bright we almost needed sunglasses! The ruins of Hadleigh castle are particularly atmospheric by moonlight..... It should only take about 1.5 hours to walk to Leigh-on-Sea – so plenty of time to have a meal in one if its many pubs before heading back to London. More information and a map of the route can be found here.
Ps: You may want to bring a head torch…but, hopefully, the moon will provide enough light on a straight forward route largely along the Thames…
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As I was waiting for the train on the West Ham platform (with some light sprinkles of rain in the air), I imagined that this report would start something like "your lonely correspondent set off alone in the dark...." HOWEVER, much to my very pleasant surprise, I spied 3 familiar faces on the train and we were met by an early arrival at the ticket barriers, making for n=5 setting off under a w=full-beaver-moon. The moon shone brightly for most of our outing (allowing us to dodge around many mud puddles and cow pats) with occasional passing clouds....The route along the creek was easy to follow (but rather muddy in places) and we had no problems finding our way up to the castle ruins atmospherically illuminated by the moonlight. Some clouds moved in on the final stretch into Leigh on Sea where we all had a pleasant meal at the Crooked Billet. Two set off for the 21:43 and the trailing three arrived with impeccable timing for the 21:57. A very enjoyable evening!
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