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We
took a taxi to Fobbing and walked east along embankments marginally nearer
the coast than the paths we walked the day before. But a vast area of coast here is taken by
up by an oil refinery, so we did not get a “coast” feeling. The embankments just outside Fobbing are
special because of the least lettuce that
grows there on hot bare south-facing banks.
It is difficult to pick out because of its slender spikes of obscure
flowers, but once we had got our eye in we found a few dozen plants scattered
around. This is one of very few sites
in Britain
where it grows, so we were pleased to find it. We then returned to Fobbing and took the
westward path bordering the large settlement of Corringham. Again signage and maintenance were almost
completely lacking and we had to fight head-high nettles and reeds to get
through a marsh. We skirted a school
as intended but the way past Corringham Hall was not clear and we had to crawl
under a locked gate to get to the road.
A footpath sign from the road sent us straight through the grounds of
Thurrock FC, but the way was blocked by fences. In the end we tried behind some council
bins and it turned out that this was the way, after picking our way through
masses of litter. Having run across a
main road, we found the paths on the
other side much easier and gained the banks of the Thames
just beyond the oil refinery and other industrial development. This track, as usual, was a series of illegal
dumps and broken gates, ultimately enclosed by the tall security fences. Val remarked that Essex
was the “land of sea-walls and high fences”.
Nevertheless we did gain the coast after crossing a narrow industrial
rail-track and were able to follow the embankment without problems, past
noisy and busy “development work”. Too
soon we had to leave the river beside a creek and follow a track leading
inland through a series of large angling lakes that had a few birds but none
of any particular interest. This was
because the next section of the Thames was
taken up by a new landfill site with its attendant seagulls. A footpath led SW to Mucking and its church
that was now no longer a church but another “redevelopment”. We then crossed a field to avoid a long
bend, but still had to follow the minor road for another kilometre with
traffic tearing past at threatening speed and no verges. We were able to cut another corner by
footpath, but this field was again uncut grass and tussocky and it was with
some difficulty that we managed to come out on the Linford/East Tilbury
road. Looking back the field was
signed as a “nature reserve”, the usual excuse around here not to maintain
the footpath. Down the road we found
the George & Dragon pub with a seafood seller in a little cabin outside
and a single table with 4 chairs. Despite
being by a busy road, we still enjoyed the rest eating his prawns, crayfish
tails and pickled eggs, along with drinks from the pub. It had a bit of an “East
End” feel to it! It was
only a short way further down the road to East Tilbury station, where, after
a level crossing, we took a path east beside a housing estate (first going
through Gobions Park with a children’s playground). This path again skirted high fences beside
the housing and then the landfill site and wended through the usual continual
line of litter and ended up again on the bank of the Thames,
which we would follow to the ferry.
Little beaches below us looked like shingle at a glance, but once on
them we found them made up entirely of broken glass, pottery and other
rubbish. The first embankment was
concrete with a metre-wide walkway on the riverside which took us a long
way. Lower walls on a little knoll
enabled us to sit down and have another snack whilst watching large leaf-cutter
bees bring leaf sections to their holes in the sandy bank, first circling
round several times to assess the landmarks (confused by our legs dangling in
the way) and then diving into their proper holes. Other parasitic bees and wasps were searching
for holes and entering some unguarded ones to lay eggs. From here we came to Coalhouse Fort and
grass embankments skirting the park, before passing East Tilbury Marshes,
with various wasteland plants dominating the vegetation (wasteland seemed to
be the dominant habitat all day).
While it was not scenically attractive, the rough grassland was
popular with butterflies and other insects, which were abundant. There were also a number of stonechats,
both visible and audible, and a kestrel was seen hunting over the
marshes. This was followed by a weird
path across former landfill, walking on broken glass etc, but at least
interesting for plants like henbane, bastard cabbage (dominant in places), kangaroo-apple,
hemlock, hoary cress, perennial wall-rocket, Guernsey
fleabane and fennel. Large boats
continually passed going up the Thames. We were able to walk right in front of the
power station, whose twin chimneys were a major landmark, where dittander
occurred again, the first time for several days, and past several wharves,
colourful graffiti and industrial premises, even bits of saltmarsh, where
there was some wormwood, to another “fort” and then to the passenger ferry
terminal, quite unmarked except for a small road-sign. We arrived just before a ferry from Gravesend docked and we took a photo in front of the
people and cars exiting from this anonymous place. Perfect timing meant we could catch the bus
that takes ferry arrivals to the railway station, from which we took the
train to Stanford-le-Hope.
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Passing
Tilsbury Power Station
Bastard
cabbage
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Fennel
Least
lettuce
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Downbeat
ferry terminal, Tilsbury
Tilbury
art
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