Walking the Essex Way – Manningtree to Harwich

The Essex Way is an 81-mile long distance path starting in Epping at the end of the Central Line. I walked that first section from Epping to Chipping Ongar in September 2019 and what a glorious walk it was.

Taking advantage of the hot weather last week, I decided to return to the Essex Way to walk the final section from Manningtree to Harwich – a walk that had been on my radar for a while. It certainly didn’t disappoint. From the beguiling streets and harbour at Manningtree on the banks of the Stour Estuary, where the Witchfinder General Matthew Hopkins wrote his Discovery of Witches in 1647, to the Mistley Towers and down through Wrabness then out to the North Sea, every footstep was majestic. There was even a windmill near the village of Ramsay and a friendly horse that followed me across a field.

Arriving in the sleeping town of Harwich as a ferry slid out of the Harbour was the perfect end to the walk.

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