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A winter walk out to Thorrington Tide Mill was the challenge. What could possibly go wrong, as we set off out of Wivenhoe *ahem* rather late in the afternoon with the bruising skies above looking foreboding?

Um…

The inspiration behind the walk was twofold. The wonderful Wivenhoe Encyclopaedia details the walk, as well as Martin Newell, the pop genius of this parish, enthusing about the panoramic scenes in his ace Prospect of Wivenhoe book.

Having already explored the Wood, Rowhedge and Alresford, the next logical location in the Saturday afternoon series of walks for @AnnaJCowen and I had to be out towards Thorrington.

Armed with a ropey print off of the Wivenhoe Encyclopaedia map (which to be fair, isn’t exactly OS quality in its original form,) and boastful claims of “back before tea,” everything was going fine until we reached Alresford Creek.

The realisation that the girl had forgotten the hip flask was the first crisis flash point. Failing to comprehend how utterly stupid it is to be stuck in the great outdoors during darkness, was a bit of a downer - they don’t have streetlights around here, y’know.

Ever creative, the Wivenhoe Encyclopaedia map is actually three maps rolled into one. For a non-creative cartographer that gets lost just reading street signs, this was all rather confusing.

Hey hoe - we pressed on, although not too sure exactly where on actually was. I don’t believe in re-tracing your footsteps to try and seek inner knowledge, but a quick scan of google maps back at base leads me to believe that we actually completed all three walks - twice over as well.

Cripes.

But away from the amateur rural exploration skills, both the Wivenhoe Encyclopaedia, and the pop genius of this parish were right about one thing: Thorrington Tide Mill is simply stunning. Not the building but se, but the views that it offers out towards Brightlingsea, and then back down the Creek and all the way back to Alresford.

A mere half hour walk out of Wivenhoe (yeah, right…) and you are presented with a landscape that can compete with the best that the British Isles has to offer. That’s not something that you can often say about Brightlingsea.

Blimey.

The return leg required a bit of guess work (“follow the Creek” - ah!) and soon we were back at Wivenhoe. In the absence of any hip flask activity, it would have been rude not to continue our afternoon of exploration, with the Black Buoy soon appearing on our radar.

Chin chin.

Thorrington strikes me as the type of place that is forever changing. Having approached it under rather brutal winter conditions, I look forward to a summer return. Don’t forget the hip flask, luv.