Essex “the lower bit”
ATUK Trip march 09th 2019
we started our day by meeting up at a mcdonalds just on the outskirts of harlow, a stones throw from the M11 motorway, we left at around midday and started our eastward journey towards coggeshall driving through places with weird and wonderful names like, foster street,humphries,magdalen laver “the easters” clatterford end “the rodings” and a favorite “round roblets”.
The countryside here is classic essex, gentle undulating arable farming and lots of small and not so small forest areas, we encountered dozens of deer and various other wildlife including march hares!
Villages in this part of the world are often picture postcard perfect with lots of beamed houses alongside more modern residences with a smattering of land settlement type properties.
Our route was around 57 miles and a large proportion was off tarmac, we had some very long gravel tracks and some wet and slightly rutted areas plus some great forests. There was some scratchy sections but on the whole the tracks are well maintained and clearly waymarked, there is one water crossing but its very rare to be too deep and has a hard gravel base.
Thanks to everyone who came along and enjoyed our day out and especially to andy barrett who helped with route planning and darren who led the first group.
a gpx will be available to paid up members on the atuk forum
