Mersea Island

Mersea is the most easterly inhabited island in England and is around 10 miles from my home town of Colchester.

It’s a small island, home to approximately 7000 residents. At low tide it joins the mainland but at high tide ,water separates the Mersea Islanders from us all.

Everyone I know has forgotten the tide at one point and ended up stranded for an hour or so before the tide has drifted out. Me included. I managed not only to hold myself back but the 12 students I had on board the minibus, hired to take them on an outdoor adventure. Getting stuck wasn’t part of the itinerary granted but hey, I felt it added a certain je be sais quoi to the day. I aim to please……

Anyway, as I mentioned in my previous post, with the whole lockdown 2 swinging by, I have been planning various field trips (literally) and other excursions, as part of our daily exercise allowance. Fortunately this time round there isn’t a specified mileage (probably not wise to travel to Durham though Mr. Cummings) so Mersea was top of my list. This is not least because Mersea is always my go to spot and has been since I was small. Now I have some small people of my own – well ok technically one as the others have passed my eye line- I have carried the tradition forward and on Sunday smallest and I drove out at low tide.

It was beautiful. Gulls flickered in the morning sunshine, the beach hummed with conversation (clearly i am not the only one with a big brain 😂) and the open beach offered plenty to occupy us. We got stuck in mud, buried our feet in the sand, collected shells and got stuck in more mud. It definitely set us up for the week.

And it’s left me thinking ; if that was the only decent weather day we get this time round, then it was a morning we will always remember.