Walking from Colchester to Brightlingsea along the River Colne

I returned to Colchester Essex, Britain’s oldest recorded town, to walk along the Colne out towards the sea. This walk had been on my list for a number of years. I’m slowly working my way along the estuaries and coastline of Essex. Various Thames Estuary strolls out to Shoebryness and around past the Broomway and a short section of the River Roach. The River Crouch walk lives long in my mind and the continuation a few years later round the Dengie peninsula and inland in the dusk to Southminster for the train back to London. The Chelmer & Blackwater Navigation one muddy January day was a classic. And others that have lodged themselves into a corner of my psyche to pop out one restless evening walking through the City fringe or sat in Holborn Spoons (table near the back when the LSE students haven’t annexed the rear section). Walking the Colne from Colchester to Brightlingsea was next on the list after I’d crossed the bridge on the edge of the city when arriving for my talk at the…