Finding this place was like being let in on a MASSIVE secret that everyone knew about apart from us. It was the same feeling I had when we went to Centre Parcs for the first time. ("How come no one told me about this awesome place?!") A couple of weekends ago we jumped in the car and went to West Mersea to grab some Fish&Chips. This is one of the jaunts that make you feel very lucky to be living in Colchester. I know, thats a sentence I never thought I'd write. But if you like beaches and outdoor exploring you can be totally spontaneous living here. If it's a nice sunny day, you can be at a beach within 20 / 30 mins and it takes no planning at all. Had we still been in Hackney we never would have jumped in the car and driven to the beach for Fish&Chips. We would have gone to the Chippy in Victoria Park, eaten them in the restaurant and gone home again.
The Mersea Chippy was obviously packed when we arrived, its always a pain to park, but we persevered, got our food then wondered where to eat it. There is a silly, in my opinion, rule at the Chippy that if you buy Take Away you can't sit on the tables and chairs outside so we got back in the car and for the first time ever, drove to East Mersea.
We just kept following the road along and eventually ended up at a place called Cudmore Grove. All we could see on first arrival was a huge car park (with toilets and Ice Cream shop), so we parked up (pay and display parking) and suddenly noticed the amount of cars. If there were all these cars, where were all the people? We soon found out...
We walked through some bushes and suddenly we were in a huge, beautiful field! And there were load of people having BBQ'S! These were not small affairs, they were huge proper organised affairs, with Gazebo's, Gas BBQ's, Cricket, Tennis, Chairs! It was amazing! It was like all these people have been coming here for years, but not telling anyone else about it. I thought we were being organised with our Fish&Chips but suddenly felt very inadequate. We hadn't even brought a rug to sit on.
After our (delicious) food, we decided to go for an explore and started walking towards where we could see a hint of the sea. It was a beautiful short stroll through tall grass.
Driving across The Strood
View from Chippy
We just kept following the road along and eventually ended up at a place called Cudmore Grove. All we could see on first arrival was a huge car park (with toilets and Ice Cream shop), so we parked up (pay and display parking) and suddenly noticed the amount of cars. If there were all these cars, where were all the people? We soon found out...
We walked through some bushes and suddenly we were in a huge, beautiful field! And there were load of people having BBQ'S! These were not small affairs, they were huge proper organised affairs, with Gazebo's, Gas BBQ's, Cricket, Tennis, Chairs! It was amazing! It was like all these people have been coming here for years, but not telling anyone else about it. I thought we were being organised with our Fish&Chips but suddenly felt very inadequate. We hadn't even brought a rug to sit on.
After our (delicious) food, we decided to go for an explore and started walking towards where we could see a hint of the sea. It was a beautiful short stroll through tall grass.
Then we arrived on the coast. It was stunning. There was some information about the history of the place on a big sign but any parent of a young child knows its impossible to read anything in their presence so you can read about it on this link:
Anyway, I'm still in a little bit of shock about how awesome this place and how I have never heard anything about it. Anyway, here are a few pics from the afternoon.
No, we didn't eat it, but still a cool thing for a 4 year old to find lying around.
A brilliant, brilliant day.
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