Sun, sea, sand and ...

We had a surprisingly good night’s sleep. Our sleeping bags and roll mats proved to be the buy of the year – we were all snuggley and warm all night.

Mind you it was quite late when we climbed into them after going for a starlit walk along the beach after the pub. The sky by that time had cleared enough to reveal the Milky Way.

After a breakfast of coffee, croissants and pain au chocolat we headed down to the beach for a walk.

It was a beautiful day – the sun was shining, the sky was blue and the air was fresh.



The beach was mostly clay and mud covered with a light sprinkling of sand and shells.

It was lined with ‘cliffs’ of about 2m high at the most, but that did not deter Essex County Council from putting a sign saying: "Danger! Cliffs" on top of them.



We looked at the boats, fantasising about buying sailing boats and dinghies, and spotted relatively rare birds.

And too soon it was time to head back to the smoke.

We wrestled the tent to the floor and folded it roughly into the back of the car. It will have to be squeezed back into its bag at home.