Harwich weekend - 25/26th November

One of our newer members, Ian Greer, suggested a weekend at the 1912 Centre Group Hostel in Harwich, and eleven of us went to stay there on Friday 25th and Saturday 26th November, through to the Sunday.

The hostel at HarwichThe 1912 Hostel at HarwichThe 1912 Centre is a 26 bed hostel in the heart of the Harwich Heritage area, and is located in what used to be the Harwich Fire Station. As there were only eleven of us, and we had booked the whole hostel, we had a fair bit of room or rooms to choose from! It turned out to be - as Ian who had stayed there before had stated - a nice hostel with plenty of provisions including a good kitchen, eating area, lounge area and drying room. It had a good accessible wc/shower room for disabled visitors, too - though most of the sleeping accommodation was upstairs and I'm not sure what the downstairs sleeping accommodation was like for accessibility.

My experience of the weekend began with picking Fred up from his home at Hermon Hill, departing at 2.30pm on the Friday and proceeding up the M11 to join the M25 to pick up the A12. Fred and I arrived at the hostel at something like 6.30 - about two hours later than I'd anticipated. We found Val's car-load there already (that included Duncan and Ann - and I didn't mean to refer to them as a load). They had a much better experience with the roads, Val being sensible enough that when she saw the sign "A12 closed after A130" she continued up to the A120 and went across. I'm not so familiar with that, so stuck with the A12 and it's not-very-informative warning to find a diversion before the A130 - with immense tailbacks! Making a quick decision, I opted not to follow the signs and headed for Maldon, which although tortuous was moving. We arrived tired at Harwich and I a bit fed-up 'cos I thought I hadn't played it right - but we hadn't done too bad because Dave's car came in with Jinan and Ian aboard considerably after ours, having left the same time! Considerably later still, but having left later anyway, came Paul - another new member - with Fosie and Susan B.

So that's the travel - it was much easier getting home.

Followed by the herdThey're behind you!As we'd had a bit of a journey we opted to just get fish and chips in the evening, and eat them in-hostel. Saturday morning was bright and even sunny, and those of us that hadn't ventured out the evening before were perhaps surprised to see how close our accommodation was to the sea shore. The view beyond beached yachts and dinghys and a small sandy beach was of the Stour estuary, with Felixstowe on the other side. We made our own breakfasts in the well-equipped kitchen, then got into three of the cars for the short drive to the village of Little Oakley - the starting place for Duncan's planned walk. Off the road, our first footpath was undefined and across an oil-seed rape field. Things got better after that (apart from being chased-up by a herd of herded cattle), because  the way was quite good underfoot, an easy enough terrain, just a little confusion as to the way ahead, and a varied landscape which encompassed villages, a windmill, oak trees growing in the Stour, Brent Geese and a nice big bell in a cage outside of Wrabness Church which most of us were happy enough to ring. This probably annoys the villagers, but we encountered no shotguns.

At Wrabness, Jinan and I caught a convenient train back to Dovercourt as the nearly six miles was enough for Jinan and for my ankle. We had a coffee and hot chocolate in a coffee and hot chocolate (and pastry)-type establishment, then walked down to the sea shore to promenade back to the hostel. That added another mile-plus to our walk, so we didn't do bad with the distance and got to see some of Harwich's sights on the way.

Our meals on Saturday evening was divided into two groups. One group chose the curry option, whilst the other was in a more general restaraunt. Must say that I enjoyed my more-general meal, even though once again I've blown my proposed vegetarianism. (I have just checked and it is a word)

The promenade near HarwichHarwich PromenadeSunday morning was once again bright, but windy. We followed a town-trail this time, with Val navigating, albeit backwards and re-visiting the likes of the treadmill-crane and the low-lighthouse which some of us had seen one way or other the day or days before. It's quite an interesting town, is Harwich, with a considerable amount of old-style buildings, quaint streets and POI's. I quite liked the Ha'penny Pier area, with a magnificent Great Eastern hotel (now apartments) and two light vessels, including (although only temporarily) the Sandettie - which is theSandettie Light Vessel Automatic which you can hear about on the nightly coastal stations reports. The other was LV18 which had been lying deteriorating on a mooring off Harwich for 12 years prior to being restored and permanently berthed here.  It is open to the public and includes exhibits of pirate radio, and indeed was used as the vessel Caroline in the film The Boat that Rocked. Of course, it wasn't open on that day. It was pretty cold in the strong wind, and those of us who had elected not to visit the Napoleonic defense redoubt decided that we'd return to the hostel and make ourselves some hot drinks before departing for home. We were shortly joined by the others.

It was a good couple of days, and the hostel a useful one for the Group to consider booking in the future.

Paul Ferris, 30th November 2011