(Cache adopted from mel-ray on 08 June 2012)
This is a 6-mile circular tour of 22 traditional caches starting and finishing in Goldhanger.
Full details of the caches, hints and a map can be found here.
A cache for all cachers on a mile long path.
On the edge of Essex is a land of mud flats, seabirds and inescapable history. At its heart is the town of Maldon, from where you can explore on foot or on water and savour a salty taste of life on the marshes.
Big skies, open waters and bleak, sweeping vistas have a particular allure as the year begins to draw in. In autumn, when the summer crowds have departed, the Blackwater Estuary in Essex offers a sense of isolation quite miraculous for being only an hour’s drive from London. As the eel grass turns rusty and flowers of sea lavender bring a blush to the salt marsh, the colours of autumn are in evidence, despite the rarity of trees here.
It is still possible to sense this area's warmongering, seafaring past. Stride out along the coastal paths or sail out into the Blackwater, and the modern world recedes within minutes. The famous Battle of Maldon was fought in 991AD near South House Farm. At the tip of the bleak and relentlessly flat Dengie peninsula, the estuary’s southern coast, is a remote Anglo-Saxon chapel. And well into the 20th century, the long creeks around Tollesbury concealed smugglers.
This wide estuary has countless islets colonised by seals and birds. A vast number of migrating visitors flock here in autumn to feed on the expanses of the mud flats, salt marsh and arable land. The massed honking of Brent geese drowns out conversation. At dusk the noise can be deafening, with the warble of the curlew the Blackwater’s signature tune. An internationally important area for wildlife, it is protected as a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI), a Special Protection Area (SPA) for birds, and a marine Special Area of Conservation (SAC).
At the Blackwater's heart is the thriving market town of Maldon, built on a steep hill at the mouth of the estuary. The Maldon waterfront, also known as the Hythe, is crammed with dozens of barges, boats and almost as many pubs. Along the estuary’s northern coast, the terrain swells and billows up to Colchester, Britain’s oldest town. Around Goldhanger, circular patches of red earth mark the sites of Iron Age and Roman salt works. Dutch and Flemish refugees built the sea wall around the Blackwater in the 16th century, reclaiming acres for agriculture. In summer, soft fruit grows here and this is sheep-grazing land, all the way to Mersea Island, linked to the mainland by a causeway.
Article from Country Living online 27.09.2006