According to my calendar, apparently I'm 44 and a bit. I guess that means I'm approaching the age where I nearly qualify to be a MAMIL, except I don't feel that old, and the only lycra I wear is as a percentage of my socks. So, perhaps AMAMIDJ (approaching middle aged man in denim jeans) might be more appropriate. I bring this up now as I'll be mentioning the jeans again below.

Yesterday afternoon, after assembling a trampoline, mowing the lawn and taking the garden rubbish to the civic amenity site I had a few hours free for a cycle ride (and a pass out after all the hard work). Tendring CAMRA have a pub passport scheme running at the moment until the end of July and I thought I'd take the opportunity to head to Brightlingsea to visit the three pubs there as they are too far for me to get to in my lunch hour. My previous route description for the route to the Bromley Cross mentions how I have cycled to Brightlingsea before via Great Bentley, and as the Plough is also in the passport that became my first stop. The advantage for my unfit self of going via Great Bentley is it avoids the valley (or more importantly the hill out of the valley) where the B1027 crosses the Bentley Brook - where the Thorrington Road crosses it as you leave Great Bentley the dip is much less severe. However there is no avoiding the hill up to the church as you approach Brightlingsea by road, or in my case the shared use cycleway besides the road. I'll digress a moment about something that has been irritating me.

The cycleway up the hill into Brightlingsea is on the right hand side of the road as you head towards the town. It begins when you are still heading down hill, and cyclists are expected to filter left onto the pavement and dismount to cross. The first section on the right hand side is then rather sandy and gritty and could do with more maintenance. If I were fitter I would be tempted to keep my momentum going and stay on the road, even though generally the cycleway is fine; it is just that I'm sure that often it is likely to be quicker to cycle up the hill than stop, dismount, wait for gap in traffic, remount, and head up the hill with none of the momentum you lost by crossing. But the irritation? When looking for something on the internet I found some minutes for some local transport panel which were upset that not enough cyclists are using it and were going to spend money on additional signage. It isn't the signage that is needed - spend the money on sweeping, pruning, and some way of allowing bicycles to access it without having to dismount. As it happens, the traffic was quiet yesterday so I just filtered across onto it. Another irritation I almost forgot. Lots of bollards to warn you that you have to give way every time a track to a gate into a field crosses the cyclepath - give the cyclists and pedestrians right of way and remove those bollards that I wasn't alway sure I was going to fit between.

And relax. 

Brightlingsea seems to lack bicycle parking when compared to say Clacton or Frinton. They have an ornamental penny farthing shaped stand with spaces for what look to be 4 adult bikes and 2 child (the sort that you push your wheel into and hope nothing bends while you're gone), so I chained up there for my visit to the Olde Swan and Brewers Arms. It was remounting the bike afterwards where my new "regular fit" jeans proved tighter on my legs than I expected, so I didn't lift my leg quite high enough to clear the saddle and I ended up kicking the bike over while still holding onto it and landed in a heap. Perhaps there is something to this lycra stuff. So I managed to fall onto my bike (rather than off it). I rolled down to the Railway Tavern and chained up to a lamp post before enjoying a drink of Railway Tavern Bladderwrack Stout. 

I'd had some vague notion about taking the foot ferry across to Point Clear on my way back. I knew the last one was at 4pm, and picking up this year's timetable while in the Olde Swan I found they were running an hourly service this weekend (during the week you phone for a ferry with 2 hours notice, until the schedule summer service begins). I was able to catch the 3pm service much more easily than I'd worried about. Just be there in time, push the bike on (£1 for me, 50p for the bike, paid as I got off at Point Clear). I'll certainly use it again (especially if I can work out how to catch it from the Point Clear side, as it is a Brightlingsea to East Mersea route that stops at Point Clear if you ask the pilot as you get on).

I'll gloss over the pub stops on the way home and concentrate on the route. I cycled up Point Clear Road and down Lee Wick Road to reach the sea wall at Lee-over-Sands. Initially I pushed the bike on the sea wall (rather long grass), but then decided it had been flattened enough by other walkers to allow me to cycle. It became a concrete surface somewhere before Seawick. When I reached Jaywick I took the new ramp down to the Martello tower's car park, and followed Lotus Way, Tamarisk Way, the one way system and Broadway to reach the cycleway off The Close which I've used previously. This takes me along past Clacton golf club and another Martello tower before bringing me to the Martello pub (now a Toby) at the end of Marine Parade West. I followed the cycle route along the front a bit further before rejoining Marine Parade West somewhere before the pier, and turning onto the A133 to make my final stop at the Old Lifeboat House. 

All in all this was a very pleasant route and next time I'll make fewer stops and enjoy it even more.