Route London to Southend on Sea

[Richard Fairhurst]

If it helps, you could use cycle.travel as per gaz and Vorpal's suggestions, save your route, then print it out as a PDF that you can take with you.

(Mods - hope this isn't too 'pluggy'; just suggesting an option that works without GPS!)

[Vorpal]

Thank you so much, guys. After looking a bit deeper into the route Google suggested, I decided to just ditch the bike ride and take the bike on a train, go for a nice ride along the sea side and take the train back. I'm not particularly scared, but I really don't want to deal with cars pushing past me for an hour or longer. That's just ridiculous.

Will look into the routes you suggested, but it's probably not useful for me unless I have a GPS, because I have no sense of direction and by that I mean: none at all.

Take the little train out the pier and see the RNLI station and have tea at the pavilion. I haven't been to the pavilion; it's new, but the tea rooms that were there before were nice.

[AndyBSG]

but it's probably not useful for me unless I have a GPS, because I have no sense of direction and by that I mean: none at all.

lol, same with me. I went cycling last week and decided to try some new 'shortcuts' thinking that I was headed in the same general direction... Ended up back where I started after 30 minutes of cycling when if i'd just followed my normal route i'd have got there in 20 minutes!

One thing I have done recently which has been really useful is plan my route on Google maps then get a pair of wireless bluetooth headphones and use the Google Map navigation feature on my phone.

The instructions don't intrude on my audio awareness in the same way listening to music would and now mean I don't have to stop at every junction and check my map to see if i'm going left or right!

[StellaLdn.]

but it's probably not useful for me unless I have a GPS, because I have no sense of direction and by that I mean: none at all.

lol, same with me. I went cycling last week and decided to try some new 'shortcuts' thinking that I was headed in the same general direction... Ended up back where I started after 30 minutes of cycling when if i'd just followed my normal route i'd have got there in 20 minutes!

One thing I have done recently which has been really useful is plan my route on Google maps then get a pair of wireless bluetooth headphones and use the Google Map navigation feature on my phone.

The instructions don't intrude on my audio awareness in the same way listening to music would and now mean I don't have to stop at every junction and check my map to see if i'm going left or right!

Bwhahahah. THAT made me laugh out loud. Could have been me. It's a terrible curse and nobody understands how frustrating it really is. I wouldn't be able to find my way out of a paperbag if you put me in it. Shortcuts always end up being longer than the route I want to 'shorten' and I even get lost in familiar areas once I approach from a different direction. It's pure hell. So my wanting to go touring or just cycle from London to Southend is a massive thing for me. I'm both anxious and excited. Spent the whole day faffing with Google maps and looking at the suggestions and my mind just shut down. It's like a disability and I often feel totally embarrassed by it, because people don't think such a lack of sense of direction can exist. It can and it's no fun.

Vorpal, will do that. I actually plan to go swimming, mainly, and walking along the intertidal mudflats (and hopefully not get lost!), but after that I'm definitely going for tea and some food.

The PDF printout was an option I was thinking of. My current GPS looks like this https://instagram.com/p/4zkIe3zIWd/?taken-by=foolfortools, that's the way from Burton-on-Trent station to the campside I'll be staying at. I managed to find the other one last year, so that's a good sign. Fingers crossed I manage this one, otherwise my mate's on standby to receive a call from a very flustered, sobbing Stella.

[bohrsatom]

Good thread - I live in London but lived in Southend for 20 years and have family there too. So this is a ride I have done many times!

This is what I do - it's pretty similar to the cycle.travel one

Leave Central London heading to Barking on the Cycle Superhighway Route 3. For a while this runs parallel to the A13 which is dull but you do have a segregated path
From there, leave the A13 and ride to Upminster along the A1306. This road is dual carriageway but very quiet as most traffic will be on the A13 (there is a buslane on both sides).
Next, take Upminster Road North then head into the countryside
Ride along beautiful country lanes through Ockendon and Bulphan, taking in one very steep hill (heading coastbound). You eventually reach civilisation once again at the back of Basildon Hospital.
Go through Vange (for your own safety don't stop at lights - just kidding ) then ride through Pitsea and parallel to the A13.
Join the A13 (no longer a 3 lane 70mph road) at Sadler's Farm roundabout and ride up Bread and Cheese Hill. This is pretty steep and the road's busy... it's my least favourite bit of the journey but there's no real alternative (cycle.travel takes you on a road that's just as steep, just as busy but much narrower).
Continue along the London Road through Hadleigh, leaving it to go through the quieter backstreets.
Go through Leigh-on-Sea - I prefer this to Leigh Hill/Grand Parade as it's steep and the road surface is pretty awful
Turn right then head to the seaside, taking the nice seafront bike path all the way to Southend

Hard to give all the details so I uploaded a GPX here: http://my.viewranger.com/route/details/Njg3MDk=

you can definitely do this without a GPS, I'm just incapable of riding a new route without one

[StellaLdn.]

Thank you.

After this weekend's panic of getting lost from the station to a campsite, and an almost nervous break down, I've decided that enough is enough and ordered a Garmin Edge Touring which two of my Viscount friends use and recommend. I've had enough of not being able to enjoy the ride and surroundings, enough of getting lost, asking people who don't know either and send you the wrong way, and most importantly: enough of spending hours to find a route on Google Maps, writing everything down, then finding out that it's along a really busy road, before giving up.
With that Garmin, I'll hopefully be able to avoid all that and get to where I want to go, relaxed and smiling. I'm planning to go to Shoeburyness next Monday, spend some time swimming, wandering, eating cake and drinking tea, before cycling to Grays and taking the fast train home with the money compensated due to Friday's delay. Job done. Can't wait for said Garmin. I think it's one of the best £126 I've invested.

[jgurney]

I actually plan to go swimming, mainly, and walking along the intertidal mudflats (and hopefully not get lost!)

Stella, I strongly urge that you do not go out on the mudflats alone, especially if your reference to Shoeburyness means you are thinking of the Maplin Sands. All tidal mudflats are potentially dangerous and the Maplin Sands have killed several people. I have been out on the Maplin Sands with a guided group and having seen it would not go back there alone. Despite our guide's care, one of the party, a fairly light teenage lad, wandered into a quicksand and sank in over his knees. It took two hefty men several minutes to heave him out again, and he lost one of his boots to the mud.

Hazards are:
- the mud or sand can vary from being perfectly firm to very soft in a few steps (as the lad above found), with no visible clues.
- there can be crusts of apparently firm sand over softer mud, creating the risk of suddenly breaking through the crust.
- there are places where there is firm surface further out from the shore but very soft mud closer in, so after walking parallel to the shore for a while a walker may find they are cut off from shore by a band of quicksand.
- some large areas are literally flat, not with a slight slope like a normal beach, so when the tide comes in it does so very fast over those areas: a spot which was a mile from the water's edge at one moment can be underwater within ten minutes.
- sea mist or haze can occur suddenly and seriously reduce visibility.

These people offer guided walks and tractor tours of the Maplin Sands: http://www.wildlifetrips.org.uk/index.p ... Itemid=169