Up, packed and out of the hotel by 6.30, so arrived in Christchurch around 7 and parked in a side street near the church. Had a quick breakfast in the graveyard around the church, most of the headstones so old and covered in lichen that there were no visible letters remaining on them.

We then had a walk along the moat around the church and up to the waterway doing a little munzee hunting on the way! Met Knightwood for a coffee and a chat! We had previously met him when he visited Perth earlier this year. So that was lovely.

Leaving just after 10 we drove for 4 hours across the southern counties and then up through the Dartford Tunnel. The traffic queuing was horrendous as there is no electronic tagging for paying the toll, every vehicle has to stop and pay.

Not long after we arrived in Southend. We had talked about coming here but didn’t think we would have had the time, but as we have managing early starts this visit was now possible. Well every holidaymaker in Essex and beyond must have been here as well. We drove along the waterfront, and there was not a parking place to be had and people everywhere. The sight of all those deck chairs was so amusing, just so English, LOL.

We finally found a parking spot up the top of the cliff and after eating a very quick sandwich we found a way down the cliff face to the waterfront promenade and managed to capture all the virtuals and a couple of physicals along the mile they had been placed. Then the climb back up the cliff stairs, not fun, lol!!!

From there we headed north to Little Leighs, only problem, my gps took us to the wrong Church Lane entirely!!! We finally arrived and had a cuppa with Grandma Janice, and a visit to Grandpa’s memorial. We hit a little problem when leaving here as we discovered that the mi-fi was not getting a signal so we didn’t have any internet access which meant we couldn’t navigate to the virtual I had put at cousin Cathy’s drive so we could find her easily. So using Helen’s proper gps we managed to find the house and a great lasagna for dinner. We finally got to bed at 10 and it was still light enough outside to have been able t walk around without a torch and it’s like that again at 4 am!!!! Currently it’s 5 and all the roosters are crowing!!!! Will have to get Billy to connect this to the Internet so I can post the blog, so apologies for it being late, but it was too late to write and setup last night!!

Photos will follow.