Haring Along The Coast

It’s quite a long drag south through East Anglia from Norwich to the Essex coast but that is the journey we made to take in the next Trail, Hares About Town in Southend. This was another new Trail town for me, and the objective was to see the thirty hares that ran along the coast and up through the town.

I figured that parking out of town would be an easier option and so we found a back street near to Chalkwell station from where it was a walk along the seafront to Southend itself. The Hares started to appear from Westcliff onwards and it was quite an interesting walk, the Chalkwell/Westcliff end being a lot more genteel than the Southend end.

It was the hottest Trail day yet for me, and understandably the beaches were packed, but very few people seemed to be paying attention to the sculptures, but it was still a challenge to get photos with minimal people in them at times, especially along the beachfront in town.

Leaving the seafront the Trail continued up through the town and onwards to the large public park to the north. The town centre was a lot less busy than the seafront, and shall we just say that it is a bit “shabby.” Luckily the Trail wasn’t too long, and was also relatively flat, which meant that it was completed in around three hours. I confess that I thought that this may be one of the Trails where the sculptures succumbed to vandalism so I was pleasantly surprised to find them all where they should be. Heading back in to town I took the easy option and caught the train back for two stops to where the car was parked and the journey home.