Yes, Mersea is a 'real' island

On Thursday night I posted some bad-ish pics of TBTE (the beach that evening) - but what I didn't mention was that I'd tried (and failed abjectly) to capture the most enormous, magical harvest moon, rising over West Mersea church, just as the sun went down.
Thankfully, however, Elizaphanian (aka Sam Norton, Rector of St Peter and St Paul, West Mersea) was, unbeknown to me, down on TBTE at exactly the right moment, and has posted a lovely photo of the moon above the beach huts here. Do have a look at Sam's blog. I can absolutely guarantee that it will confound any expectations you might have - this is no mere online filing cabinet for preachings from the pulpit. It's thought-provoking, funny, erudite, searingly honest - and of course, full of great photos of TBTM/A/E.

The tides are extreme this week - this afternoon's high at 2.36 caused more delay than usual to traffic and cut the island off from the mainland (to all but the intrepid, the foolhardy and drivers of Landrover vehicles) for a good long while.

Unfortunately (for me) but excitingly (for the children), my family car and its driver fall into all three of the above categories. Consequently, we steamed to the front of the queue on the Peldon (mainland) side of the Strood (me cringing all the while behind the Guardian Review section - oh the embarrassment!), waited until the water had dropped six inches or so and couple of 4 x 4s had made it across from the island side under their own steam (after a couple of dead and waterlogged cars had been pushed through 'by hand') , and then set off. I hardly dared look. The potential for humiliation on such an escapade is extreme - the current surging back across the Strood at the mid-point is very fast.

And no, I have no 'faith' at all because, unlike my children, I am old enough to remember the great 'Let's Pretend this Volvo Estate is a Discovery and Drive Through this Deep Ford' incident of 1994. It's not something one easily forgets.

Here are some pics the children took on a mobile phone, from their standing-up-through-sun-roof vantage point.


Looking towards Mersea - that's an abandoned van. Sandwiched between this van and another which had to give up, was a single-decker bus.

Some people leave their cars in the queue, roll up their trousers and enjoy the specatcle.

Looking back towards Peldon and the tailback, which can go back two or three miles. Those are house frontages on the right - they get used to people standing on their front walls. Nearly bought the next one inland from this eight years ago, but didn't after having investigated estimated rise in sea level over next decade . . .

The first vehicles to come over from the island.

Our wake and some people who hadn't quite realised what they were getting into.