Ware, Hertfordshire to Coggeshall via Braintree.
My second day began not knowing where Ware was. I had followed the canal too far west and had camped a little way from Ware township. A brief back track I found a roud that would lead me beneath the Stantead flightpath to Talkeley, where I could take the meandering path that the Essex council had provided me when I stopped to ask them about routes in Waltham Abbey. It was great to be know my location again, to be a able to see on a map my progress toward my most immediate goal, the ferry at Harwich.
Caroline had texted me during the night, wishing me “sunshine and tailwinds”, which is exactly what I got on day two of my journey. Shadows of clouds passed over fields but rarely darkenend my path. And with the wind at my back, my progress seemed relentless. A great part of the day was the approach to Braintree along a disused train route, speeding past close foliage, through tunnels, like a human engine to the bicylcle
I was much less anxious about my campsite too, my maps had led me down roads that no one else seemed to travel. I cycled 104 kms today, an improvement of the day before and finished the day watching a sunset from the wind sheltered corner of an Essex field.
