The Strangest Beach | Southend-on-Sea

On Sunday evening I ventured forth onto the strangest beach in world when I was on my day trip to Southend-on-Sea. It was a strange experience indeed.

I have walked on probably close to 50 different beaches in 15 or more different countries in my life so far and Jubilee Beach at Southend-on-Sea was definitely one of the ugliest beaches I have ever been on, but it was also the most unusual.

Jubilee Beach is the kind of beach I truly hate, it is a mixture of sand, shingle and too many people…my soft feet just can’t stand shingle. I had a wee peek of the beach before we visited the Southend Pier and it was jam packed with people enjoying themselves, they obviously didn’t know anybetter. The only redeeming feature that Southend-on-Sea has got as far as I’m concerned is the pier.

We had just finished wandering around on the Pier Head and were sitting on the train heading back to the shore end, when I noticed the foreign tourists getting excited about something outside the train. I just thought stupid foreigners, they must have seen a seagull or something. I had a look outside and the sea had disappeared. Just like magic. There were people walking, where there was what looked like deep water when we had walked to the Pier Head.

I thought my eyes were deceiving me. It looked so fucking weird. As soon as we got off the train we headed down to Jubilee Beach to investigate the disappearing water of Southend-on-Sea. The mudflats as they are known stretched for miles. I could see people way out in the distance, who were out in what was once the sea, well past the Pier Head, which was 1.33 miles from the shore.

It was a strange feeling walking on the muddy substance that was turning my feet and calf’s a mouldy green colour. We kept on walking and I kept on standing on rocks which were killing my poor wee feet, but it was an adventure walking out into the surreal landscape that was full of water only an hour ago.

We walked out a mile or so, almost as far as the Pier Head and then I started to think WTF are we doing. The tide is more than likely going  to come in as quickly as it went out and it seemed like the water had disappeared in a blink of an eye. I could still see people in the distance, they were just tiny dots. I hoped they knew what they were doing…

Related posts:

1. Southend-on-Sea | The Longest Pleasure Pier In The World
2. Southend-on-Sea | Escaped From London
3. By The Seaside – Wordless Wednesday (Almost)
4. Alone At The Edge of the World
5. Picture of the Year 2011 – Slacklining on Brighton Beach