Thames Estuary Man guided walking tours

18/03/2025

Another nice event to consider on Sunday 6th April. It’s Canvey transport museums first open day of the year. A very interesting collection of vehicles and exhibits with the bonus this time of local RnB band ‘The Long Run’ performing throughout the day 😁

16/03/2025

An interesting new event on Southend-on-sea’s beaches 😁

14/03/2025

We have St Patrick’s day to celebrate this weekend on the mainland then next weekend we will be guiding out on the Broomway to Foulness Island on both days. There’s currently availability on the Saturday (22nd March) if anyone would like to join us.
As always check our booking website www.thamesestuaryman.co.uk for descriptions, availability and prices



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09/03/2025

If you don’t live or work on Foulness island, there are three ways to visit this beautiful and peaceful island.

1. Walk there via the Broomway, hopefully on one of our guided walks.
2. Take part in the yearly charity around Foulness island cycle ride.
3. Register in advance for a heritage open day at foulnessheritage.org.uk then drive or cycle to the heritage centre. These days are on the first Sunday of the month during the summertime and the next is on the 6th April. The heritage centre is filled with interesting exhibits and masses of information. There are tractor rides with commentary (approx 45 mins, was £9 last year). There is a nice walk to the quay on the bank of the river roach, and there is tea and cake 😁
My advice is to get to Landwick security gate SS3 0DH about 11.40 to avoid queueing, then when you get to the heritage centre, book your tractor ride straight away as they do sometimes sell out.

It’s now time to register for the Foulness Island heritage day

08/03/2025

Well what a super start to our walking season. We couldn’t have wished for better weather or a nicer group of people out on the Broomway today. I thoroughly enjoyed myself.

If you’d like to join one of these walks, please check out our booking website www.thamesestuaryman.co.uk for descriptions, availability & prices.

02/03/2025

I’m looking forward to getting back out on the Broomway next weekend for the first time this year. It’ll be interesting to see how the path has changed. Last year the ground was relatively flat and dry, the year before much wetter and softer.
It’ll just be nice to get back out there and meet some more like minded explorers. Julie makes a new best friend who has an amazing life story everytime 😁

www.thamesestuaryman.co.uk if you want to check which dates have availability for our Broomway, Mulberry harbour or Pierhead walks.

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25/02/2025

Julie and myself are back from our holiday to Peru and Ecuador. An amazing trip packed full of beautiful wildlife. It’s a shame I didn’t have an underwater camera as at one point I was snorkelling while surrounded by eight turtles each approx 4ft long ! An absolutely amazing experience I’ll never forget.

Thanks to those of you who have continued to book walks with us for this coming season. The diary is filling up really nicely and we are looking forward to getting started. Our Broomway walks start soon with some places still available from 22nd March onwards. On the 31st March we have an early morning Pierhead walk. It’s a 7.30am start but if the weather is good it should be a great one as the tide is predicted to be an exceptionally low one. A lovely chance for the photographers among you to capture some rarely exposed pier structures.

Please see our booking website www.thamesestuaryman.co.uk for descriptions, dates, availability and prices.

Thanks as always for your continued support. Please keep sharing our posts and encouraging like minded friends to follow us. It really does help promote our small business. 😁

12/01/2025

A great example of sea mist on Southend seafront today. A hundred yards inland and there was bright sunshine and blue sky yet from the beach looking seawards you could hardly see a thing.
I remember a day in the late 80s when I was trawling out on the estuary with visibility of several miles then two seconds later I couldn’t see from one end of my boat to the other (37ft) ! Looking up at 45 degrees I could see the top of a cruise ship lit up brightly in the sunshine yet looking straight forward I could see about ten feet. It was very eerie.

08/01/2025

There are currently a lot of seals fishing close to Southend Pierhead. At this time of year the Thames estuary fills up with herrings, sprats and whiting so there is easy fishing for the seals.
Best time to see them is around high tide. If you’re going to walk / train along the pier to see them don’t wait too long. They won’t be there in such great numbers for long.
Its always lovely to see them but I prefer it when the water’s a tad warmer 😁😁

07/01/2025

Like a lot of us, Steven Seagull appears to have eaten too much over Christmas !

27/12/2024

I’ve studied next years tides and we are now taking bookings on our booking website www.thamesestuaryman.co.uk

A big thanks to those who have already booked walks for themselves or as Xmas presents. Some Broomway dates are beginning to fill up, so it looks like we are in for another decent season.

An important question we are often asked is “what should I wear on my feet”.
My personal preference is to wear shorts and an old pair of trainers or walking boots that I don’t mind getting soaked through. On the Broomway wellies are ok as long as they are very comfortable, but please dont get a pair of ill fitting old wellies out of the shed that you used for five minutes gardening once and expect to walk 7 miles in them without getting blisters. Wear two pairs of socks and bring plasters just in case.

For Broomway 1,2 or 3

For Pierhead and Mulberry harbour walks 1 or 3 (not wellies because we may wade through knee deep creeks)

4. Is never ever the answer !!

10/12/2024

Thanks to those who are already booking walks with us for next season, it’s really appreciated.

I have a big favour to ask, which will only take you a minute or so.
Will you please help spread the word for us by clicking on the three dots on this page, then click invite friends, then either select the individuals you feel would be interested in what we do or just click ‘select all’ (only those interested will accept the invite).
We are not big enough to pay for advertising so this will give us a big boost.

Thanks for your help.
Please stay safe over Xmas and we hope to see many of you again next season.

Kev & Julie

03/12/2024

For those of you who love Grey seals, this is the perfect time between now and Xmas to see all the newborn pups on the beaches. Horsey gap and Blakeney point in Norfolk and Donna Nook in Lincolnshire are all fantastic. It’s a great time for a weekend away on the East coast 😁

This weeks Pupdate, there has been a baby boom

20/11/2024

Follow up to previous video of Grey seal pup being born. Here is the mother meeting her pup for the first time

20/11/2024

We love Grey seals and this is the time of the year (between now and Xmas) that you can see them with their newborn pups on the beaches in big numbers. The best places are on the east coast. Horsey Gap neat Gt Yarmouth, and Blakeney point (walk from Cley beach) both in Norfolk are great. Or Donna Nook on the Lincolnshire coast. Last November at Donna Nook the pregnant female in front of us suddenly got very restless, so we watched closely and I managed to film this pup being born.
Fb will only allow me one video per post to I’ll add the follow up one of the mum and pup meeting each other for the first time separately.

09/11/2024

We always need to stay alert to the dangers.

As we are now moving into winter months where we will encounter more regular weather events in terms of strong winds / storms it is a timely reminder that we have moved into a season where ‘ordnance’ incidents can become more frequent for our HM Coastguard Southend team.

Ordnance can get washed up or uncovered in our local area offshore or close to beaches due to such weather stirring up the seabed.

With Remembrance Sunday this weekend, its a timely reminder that Southend and Thames Estuary area was often used by bomber aircraft in WWII as a dumping ground for their bomb loads during the war if their primary target was not possible to hit on the way to/back from London with the Thames Estuary used as a navigation waypoint up into London City / London Docks
Anti aircraft sites were also dotted along our coastline, so anti aircraft shells are quite common.

Also, coupled with a MOD base and testing range that has been based at Shoeburyness and Foulness for over 150 years, all types of unexploded military ordnance can and does wash up on the shore/offshore – it comes in different shapes and sizes and isn’t always easy to spot.

Southend Coastguard has dealt with 100s of such items down the years items of various types of ordnance, some which needed to be detonated by our Army / Navy EOD teams in situ, some stable enough to be taken away for destruction and some which were now deemed harmless.

Many were also not ordnance at all and even those trained to spot the tell tale signs are not always able to confirm and that’s when we call our Army and Navy EODs colleagues in to investigate.

Because these items can be so dangerous, if you ever see something suspicious or out of the ordinary on the beach or in the sea, do not touch it, move it or take it home.

Note: The picture attached to this post is just an ‘example’ of what you might find across our UK coastline.

If you are unsure, let the experts decide if it is safe. Move to a safe space and call 999 and ask for the Coastguard so our teams can investigate.
To Search
To Rescue
To Save Lives

01/11/2024

A lovely sight, Dolphins in the Thames estuary film by Angus Browne boat trips 😁

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