Summary (by AI): The trip to West Wood Ho for the Quest was a nice challenge, but the highlight was discovering Leigh-on-Sea, which I found to be an absolutely incredible historic fishing village.
Blog: The Essex leg of my Quest is called West Wood Ho. It’s a fairly unassuming stretch of woodland right next to Westwood, situated not too far from the Thames Estuary, Southend-on-Sea, and Leigh-on-Sea.
After parking the car in what was essentially a residential estate, I headed into the woods. It’s one of those areas where you just know if you’d grown up there as a kid, you would have spent every waking hour exploring it. It actually took me a little while to track down the quest itself; I didn’t think it was quite as well-hidden as the labels suggested, which made it a bit of a challenge to spot, but I found it in the end.
The trip also gave me the perfect excuse to head down to Leigh-on-Sea, which is an absolutely incredible place. I can already imagine going back there for a full weekend. It has the real atmosphere of an old fishing village right by the estuary, with some fantastic pubs all tucked along a small, but wonderfully historic, High Street.
The Map: