The Blackwater is one of the larger rivers in Essex and tidal for much of its length. For most of the time the tide is out, some people believe that it's never full, but if you wait long enough the tide will silently creep back, the channels slowly fill and the mudbound boats groan as they float again.
The river has a long history and was an important commercial route until quite recently. On the north bank there are the remains of Romano-British salt workings (red-hills). Maldon salt is still sold and further towards the North sea oysters were raised then and still are now.
At the head of the river is the town of Maldon which was a centre of the commercial sailing barge trade. These ships were of a type known as a Thames barge and were well adapted to the shallow tidal rivers and seas around the east coast. They were the heavy goods vehicles of their day, carrying hay, wheat, stone, sand, gravel and other bulk goods to London and were usualy crewed by two men and perhaps a cabin boy. The barge trade declined with the railway and never recovered from the depression. Post-war many barges became derelict and were left to rot around the East Coast, their wooden ribs can till be seen at low tide. Fortunately some barges survived and Maldon is now the premier port in Britain for these beautiful sailing ships.
One October Sunday I walked along the north bank of the river around Heybridge Basin village which until the 70's was a commercial port. The village is situated at the end of the Chelmer-Blackwater navigation, a canal with a sea-lock into the Blackwater. The basin contains a varying and eclectic collection of boats, including modern fibre-glass yachts and on this Sunday, a Thames barge and a former RNLI life-boat.
When I started walking it was foggy and there was no breeze. You could hear the very talkative geese nearby but couldn't see them at all. The sun rose and burnt the fog away to reveal the river, the islands and boats. Although it's only a few miles long, on this walk you can see the remains of crane bases, Northey island, wading birds and flocks of over-wintering geese, wrecked barges, "Defender", a former naval ship, the lock house and the barge "Dawn" which is being restored and is the last remaining "stackie".
Past the yacht club there are the first of the strange chalets that jut out from the sea-wall and sit on timber piles driven into the mud, some half derelict, some still inhabited. Continuing on there's a converted house and one of the many caravan parks that you can find around the Essex coast.