Hippy beach, 2017

I don’t know what it’s like where you are on the coast or the banks of The Stour, Blackwater or whatever Essex river, but ’round here when you get a bit of settled weather, spring or summer sooner or later someone or other is going to think, let’s all go to the beach this evening, have a fire and a bit of a gathering, and here it’s Joycelyn Beach in Chalkwell.

You’re not supposed to do it, have fires on the beach, but it always happens, you get an idea of how many were there but no guitars or bongos this time. There’s a bicycle on The Cinder Path with its LED light, you can see them for miles if they’re coming towards you on the path, they blind you and they’re not even supposed to ride on the path.

The train you hear is heading out of Chalkwell to Shoebury.

The recording was made from the footbridge over the tracks. It’s slightly edited to take out some wind bumps and was done at about 11.20 p.m.