Essex is a foreign country inhabited by supermen

I did it. I completed the Fambridge Half Iron triathlon at the weekend and it was hard. So far I have raised £690 for Blind Veterans UK. Please feel free to add to that total. I still have a little way to go before I hit my target of £1,000. BVUK is in its centenary year so it would be great to help fund the work they do with service, and ex-servicemen and women young and old.

Despite it's closeness I haven't really spent a lot of time in Essex. Once you cross the Thames and turn right there is an air of being in a foreign country. Baked soil, brown grass. water towers and push ahead drivers. As Motorway turned to A road and A road to B road and finally lanes I felt I was  abroad, well almost.