Southend Shakedown Easter Monday 2007

Oh I do like to be by the seaside, beside the seaside, beside the sea, well unless you’re in Southend on Easter Bank holiday, when the tide was way out.

Southend Pier is the longest in the world at 1.33 miles, but even then only the end of it was dipping its toes in the sea.

So I took a stroll along the Esplanade, and looked at all the bikes descending on Southend for the Ace Café Southend Shakedown.

I found a safe parking place (one where I couldn’t get blocked in) close to the start of the western esplanade, where all the bikes head too.

I think walking the pier would have been less arduous; walking from the start to the end of the line of bikes took an hour! And just when you thought you had reached the end so it grew with many, many more bikes, of all shapes and sizes. But the marshals did a grand job.

Walking along you had the typical English scene of deckchairs on the beach, with granny taking the air, while beside were leather-clad bikers eating ice cream.

A few bike stalls, rock and roll music playing, and wherever you turned you bumped into more friends.

There is an old Chinese proverb stating “If you stand in one place long enough, the world will come to you” I’m sure if you were to stand in Southend on an Easter Monday it feels like the whole biking world has come to one place.

Last year they claim there were 35000 bikes, and with the good weather bringing everyone out to play today’s meet must have been better.

a great way to finish off a Easter weekend