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@hats
I did this in reverse last year (but without Southend). Ferries to France are cheap and plentiful however there's only 2 crossings per day from Harwich - the Hook: a day crossing (1pm ish) and an overnight. It takes about 5-7 hours. If you overnight it's compulsory to get a cabin, approx £30 I think, on top of a £35 ticket. But it does mean you don't waste a day on the ferry.
The Hook isn't exciting but there's some lovely places nearby - Delft is gorgeous. Heading down the coast there's the Delta Project and loads of lovely little towns. The Netherlands is so freaking amazing for cycling, honestly, it's a cliché but it's true. If you follow (ish) the coast you can get a little ferry from Vlissingen to Breskens and then you're not far from Belgium. Belgium is super nice, apart from Zeebrugge which is horrible. We stayed in Ostend, which I liked. As you get closer to the French border it starts to feel a lot like Brighton but with trams (watch out for the tram tracks!) but when you cross over into France it gets really shit and the lovely cycle routes disappear and you get loads of french drivers shouting at you.
Dunkirk is a shit hole and I think it continues in that vein until Calais. We crossed at Dunkirk, to save a few miles of crap. Usual nonsense about everything in France being closed on a sunday but things are more civilised in Belgium and the Netherlands. There are also a lot of goats in B/NL, I've never seen so many pygmy goats.
(I do actually like France/the French - but they try really hard to convince me otherwise!)