During the last week of August, we had fun following the Octopus Ahoy! Art Trail. Thirty large artist-decorated octopus sculptures took over Tendring and the surrounding areas. We spotted some during our summer holiday beach hut day but we didn’t ‘collect’ them. On the last few days of this year’s summer holiday, we found 29 out of the 30 Octopuses. Using the specially designed app to help locate and check them off the list. The last one was placed in London Liverpool Street. We didn’t get the time to visit him.
Darren took us out every evening for four days collecting them. We started locally in Colchester before going for a walk along the Clacton seafront. Then we went to Harwich before spending an evening at Walton and Frinton. Our last stop was visiting Clacton town centre to complete our Octopus collection. In this post, we share all of the sculptures we found following the Octopus Ahoy! Art Trail.
Clacton-on-Sea
Octopirate
Octopirate’s home was opposite Clacton Pier. The children love his pirate hat and eye patch.
Ellie
Ethan was very excited to find Ellie. Her home was outside Clacton’s Princes Theatre.
Cactopus!
Cactopus was on Clacton Kings Promenade, he is placed next to the beach hut we hired in the summer. The wall behind him had also been painted this year. It was a great way to compliment the Octopus Ahoy! trail.
Octop-Ice Cream
Octop-Ice Cream was a hit. The children pretended to eat him when they saw him.
Claire Loves Alan
Claire Loves Alan also had a home on the promenade.
Tattootapus
We found Tattootapus at the start of our promenade walk.
Save Me!
Save Me was in the middle of our promenade walk.
Picass-O-Pus
Picass-O-Pus was on the upper part of our promenade walk. Finding him also gave us the chance to explore the gardens.
Octo-Brrr!
Octo-Brrr’s home was in Clacton Town Centre near the fountains. Thankfully there weren’t on when we went to take our photo.
Keef
Keef’s home was in the train station. I really liked this one as it has a photo of Captain Sir Thomas Moore painted on it.
Sky Van Der Sea
Sky Van Der Sea’s home was Wellesley Road.
Sedna
We found Sedna outside of Century Cinema. This was my favourite octopus. His design was a mosaic and I thought it was very pretty.
Guardian of the Seas
It was a trip to Morrisons to find Guardian of the Seas. Ethan liked this one.
Octo-Quest
Clacton Library was a fitting home for Octo-Quest. His design included being covered with newspaper.
Holland-on-Sea
Vitality
Vitality was placed outside of The Kingscliff Hotel. We never knew there was a hotel at Holland-on-Sea. We will have to visit in the future it looks like a great place for a meal.
Walton
Eight of Spades
Eight of Spades had a home near Walton Pier. Ethan reminded me that we need to visit the pier soon.
Frinton
Facebook Felines
Connaught Avenue was the home of one of Little E’s favourites. Facebook Felines had lots of cats painted on it and we all know how much Little E loves cats.
Holly
Holly was on the Frinton Esplanade one of our favourite places to go for a walk.
Jaywick
Alien
We went to Jaywick Brooklands to visit Alien. I love his colouring he was so bright and vivid.
Ahoy Me Hearty!
We walked to Jaywick Kings Promenade from Clacton to visit Ahoy Me Hearty!
Harwich
Octavious
Harwich Low Lighthouse was a new place for us to visit to meet Octavious.
Camo
We visited Ha’penny Pier when we went on our seal watching trip. This is where our tour started. The children knew where to go to find Camo on this pier.
Octopuss In Boots
We paid a visit to the Harwich Redoubt Fort to meet Octopuss In Boots. This was another one of Little E’s favourites. We are going to make sure we visit the fort in the future as it looks like a place full of history.
Take Me To The Banksy
The Pier Hotel was the home of Take Me To The Banksy. We all loved this one it was full of details. The children quickly spotted Mario.
Dovercourt
Sailor Buoy
Dovercourt was a new place for us to visit. We quickly spotted Sailor Buoy.
Manningtree
Mondrianopus
Manningtree was also another new place for us to visit. When we found Mondrianopus we also spotted ice-cream trucks. It would have been rude not to stop for one. We also discovered that Ethan didn’t mind trying a 99. He normally finds ice cream too cold.
Dedham
Flying High
Flying High was placed at another hotel we didn’t know existed, Milsoms Hotel. It looks like another great place to visit in the future.
Colchester
Escape, Stay, Explore, Discover
Escape, Stay, Explore, Discover’s home was at Colchester North Train Station. He was the first octopus we collected on the app.
Brightlingsea
Betty The Bathing Octo-Belle
We often go for walks at Brightlingsea so the children were excited to know which octopus they would find there. Betty The Bathing Octo-Belle was there she was another one of my favourites.
We had great fun following the Octopus Ahoy! Art Trail. I’m sure the children would love to explore an art trail like this again in the future.