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squiz Member Member#: 6644 Location: Registered: 27-05-2007 Diary Entries: 2882 |
29th March 2019 Hiking - Walking: Bawdsey to East Lane Wind Direction: Wind Stength: Surf / Sea State: Air Temperature: Sea Temperature: Weather: Sunny, warm and still:). Max Speed: Distance Covered: 6 miles (Nautical Miles - unless stated otherwise) Friday 29th March – walk ***** Bawdsey to East Lane - Sunny, warm and still:). Made a spur of the moment decision - we have lived our whole life this way, plan nothing always the best way :) As the weather forecast for the next couple of days was good, we packed the campervan before breakfast and headed to one of our local favourites Bawdsey Quay. Although it is only three miles from our house in a straight line, you have to drive around the River Deben which makes it a 25-mile road trip. We stopped at the very busy Tesco at Martlesham for a couple of bits and have never seen so many very expensive bunches of flowers brought in for Mother’s Day, cut flowers what a waste of money when they have growing plants cheaper?! It is a nice drive through the Suffolk countryside and we arrived early at 10.30 and got our favourite overnight spot right at the end of Bawdsey Quay which offers stunning views across the Deben towards Felixstowe Ferry. It was sunny, warm, still and very quiet, not much action on the river due to the light airs but a couple were fishing in a small boat. Mag soon had the porridge bubbling and then we had to decide what to do? Mag said she was up to our usual walk - after a fall getting off a t bar lift the mountains her legs are not 100% - but we can’t sit still so after quickly packing a picnic we left the van at 11.15. Instead of heading to the quay first as usual, we walked the other way around. You have to walk the first 2.50 miles along the road past Bawdsey Manor grounds - now a PGL centre and the kids were having fun crossing the major work of laying electric cables for offshore windfarms, then just past the large impressive three storey farm house you turn right towards East Lane. With the fields ploughed in troughs for potatoes or growing grass for turf, the rape crop already turning yellow and the hedgerows full of white blackthorn blossom it was just beautiful:) Arriving at East Lane, another of our past overnight parking spots, there are several reed fringed lagoon’s with several partridges, pheasants, geese, swans and ducks with some very busy Reed Buntings catching flies on the wing. I checked out the World war Two watch tower with some cool graffiti and ‘Prisoners of War’ cast in metal in one of the windows – we haven’t noticed that before. We walked past the Martello Tower W and down onto the lovely remote shingle beach leading back to Bawdsey. The tide was low exposing the clay beds and several bunkers that were once on the cliff top. We spoke to a man on his knees searching for sharks’ teeth and had found a tiny one, then past a lady artist enjoying the stunning weather. You pass in-between two bunkers on the beach and under crumbling cliffs recently eroded by rough seas. The whole area bears witness to a time of conflict, being covered in anti-invasion metal posts, wire and rotting old wooden groynes but best of all you just don’t see anyone else the further you walk along the beach:) We walked with one eye on the ground, beachcombing. We ended up with 1.5 kg of coal, the first for ages but no sharks’ teeth yet! Then reaching the tall weathered wooden groynes we stopped for our picnic enjoying a very relaxing hour with hardly a ripple on the sea in unseasonably warm sunshine and found some tiny shark’s teeth to go with the fossilised timber we found earlier:) With the kettle calling we continued along the beach until we reached the Deben opposite the coastguard cottages and then the short walk back to the van. We definitely had our six-mile legs by the end, especially as it’s not easy walking on shingle. We had been out 4 hours 40 minutes covering 6 miles so were soon enjoying a cuppa, a book, a doze and amazing river views:) Tea was easy, Lidl paella and we were once again treated to another top Deben sunset. We were left on our own by the river, the end of another 5-star day away in the much-loved little VW camper:) Photo Gallery Here |
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