Weather: Fine, warm, mainly
sunny.
Distance: 25km ( 15.5
miles) Total Distance:
2511miles
The
weather was unseasonably warm for the time of year so I decided to take a
couple of days off work to do a little walking.
I left
home at 7.30 and had a good journey down the A14 even though it was a
weekday. I parked at the car park for
Orwell Country Park just behind the Little Chef.
The first part of the walk was to get to where I had
stopped the previous time which meant going down through a lovely wood onto the
foreshore and then up to the Orwell Bridge towering above. It was then about turn and back
down the foreshore and around the perimeter of the wood back up to the car
park.
There was no choice now but to
head inland, up the drive for the country park, right under the A14 and down
the quiet road towards Nacton. I turned
right and went past Orwell Park School; certainly not a comprehensive by the looks of it! I found the bridleway through woods which
bought me out in the village of Levington.
I had lunch in the Ship Inn, an old pub specialising in food. I chose the king prawns which cost more than
my usual lunches but were excellent along with the pint of Green King IPA
straight from the barrel. Two elderly
ladies asked me if I recommended the prawns as I was ordering them but I told
then I had never been there before. When
I was leaving I had a quick chat with them explaining what I was doing walking
around the coast and therefore only calling in pubs once. Down onto the estuary and the sea defences
once again I came across a lovely lake full of ducks and swans etc.
Things
were going pretty well and I was in good spirits watching the container ships
at Felixtowe when the path ran out. A
week or so previous I had phoned up a man from the Ipswich Ramblers whose name
I had got from the internet and had asked him about this walk. As well as telling me about the path near the
Orwell bridge he had told me that the Felixtowe docks had been extended backwards. He was indeed correct and the path on the map
was not there.
I had to walk a mile
inland through nature reserve and farms then back south again to get back to
the dock area. A man was stationed on
the side of a railway line to help pedestrians cross. The roads were busy with container lorries as
I guess they were continuously 24 hours a day.
Just past the end of the A14 I passed a sign for a campsite and went up
the drive to make inquiries. I was told
it cost £5, just about my limit and told her I would probably call back.
I was
determined to go down to Langland Point and well worth it was too. I had a cup (polystyrene mug) of tea near
Langland Fort and watched the cranes loading and unloading the container ships
at a rate of about one container every minute. I could
not walk on the shore around the fort as it was blocked off but a short trip
inland and then on shingle beach out to Langland Point. The highlight was walking back north up the
beach to the pier at Felixtowe. What a joy it was to be off the sea defences
and onto sandy beach for a while.
I
asked at the TIC about buses and was directed to the bus station near by. I caught the bus to Ipswich and got off in the
outskirts leaving me a mile and a half walk back to the car. I decided that the Felixtowe campsite would
be the bast place to stay. A warden was
on duty who tried to charge me £6 but I told him I had been quoted £5 and he
accepted that. After a hot shower I went
to the McDonalds at the end of the A14 which was the quietest McDs I had ever
seen. The nights were closing in and
after I had eaten I listed to the Man Utd - Liverpool match before having an
early night. A sign in the shower block
said they had been vandalised the previous week and when I was lying in the
tent (the only tent on the site!) it was a little scary with noises of fast
cars and bikes and shouting in the distance.
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