Day 7 – Sunday 12 September 1999 - Aldeburgh to Campsea Ashe

10.5 miles walked today

99.5 miles walked in total (average 14.21)

Up earlyish for breakfast today.  Some mad fools were already in the sea at eight o’clock.  I’d woken early anyway, as my room was on the top floor of the hotel and faced the sea and had the full benefit of the sun streaming through at an unlikely hour!

All road walking today.  I got quite cheesed off and very out of puff because the walk out of Aldeburgh was all uphill.  Had my first (unpermitted) sit down on the golf course overlooking the River Alde and Long Reach Creek.

I made good time getting to Snape so decided to go and look around Snape Maltings, which Benjamin Britten turned into a world class concert venue and which now also has a range of very exclusive shops.  I know I can’t buy anything of substance while carrying my rucksack, but I can buy the odd postcard.  However, I’m buggered if I’m going to pay fifty pence for one – my look around Snape Maltings did not last very long!

Headed off to Blaxhall and to suss out where the youth hostel is for my next walking weekend.  As I was sitting on the grass verge outside yet another posh house – I’ve discovered a habit of trespassing! – twenty or thirty mad cyclists rode past and yelled out “good morning” as a chorus.  Decided I’d better leg it before the house owners came and found me.

I was slightly confused by the road sign in Blaxhall for Campsea Ashe, which wasn’t in the direction shown on my Ordnance Survey map.  The landlord of the Ship Inn told me there were two ways and the one on the road sign was the easiest to follow – which decided me to follow the road signs and throw the map away!

I’m finding pub landlords very helpful actually – when I get slightly lost, I generally look out for  post offices, local newsagents or pubs and I always get the best advice in the pub.  Plus a pint, of course!

Got very excited at Campsea Ash (according to the Ordnance Survey map) or Campsea Ashe (as per the road sign) as this is where Wickham Market station is found.  I was going home!