Day 12 – Saturday 4 March 2000 - Felixstowe to Ipswich

14 miles walked today

163.5 miles walked in total (average 13.62)

Another early start today.  I left Portsmouth at six o’clock and got to Felixstowe before nine to wait for Amanda and the children.  The sun came up at about seven and the sky was clear.  I’d known there was no cloud as I’d had to scrape the frost off the car as I set off.

Amanda, Shannon and Nicholas arrived at ten o’clock and we needed to move quickly as Amanda was starting work at four o’clock and it would take her two hours to drive home from Felixstowe. 

We tried to walk through the docks, but a policeman stopped us and made us go back the way we’d come.  The first stretch was on roads until we got to a public bridleway just past the docks.  This took us through Trimley Marshes Nature Reserve.  The paths were incredibly muddy and we had a few disasters en route – Shannon lost her trainer in the mud, Nicholas had a headache due to the bright sunshine and Amanda twisted her foot!

(I owe an apology here to Shannon – when she lost her trainer, I’m afraid I laughed.  We then had a bit of a barney, when she told me she hated me and wasn’t coming walking with me again.  I told her I was glad, which wasn’t a very grown up thing to say, especially when I didn’t mean it anyway.)

Things started to look up as we got towards Levington Marina – Shannon and Nicholas kept their spirits up by imagining the huge lunch they were going to make me pay for!  Unfortunately, there was nowhere to eat at the marina and, as it was already nearly two o’clock, Amanda called a cab to get them back to Landguard Point and the car.

A very respectable seven miles – the first seven for Amanda, a continuation for Nicholas and probably the only seven for Shannon!

I continued on to Levington and then on to Nacton, possibly the poshest village I’ve ever seen!  The houses looked like they should be on the beachfront in California, rather than the shores of the Orwell!

As I came into Ipswich, I felt a sharp pain in my right foot.  My tubigrip ankle support had rucked up and was rubbing badly.   There was nothing for it, but to stop immediately and put things right.  Where better than a roundabout in the middle of the A14?!

Made it into Ipswich in good time and had a mooch around.  Some of the buildings are fantastic and the lanes, I guess, are medieval by their names – Buttermarket, Dogs Head Street, etc.  An old church had been excavated and a new housing estate has been built around it.  These Suffolk people know how to look after their buildings!

The Tourist Information Office sold me postcards, directed me to a taxi rank and gave me a map of the town centre.  On the way to the taxi rank, I passed a bus station and found a bus bound for Felixstowe.  Much more environmentally friendly (and cheaper!) than a taxi.

I’ve enjoyed today very much – the test will be whether Amanda, Shannon and Nicholas will come walking with me again.