Last weekend, Susan invited myself, Nicholas and Shannon to
join her on her walk around the coast and, being as insane as she is, we said
we’d love to! Actually, Shannon did voice a few objections, but, as usual,
Nicholas and I completely ignored her!
So, for the past week, I have been ‘phoned and faxed to
within an inch of my life with instructions as to what I’m expected to pack for
our lunch, what bandages and plasters to take in my rucksack, what clothes and
boots we are to wear, and have itineraries, directions and maps coming out of
my ears!
If that weren’t enough, I was then informed that I would
have to make a contribution to the diary!
So, here goes …
Saturday 4 March 2000
Total miles covered: 189
(OK, OK – so 182 of them were in the car!)
Total miles walked: 7
We left Bacton at 8.00 am and made it to Landguard Point in
Felixstowe at ten o’clock. It would have
been earlier, but Susan ‘phoned at a crucial moment with yet more directions to
our meeting spot, causing me to miss my turn off towards Ipswich !
We donned fleeces, hats, gloves, coats, etc, in the car
park much to the amusement of the spectators who had turned up to watch the
huge container ships pulling in and out of the port. Anybody would have thought we were going on a
polar trek!
We began our walk out past the docks – we did try to go
through them, but were stopped by a policeman who told us we weren’t allowed to
– spoilsport!
Nicholas and I were very surprised at how quiet it all
was. I was expecting a loud, noisy,
dirty place with lots of navvies in donkey jackets swearing, shouting and
spitting tobacco! Instead, it looked
almost deserted. The cranes were
fantastic and we stopped and watched one as it lifted a container on to a
lorry. It was fascinating, but we
weren’t allowed to watch for long because Susan was pawing the ground in her
eagerness to be off!
After the docks, we turned on to the bridlepath and headed
towards Trimley Marshes. It was very
muddy and windy, but we were kept entertained.
On one side we watched hundreds of Canada
On the other side, we were sheltered by dunes and, as we
couldn’t see the water, we found it unnerving to see huge ships apparently
travelling along fields and footpaths!
The nature reserve and visitor centre was a welcome sight,
not least because Shannon and I had our own urgent calls of nature to attend
to. Feeling much relieved (!), we
carried on along the marshes towards Levington where Susan had promised to buy
us lunch. Good job too – it was the only
reason we came!
The path became increasingly muddy and boggy at this point
causing Shannon to lose her shoe. Unfortunately, we were no help to her as she
hopped about trying to retrieve it and eventually she had to put her foot down
in the mud to stop herself from falling over.
We’re sorry we laughed, Shannon . Needless to say, she wasn’t very happy for
the rest of the walk, even though I did try to tell her she would have lovely
soft feet after her mud bath!
We all perked up considerably when we finally saw Levington
Marina and kept our spirits up by deciding on what we were going to have for
lunch when we finally got to the pub.
The yachts were amazing and we demanded that Susan stop and
take our picture next to “The Merry Dance”.
It turned out to be highly appropriate because, when we finally got to
our destination, there was no pub in sight!
Instead, we waved goodbye to Susan and took a cab back to
Landguard Point and the car. We put all
thoughts of shepherds pies, jacket potatoes, juicy cheeseburgers and macaroni
cheese, washed down with hot chocolates floating with cream and flakes out of
our minds and settled for a McDonalds at the service station on the way home.
The general consensus was we all had a good time, we are
proud of our achievements and we would like to do it again – only next time,
we’re going to the pub first!
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