The Shingle Coast.

On our site that afternoon we met a lovely couple who had retired last Christmas, yes I’m telling anyone and anybody that I’ve retired and loving it! Anyway they were having a whale of a time as well and were certainly not getting time to be bored. They left that afternoon and had to negotiate Ipswich before going home so needed to get away before the rush hour.

I think the lady’s name was Doreen, so if you’re reading this Doreen it was lovely to meet you and who knows we might meet up again on another CL. We hope your Granddaughter is OK.

Next day on our way to Woodbridge we passed a signpost for Rendlesham Forest. Pat remembered the name because this is where the English Roswell occurred in late December 1980. It was a dark and windy night and the dogs were howling loudly…. Sorry I was getting carried away there. It was late December and it was 1980 and some locals witnessed the landing of a UFO in the forest. At that time there were two American airbases close by and the military men investigated the sighting. The hearing eventually suggested that there were no unusual circumstances and the Radiation levels were normal, the light was a fireball and the flashing light seen later was the Lighthouse on Orford Ness. The eye witnesses were not convinced and accused the Government of a cover up. There is now a UFO trail in the Forest but we’ve left that for another day.

As we came out of the forest it was drizzling, back to the Stratus clouds, so we continued to Woodbridge. This is a lovely town dating form the early Anglo Saxon period with lots of old houses on narrow steep streets that lead down to the River Deben. We landed in the Market Square where the old town pump still stood. It had a 3 ft iron wheel attached to it which was attached to the pump making it a lot easier to use than a normal pump handle. The town name ‘Wood bridge’ may have derived from the Anglo Saxon ‘Woden Burgh’ meaning Woden’s Town.

The main shopping street is narrow with a lovely jumble of shops in the original buildings rather than big new superstores. It still retains it’s charm and shopping here would be a lovely experience.

It was on the main street that we saw a group of young people dragging narrow brown wheelie bins behind them. They had coloured patterns painted on them and with me being so nosey we just had to follow them. It was great, they were a Drumming group, Simon and Lyn- you would have just loved them. The group was aged between about 12 and 25 and were lassies and lads. One with a shaven head looked particularly mean.
Most of the drummers used drumsticks on all parts of their bins but the oldest two actually used the bin lids as part of their drumming, the sound was fantastic. They had worked out a routine as well, part way through they all laid their bins on their sides, still drumming, and stood on them using their feet as the drumsticks. Once they were all back up the right way one of the teenage lassies leapfrogged her bin, and to add a bit of humour to the whole proceeding the next lassie leapfrogged a bucket! The crowd loved it.

At the end they all laid their bins down again this time one after the other in time to the beats and they all pointed towards the centre in a star like pattern and they stood on them. It was really great and everyone enjoyed it.

They turned out to be a church group and were advertising a free lunch at St John’s church. You can’t get better than that!

We got lost next and had to ask for directions back to the pump. By coincidence Pat had been reading that the average person gets lost for about 39 hours in a lifetime, we two are obviously getting lost for several other people.

We walked to the River to have a look at the Tide Mill. It was built about 1170 and it’s successors remained in operation until 1857. When the tide rose it opened a sluice gate and the 7½ acre pond would fill. As the tide dropped the sluice gate would close leaving the pond full. When the tide was low enough the miller would open the gate and hey presto mill power!

The pond is now part of the yachting club but they have dug a much smaller pond for demonstrations.

We spent a couple of hours here bird watching and found a Little Egret prancing around the shallows around the boats. No one seemed to be excited about it so we can only think that it is a common sight down here.
There were plenty of Godwits both Bar Tailed and Black and a few Canada Geese which seemed totally out of place wallowing in the glutinous mud. Usually they crop grass but they all had muddy beaks so I don’t know what they were finding to eat.

A lot of the boats and barges seemed to have been moored forever and looked very lived in, net curtains at the windows and pot plants along the gangways but sitting in the evil looking mud up to their plimsoll lines they looked a bit unloved and uncared for. Perhaps they will look happier at high tide.

It was still a really dull day and we decided to got back to Aldeburgh for the night.

Sunday and the wind was blowing, the sun shining so we tried to take Kite aerial photographs of the Moot Hall and some beached boats, I’ll know later whether we had any success. We also saw a boat heading directly for the shore and as he didn’t seem to be losing we speed we stood and waited for the crash. He ran straight at the beach full pelt and managed to get it halfway out of the water. Then a chain was attached and it was winched up the shingle to well above the high tide mark. In the hut by the winch the catch were all cleaned, gutted and ready for sale within minutes, small cod, crabs herring etc.

Just look what I found on the beach to the South of Aldburgh, I really really wanted it but Pat said I'd got to eat all the tins of beans to compensate for the weight!

Next stop was Shingle Street which turned out to be a row of cottages on the shingle beach, exactly what it said on the tin! I did manage to increase my Hag stone hoard to seven.

Nellie (Sat Nav) very kindly directed us to Bawdsey Quay at the mouth of the River Deben. Bawdsey Hall is the birthplace of Radar which was developed before WW2 and helped us to win the Battle of Britain.

It was here we met a super guy, Bharat, he has a Devon VW camper, the one that Pat wants, it was even the right colour, green. Bharat was enjoying his camping too much to let Pat have it so we traded conversation instead and got talking as I took over the spare chair. We sat and talked the afternoon away. Bharat loves mountains which remind him of his homeland, and loves Wales and the Lake District. He gave us some directions to lovely wild spots. Now all I’ve got to do is remember them until I get back to my map book.

Bharat was pleased for us when we told him this wandering was our new way of life and wished us well.

It’s very peaceful here, sat by the side of the River, the sun is hot and it’s hard to believe it’s nearly November. The river is about ¼ mile wide with yachts dotted down the middle. We have a sandy beach when the tides out and I’ve managed to secrete a few shells away out of Pat’s sight.