A winner and Finishing the Suffolk coastal Path

I said I would announce the winner of my birthday give away today. In order to do this I needed to draw a comment number. Normally I use a random number generator but today I had some paper that had been cut up in order for our guide unit to do a vote. As always the girls had made far too many slips. Anyway I quickly wrote out the numbers and got John to pick one. And the winner is........

Number 8  Denise :)10 December 2019 at 14:09

I follow you through Google! I love the grunge ... it's so fun! Very nice of you to do a giveaway in honor of your birthday! Realistically, I'd want something quilty for my birthday. Idealistically, I'd love for my son and his family to move back to Alabama! :)

I have sent an email to Denise.

I will be having another give away or is it gift away in January.

This weekend Lucy, John and I travelled to Suffolk to finish our walk along the coastal path. We started back in April at Lowestoft and yesterday we finished the last section. The path is 57 miles but you end up walking more as there are links to get you to the nearest public transport and also we took some diversions to see places of interest. John did a quick bit of maths and confidently stated we had walked about 70 to 75 miles. We have done this by completing two walks over a weekend and usually one weekend a month. This time we only walked on Sunday and the weather was beautiful. It was sunny and quite warm, although I kept my coat on all day. On our last walk we finished at Bawdsey Quay. If we had been walking earlier in the year we would have been able to get the ferry across the river but we missed it by a month. This was the view across the river from Bawdsey.

Yesterday we started from Felixstowe ferry slipway on the opposite bank.

On this side of the river there were a lot of small yacht. There were a few out on the river but not many. 

We walked along the river bank until it became the sea wall. The light made all the colours amazing. We were looking across the Deben to Bawdsey Manor 

We watched this small boat head out along the channel and into the open sea.

We passed a martello tower, there had been another one nearer Felixstowe ferry. This one was situated in the middle of a golf links that run alongside the coast.

and looking over the golf course we could see farms in the distance.

Further along we stopped by these ponds on the beach to have a cup of coffee. John took the opportunity to do some bird watching. On the nearest stretch of water there was a Black Necked Grebe. As we moved on several other bird watchers arrived to see the bird. News does travel fast! Unfortunately I couldn't get a good picture as I didn't have the right lens with me.

Further on we came across some beach huts. To say there are a lot of beach huts in Felixstowe would be an under statement. In places they stood three deep. The bank had been strengthened to help prevent erosion. 

We came across several sea fishermen. The beach was mainly shingle but there were patches of sand. Thank goodness there was a sea wall as walking on shingle is so tiring,

We walked along the coast and then through the town itself. Looking back to see the way we had come.

In the distance one of the big container ships is leaving the Port of Felixstowe.

As we walked to the far end of the town, the cranes from the port came into view.

We stopped to have a look at the war memorial. There were a lot of poppy wreathes from  Remembrance day but unfortunately they were being blown around by the wind.

Looking back we found our shadow selves had turned up to enjoy the walk.

We were heading to Languard Point, a nature reserve and also the end of the path. Here you also get a great view of the docks.

You can get very close but even so the photo really doesn't give a feeling of the size of this container vessel. Lucy and I stood and watched several containers being loaded. They looked small from the distance but they helped get the scale of the ship.

Having done a happy dance to celebrate completing the coastal path we turned our heads towards Trimley station where we'd parked the car for the day. We still had about 3 miles to walk to get back to the car. We followed the road for a fair way and it took us past the docks. They seemed to go on forever. When we turned into a wood to take a short cut to the car we still hadn't got to the end of the docks. It was starting to get dark and as we reached the top of a small hill I looked back to see the docks illuminated against the sky.

Back at the car we changed out of our walking boots and had some coffee before heading for home. The journey back was uneventful and fairly quick.

We will be going back to Suffolk in January as there are a couple of other walks we want to do. In March or April the three of us will be starting the Norfolk coastal path which is 84 miles.

I'm in work tomorrow but on Wednesday I have a day off and it is going to be a sewing day. I'm getting excited to make a start on the quilting of my Christmas quilt.

Lyndsey