Today didn’t look vastly promising, a walk from Lowestoft to Ipswich, however this wasn’t the case.
Leaving Lowestoft takes you through the dock area on the River Orwell. At the end of this you have to cross a railway line. The gate across this line is apparently built to stop tank incursions never mind the odd hiker.
You have to ring a control office from a phone next to the gate. They then release the magnetic latches holding the gate shut. Then the fun begins. The gate is about 1 inch thick steel with a supporting structure and takes a very determined effort to push it open and indeed close it. You then realise you don’t have just this gate but three more to contend with. Each of them wonderfully heavy.
Once you get across you enter a strange bit of path that transports you back and forth between views of containers and cranes to tree lined lanes bout every 200 yards.
You get to realise how big the ships and cranes are comparing them to the 40 ton lorries that deliver the containers.
Then it was a nice walk along the marshes albeit a bit browned off , the marshes not me.
Then you pass through oak woods bordering the river with views of yachts gliding up and down the river.
The walk into Ipswich isn’t that exciting but I had a long chat with an ex army guy about walking as I snacked outside a Tesco Express.
The centre of Ipswich has a really nice marina and it was a fitting end to the day as I crossed the Sir Bobby Robson bridge to get to my hotel and a day off