Friday 11 April 2014

The last day of the holiday

in Suffolk.




We drove to Aldeburgh in search of the 'Boardwalk' section of the Sailors' Path. Our walk began at the car park beside the Hazelwood Marshes.








The signpost told us that it was 2 miles to Snape Warren (where we'd terminated our search for the Boardwalk from the Snape end of the path.) We headed off up the sandy laneway, passing a cottage where the owner of a chocolate Patterdale pup called Norman told us which route to take. The sandy laneway became a hard surfaced footpath bordered with gorse  for a while.




About half a mile further along, we reached the next signpost but still no sign of the Boardwalk. The path crossed heathland before entering a wooded section.








© Suffolk Wildlife Trust 

We passed the signpost for Hazelwood Marsh. One look down the lane through the locked gate showed that the access was very wet indeed. The storm damage (breach in the sea wall) has closed the Reserve, so we walked on towards Snape Warren.




The elusive Boardwalk, at last






Finally, we spotted the Boardwalk at the end of the wood. It was clear that this was not a flat surface provided for the elderly or infirm but was a necessity for crossing the marsh.
















We had to keep tight control of Ron because the temptations of the marsh were great for a Patterdale.  This became doubly important when the woodland gave way to wetland grazed by cattle.














Ron's recall was excellent (apart from a short dash into the wood on the return journey) He really enjoyed exploring the edges of the Boardwalk.















My ankle began to complain as we left the Boardwalk and reached the edges of Snape Warren, so we turned around and headed back to the car.












There was not much evidence of flowers on the marsh, apart from a few clumps of early Marsh Marigolds. The hedgerows were in full bloom and birdsong filled the air.






The weather, once again, was kind to us during the walk. The clouds forecast for the day did not begin to appear until we were driving back into Snape.




We lunched at The Crown, Snape. I'd wanted to eat there since we discovered that they serve their own home-reared meat and produce.









The house speciality is pork, so MWNN chose the pork platter for lunch. This was a selection of pork products - from left to right -chorizo,  black pudding fritter (batter almost as light as tempura), cured sausage with chutney, pork sausage, roast pork (already gone), and pork terrine.  He chose to have no accompaniments and 'helped' eat my chips, mushrooms and onion rings.

The food at the Crown was very good - lovely flavours and really well cooked. My locally reared limosin rib-eye steak was full of flavour and very tender.

The male Anglo-Nubian goat


I watched the  neighbouring table (a table of four who'd obviously eaten at the Crown before) order four starters and four deserts. Among the starters was flat mushroom on salad, topped with a wedge of hot goat's cheese. As they were leaving, they went to see the goats who had provided the cheese.




And so our day was a fine end to our two weeks' holiday in Suffolk. We've enjoyed good weather, good walking, and good eating in this special part of England.