Day 73 – Felixstowe to Saxmundham

 

 Date: Saturday 2^8th May  2011   Distance: 28.84 Miles

 

Leaving home at 7 am we arrived 4 and a half hours later to park the car the car at Ipswich Station, while we caught the train to Felixstowe where we would begin our next phase of the cycle ride.

 

We didn’t see much of Felixstowe and we were soon by the sea and down to the ferry at Ferry quay. After checking that the ferry was running we had lunch at the Ferryboat Inn. There were several places to choose from and it was nice enough though expensive. A lady nearby had a mountain of mussels and a pint of prawns that astonishingly for her age and size, disappeared.

 

Families swarmed over the slippery jetty catching crabs in nets and on lines. A white bat waved by the would- be fare, summoned the ferryman from the other side of the river estuary. He came and I was a bit disappointed that he was not stereotypically jolly but rather grumpy. He did have to lug the tandem and another bike over the side of his motor boat. It was a very quick crossing at £3.50 a head with bike and we thought it well worth it, the miles it saved.

 

This side had a country park and was soon really rural. At Hollesley, by a church with deafening wedding bells(they must have been a recording it was so repetitive), we turned right, passing small cottages getting the full blast! Then it was cycle way which to our surprise took us though a prison complex. The only reason for this could have been the cafe at the far end that was attached to Suffolk Punch Trust to do with working horses. If we hadn’t just started our journey we would have certainly taken a look at the horses.

 

We passed Tunstall Forest intermingled with purple Rhododendrons and our route took us most of the way round this. We had some hills to climb and the roads were covered in sand from the soil and drifting from the wind. Luckily there were some cars which had dispersed it from the middle else we would have struggled to peddle through some bits.

 

At Capel St.Andrew there was an unusual metal statue, probably St. Andrew as he was holding a fish. We stopped at a The Oyster Inn at Butley for tea and coffee and a huge slab of homemade date and walnut cake. Mummers were coming later today. There were interesting allotments opposite the pub with a large sized model of St George on leaping horse, made of natural material like pampas grass for the horse’s tail. On the road side of the fence stood a similarly made, driftwood dragon. Chicken ran free amongst lovely vegetable plots edged with rows of green bottles stuck upside down in the ground.

Poppies were out on the banks and in the arable fields. It seems early but a few wheat fields looked golden-almost ready. Although the land was dry, except for where the farmers have watered, there still remained ponds and irrigation channels around the fields. A stream of yellow flags caught our eye just before we got a soaking from a badly placed water system; a jet right across the road meant there was no way to avoid it.

We passed hundred of unusually unsmelly pigs digging in the dust, huge and different varieties but many Suffolk’s own.”Put British pork on your fork” was the slogan at one farm.

 

An attractive Victorian Maltings by the river before Snape had been sold off as fashionable properties, apartments, shops with cafe and museum. Creepers covered some of the buildings which have been tastefully utilised.

 

After Snape came Saxmunden where we struggled to find the station from the map and missed the 5 o clock train. There wasn’t much open but Waitrose sold us some sandwiches and despite it being grey most of the day we waited in the sun for the 6 o’clock train back to Ipswich and the waiting car.(£12.36 for the train and £2.30 for parking all day)