Heston

A week in Aldeburgh.

Did we try to do too much in six days spent in this leisured (or bank holiday frenetic?) little town on the Suffolk coast? That there is so much to do (or that can be done) here and hereabouts is remarkable. Family visitors on our first day came via Snape Maltings. Perhaps they didn't want to risk too much time in our company after a longish drive and preferred to squeeze in a visit to Snape with coffee and probably advance Christmas shopping. In our week we didn't make it to Snape, even for coffee, just passing through on our way back from Orford on our last full day.

We did manage the shops and galleries with our visitors in Aldeburgh and they bought quantities of fresh fish from the beach and we all bought some marsh samphire (of the glasswort variety). Later we walked Lettie my cousin's ancient Labrador near the "sea shell on the seashore" - looking through all the 'literature' we brought back with us now I can't find any guide for Aldeburgh let alone the sea shell sculpture - perhaps it's in the car, the guide that is. I was spared the queue for the "world famous fish and chip shop" (like the sailor's girl, there's one in every port) but back at the cottage (some people stay in cottages in Aldeburgh rather than ranches) the fish and chips was worth waiting for when they finally got back. We didn't need the salad or tuna and potato mayonnaise lunch left-overs but tea and strawberries and yogurt (with a few sharp red-currants) from the new Co-op just short of town rounded off supper very well.Then it was time for visitors to leave as Mike had to get up early on Sunday to take his sister for a short flight in his ancient Cessna recently licensed after importation from America.

Adding some informative links to this later should be interesting - we'll see.

Sunday was to be the day of rest and by and large it was with extra time in bed, reading papers, a third visit to 'Peter Williams' selling his excellent paintings and prints in the High Street and a look round the photographic exhibition at the Slaughden (Quay?) Sailing club before a walk round the sea-wall and back via town with detour in search of sculptures and an alternative route for future reference. The weather continued blustery and showery but the umbrella just survived. We saw an egret, probably a little egret I learnt later, apparently larger than the Cattle egret I had surmised. And a swan attacking a dog which had swum too close with a cygnet nearby.

Monday was Minsmere day. We bought a couple of prints from Peter Williams and then travelled across country (ie. not on the main roads) via Eastbridge to Minsmere where we eventually spent the rest of the day. Having been a member of the RSPB aged 10, it had taken me 50 years to get to Minsmere (but I'm not a member now so entrance was quite expensive though I did take advantage of a 'senior citizen' ticket.) It was useful to be able to examine various binoculars and discuss their merits in the shop as I need to buy a new pair of at least half-decent lightweight binoculars suitable for wildlife watching. It seems probable that a pair from about £150 might do, rather than the £1000 it is possible to spend, but not those at about £100. We visited most of the hides but got caught in rain showers a couple of times as heavy storm cells kept passing through at half-hour intervals. Whilst in the hides the downpours were torrential at times and later in the tea-room and shop we heard they were quite exceptional as the steps from the car-park had never before turned into a waterfall.

Young Marsh Harriers perched on posts proved to be quite different in colour (with lots of gold) and much smaller than the enormous dark adults I'm used to from the Humber. Otherwise we saw Canada geese, Barnacle geese, Greylag, a White-fronted goose, heron, tufted duck, one ruddy-duck (the RSPB's favourite bird), cormorant, Great-crested grebe, little grebe, and others too common to mention. My highlight was seeing a kingfisher hovering in the fading light although we did also see a hobby. Brooding over the scene in the distance the great white dome and square block of Sizewell nuclear power station. In the tea-room we shared a table with a woman also from Humberside (so yes, it's a small world) but with local Suffolk connections. the nearby bird-feeders were very well patonised by greenfinches, chaffinches, blue-tits, great-tits, robin and possibly coal-tits. On the way back we caught sight of a muntjac deer foraging in the bushes behind the roadside verge.

The next day we visited the Otter Trust at Earsham and found the British and the Asian short-clawed otters enthralling whilst we also saw the wallabies, muntjac and a pair of tiny harvest mice in a glass cage who seemed quite happy and relaxed though quite what these have got to do with otters isn't clear. (Well, if you consider the hand-tame fallow deer too it's quite clear, educational or not, it enhances the day out and encourages the paying public needed to raise the funds.) After lunch we drove north of Norwich and visited the villages of Sparham, Reepham and Cawston which Georgina thinks were the birthplaces of her maternal great-great grandmother's family before they moved to Sheffield. On the journey home we came via Caister on Sea - a bleak bit of sand behind the sea wall and very run down village, before calling in at Great Yarmouth whose neon-lit sea-front is clearly the perfect seaside holiday location for some, if not for us.

On Wednesday (the 30th) we managed a very slightly earlier than usual start (about 11!) to go to Orford and take the boat to Orfordness. What a truly weird and wonderful place this is. First World War fighter airfields and bombing test ranges; the birthplace of Radar and Radio Direction finding; World War Two bombing tests and navigation developments; test sites for all the non-nuclear (they claim) components of Britain's first atomic and hydrogen bombs including bombing tests (these obviously were non-nuclear!); a 'top secret' "over the horizon backscatter radar" operated by the US/UK until 1973 with its huge fan shaped array of aerials (radar antennae) and large building which even today houses the BBC World Service transmitters. All this surrounded by miles of shingle and marsh seemingly in the middle of nowhere with an all-round horizon of sea, marsh, shingle and river which provide habitats for a wide range of rare plants, animals and birds. For me it was too much to take in all the detail and sufficient to feel the place as a whole - I forgot to mention the 800 year plus history from Henry II who drained the marshes for grazing and built nearby Orford Castle to defend the realm from foreign invaders. Today, the views of Orford Castle and church and the numerous sailing yachts on the River Ore add charm to an otherwise surreal landscape. Far to the north can be glimpsed Aldeburgh and beyond that the white dome of Sizewell.

Catching the last boat back at 5pm we were encouraged by the boatman to visit the newly opened tea-room (where it looked as if you would need to paddle on a high spring tide) and later watched a catch of lobsters, skate and Dover sole being landed on the quay (from a small rowing boat). We returned via Rendlesham forest and visited the TM building site in Rendlesham where a group of East-West facing houses have been built on Vedic principles. In the evening we queued for an unbooked table at the Regatta restaurant in Aldeburgh where we argued about the order - oh dear!

The Thursday took us to the Oasis Camelid Centre at Linstead Magna (IP19 0DT). Llamas, alpacas and Bactrian camels one of which had an ageing deformed bullock reminiscent of a minotaur as its soulmate. We met the owner Ray Smith and learnt about his passion for camels and his llama trekking and breeding activities. In the afternoon we continued to Diss to spend a few hours with an elderly aunt and uncle whose farm lies alongside the Waveney at Wortham.