It was time for another trip to Suffolk and this time I decided to make it a two day trip with an overnight stay. I drove to and parked in Felixstowe, a town I had heard about but never visited. I was pleased to see that I had numerous options with the public transport on offer. Not so enjoyable was the early-morning drive over from Shropshire with a section of the M6 closed for overnight repairs and two sections of the A14 due to the major roadworks around Cambridge.
I used a direct bus service from Felixstowe to Woodbridge, the #173, alighting at the railway station and climbing the footbridge over the tracks. I continued along the banks of the River Deben on a beautiful sunny morning, with the occasional cloud giving shade from the already hot sun. With a refreshing breeze at my back I followed the well-defined riverside track around Martlesham Creek to Martlesham Hall where I had to divert inland. This would be the first of two occasions today when I would need to go inland, due to breaches in the riverside sea bank, purposefully done to create salt marshes.
After leaving Martlesham I made a slight navigation error, by heading towards Waldringfield Heath instead of Waldringfield. However, I carried on and it was not long before I entered the small charming village of Waldringfield with its unique houses built of brick on the ground floor and its timber-clad upper floors. I was tempted to sample a pint in the village pub, The Maybush, but I still had a long way to go. I walked along the shoreline of the Deben for a short distance before I had to start heading inland again to get around the second breach in the sea bank at Early Creek. I passed by White Hall and Hemley Hall before heading back to the River Deben. I was able to recognise many of the features on the opposite bank of the Deben that I passed through some weeks before.
I was now on the excellent path atop the sea bank which would take me all the way to the mouth of the River Deben. Felixstowe Ferry sits at the mouth of the river and provides a foot passenger ferry service across the river to Bawdsey on the opposite bank. Felixstowe Ferry itself is an odd mishmash collection of house boats, wooden boatyard buildings, a pub and cafe’s. the place was very busy. I was amazed that some older children where swimming in the river, near the rocks and with the tide in full flow pouring in from the sea. A Coastguard vehicle was close-by, I suspected, aving given the youths some advice. On the same day, further down the coast at Clacton, three children had been recused from the sea while swimming below the pier; sadly a young girl of 15 had drowned.
I joined the sea wall proper and passed a converted Martello Tower, here I said goodbye to the River Deben and hello again to the North Sea. The sea wall was very busy with holidaymakers making great use of the hundreds of multi-coloured beach huts of all shapes and sizes. I was now back on the Suffolk Coastal Path, a path I have probably spent more times off than on, as it quite mercurial tending to drift quite some distance away from the coast.
The sea wall ended at Undercliff and I now had the option of climbing over high groynes and rocks or climbing the cliff and walking along the suburban road a short distance. I opted for the inland route passing large and impressive established residences. At Cobbolds Point I dropped down to the sea wall again and continued along the promenade, passing the many holiday makers, more beach huts, the pier and onto a spit of land that jutted out into Harwich Harbour. This was Landguard, containing a military fort, gun emplacements, a Nature Reserve and a brilliant viewing area for the massive adjacent Felixstowe ferry port, with its huge collection of cranes for container handling. Here the walk ended and I caught the bus back into the town and headed off to my Airbnb in Ipswich.
Distance today = 20 miles
Total distance = 5,115 miles
Walking the Coast of Great Britain 
Seems a long time since I walked this section. Quite a crowded place in summer.
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