A Circular Walk around Minsmere

28 July 2013

A beautiful July afternoon, and time for a little walk, this time a varied but always delightful walk around the Minsmere nature reserve.

From the small village of Eastbridge, we head along the southern edge of the Minsmere Level, walking the 2½ km or so to the sea.

Approaching the sea, there are views of the remains of an old chapel and of Sizewell nuclear power station

Some of the wetlands of the nature reserve

Gaining height as we mount the sea wall brings a wider view over the marshes and wetland

The sea on the right and Minsmere Level on the left, our route lies along the broad ridge of the shingle bank which keeps out the sea

George and Lottie enjoying the varied walk

"This is fun!"

Some of the concrete barriers installed to help thwart a German invasion still linger on more than 70 years later

The Plastic Palace - it's art (apparently) by Liz McGowan. The palace has been made from plastic collected from the tideline at Minsmere, sorted, disentangled and cleaned. They invite walkers to pick up plastic from the beach and bring it to decorate the palace. There is also a Palace Journal for visitors to write and draw about their experience of the coast. Well, it's one way of getting people to pick up rubbish off the beach.

We have climbed away from the beach and are now crossing Dunwich Heath. The dogs pause to rest briefly

We turn southwest towards the woodland on the western edge of the Heath

A number of deer cautiously keep their distance from us

Lottie shows the way through the dappled woodland

After the woodland we had some rolling grass, a bit more woodland, and a short road walk took us back to the car after a really lovely afternoon.

Total distance 9.3 km in 2 hours 25 mins