Stour and Orwell Walk - Lower Holbrook to Shotley Gate
28 November 2009
With another reasonably fine morning in prospect,
Stephen took another trip to the southern edge of Suffolk, to pick up
the Stour and Orwell Walk where he and George left off last Saturday.
Climbing gently away from Alton Wharf on Holbrook Creek. In the early
20th century, this was a busy wharf, often with four barges unloading
wheat, coal and stone.
Three dogs as Lucy, Ellie and Henry have come too for the first little
section
Looking across the Stour into the late autumn sunshine.
Lucy, Ellie and Henry head off back to the river and eventually the car.
Meanwhile, in contrast to last week's riverside walk, we have a largely
cross-country walk ahead of us.
George near Nether Hall
Suffolk countryside, with the top of the tower of Harkstead church just
visible
A leaning signpost
After a lot of arable land, we find some pigs
and sheep
The impressive gateway to Beaumont Hall
After a long farmland ramble, we are starting to near the river again as
we look across to Parkeston
Approaching Shotley Gate, with the cranes of Felixstowe Docks on the far
side of the Orwell
Across the Stour to Parkeston again
A ship heads down the Orwell - the flipping from river to river shows
that we are nearing the end of the peninsula
The docks at Felixstowe
The pier at Shotley Gate as the Stour approaches the Orwell
Looking up the Stour for the last time
Across Harwich Harbour to Felixstowe on the left and Harwich on the
right, with the Orwell flowing in from the left and the Stour from the
right
The entrance to Shotley Marina
Boats in the marina
The path around the marina is very pleasant - and shows a wide range of
boat sizes
MSC Francesca, built in 2009, is 131,771 tonnes and 366 metres long by
45.6 metres in beam, and carries 11660 TEU containers. She arrived at
Felixstowe at 0542 this morning from Rotterdam. As her name hints, she
is owned by the Mediterranean Shipping Company, the world's
second-largest container shipping company.
Looking across Harwich Harbour to Landguard Point, with the open sea
visible beyond the right-hand lightship.
Before we head up Marsh Lane back to the road, a look up the Orwell. We
have about 18 kilometres up the western bank to Ipswich and the same
back again on the eastern bank before we reach that other bank seen
here.
Total 13.2 km, (12.0 km on the Stour & Orwell Walk) in 3 hours 7 mins.
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