Southwold

I took the half-term week as a chance to do a walk along the Suffolk coast, starting at Southwold.

The morning didn't start auspiciously — raining steadily, with heavy bursts as I was driving. Fortunately it was easing off by the time I arrived around noon; and as it was still too early to check in at the Swan, so with high tide about four hours away, I changed into shorts and walking boots, and set off up the coast to Covehithe.

The wind and last spits of rain at my back, I headed up past the car-park at the north end of the beach, along the sea wall and onto the beach. The signs of erosion were unmistakeable, not only the crumbling cliffs and the soil being banked up against it, but the rain washing dark soil down the white sand of the beach, and the dead trees falling to the beach.

By the time I reached the path up the Covehithe cliffs, the rain had stopped, and it was mild enough to pack waterproof and denim shirt away, and carry on in T-shirt, munching on sandwiches to hook up with the Coasts and Heaths path, set back from the shore, through Reydon, before returning to the coast at the car park at the north of Southwold.

By now, it was time for a beer at the Lord Nelson, before getting checked in. Dinner was as usual excellent — a very nice roast pepper and mozzarella on polenta; and an over the top chocolate pudding, with a half bottle of Pouilly Fumé. And so to bed. I was in the Writer's Room, over the archway this time, rather than being on the fire escape. The down-side was that the room didn't have a bath, only a shower.