Suffolk Walk: Orford Ness NT

 16/10/'22

 I was so excited that finally visited to Orford Ness this sunday. It was huge! Much bigger than what I expected. 

We arrived a bit earlier than when we booked for the little NT ( National Trust) ferry to across the river. Felt like I wasn't wearing the right footwear, never mind I was able to get into the ferry with help of NT lady. I was a bit feeling tired, so not sure how far I could walk.

When we arrived on the Ness, walked to a van ( from WW2 I would imagine) to listen to the guide explaining us about Ness and footpaths. I am a bit def, I wasn't able to hear all of what he was saying, good job, Marcus ( my partner) got good hearings. They did ask me if I could walk for a few miles to get to the office ( we hired off road NT mobility scooter), I thought I could walk. I was wrong, it was farther than what I expected, I started moaning 😅 as usual... Anyway, took us a bit but got there in the end. As soon as I got on the scooter, I was happy. I loved it, walked a lot on the ness. 

The view from the viewpoint was amazing. Shingles everywhere, so wide and ..... nothing there.... apart from remains from what they used that time. 

Weather was ok, it was a bit windy but bearable. We had a little rain ( spitting a bit), stopped quickly. I was told on the Ness, either windy and cold or blasting with heat and really hot, but it wasn't bad, actually it was quite pleasant. We had lovely time there. We decided to come back to Ness for nature walk, which we didn't have time to do that day. Nature took over the Ness, I would love to walk ( with the scooter) the footpath. 

Oh, we popped into the war exhibition, it was interesting what went on on the Ness. At the same time, when I saw a diagram about atomic bombs which, scared me. Ones were dropped in Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan were one of smallest ones. How scary is that, they caused so much damages and people are still suffering after mass of atomic bombs. I pray for peace, world peace. 🙏

There's more photos from the Ness below! 

 

Links to Orford Ness below:

https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/orford-ness-national-nature-reserve

https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/orford-ness-national-nature-reserve/features/visiting-orford-ness-what-you-need-to-know

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orford_Ness

Suffolk Walk: Shingle Street beach --- Full Moon

 8 & 9th/ October/'22

Lagoon & the cottage

Full moon, super low tide, mild temperature and sunny, we decided to go to Shingle Street beach for moon watching ( and dips of course) this weekend. We timed for low tide for our dip. It was truly magical. 😍

Super low tide due to partly the full moon, it created the lagoon by the shore again. Long, calming waves, in & out to the lagoon. Changed the landscape again. It was very 'hilly' up and down... desert shingle beach...so huge, and panoramic. Only Shingle street can create view like this. 

On Saturday, it was very calm, no much wind, so surface of the lagoon was very still. As the sun started setting, the light changed and I could see the clouds above on the lagoon. Sky was blue, light pink and misty grey purple over the sea holizen. It was soooo beautiful. 

Then about 6:30pm, the moon started rising over the sea holizen. It came out pinkish colour, then orange then golden colour. 

It was a bit cloudy and windy than saturday, loads of kite surfers were at the beach...nearly 20 of them, and one of vans stayed overnight from saturday. We could smell they were cooking dinner from miles away on Saturday night, being friendly, tried to have a conversation going, but maybe they didn't hear us ( or concentrating cooking in their van), we were ignored🤣.

Can you see the Jupiter?

We saw a lady came for the moon on saturday evening, who came again this evening. She had her friends, enjoying cuppa, chat and watching the full moon. They live locally, and they love watching full moon every month together 🥰 . 

We dipped in the sea and lagoon on both afternoon. Dipped, got changed, warmed up in our car then went back out for the full moon. It was lovely evenings, never saw sunset and full moon rising at the same time. I thought we must come here more often for sunrise, solstice, equinox, sunset, full moon rise, new moon rise etc...dip in the sea! 

Two moon watchers under the full moon

There are from tonight. 

We also drove into Sutton heath, former RAF base ( now called 23 parachute regiment, they changed the sign!), we wanted to see what's inside ( nice houses, and wide roads...), hadn't been inside for ages. As we drove in, we saw a community store! Then we saw a little roundabout, then...two army officers ( one had a big gun) standing at a reception like building. As we drove past, I waved at them, they waved me back. What were they guarding? Well, they thought I wasn't a terrorist ( thank god! 🤗 ), otherwise I would've got shot. 😅 Very curious, I wonder what is inside 🤔. Rendlesham forest next to it, so they might have an alien, or cloning alien DNA, and creating some civilization? Or ...? What do you think? 😻

On our way back from Shingle street in dark, we saw a little animal strolling across the road, I said: " it's a possum!!!" it wasn't 😆. It was a baby muntjac with mama muntjac looking for night snack getting into someone's garden. It was night like that when we often saw small herd of deer by the forest. Hope I can see them again soon.

What a wonderful weekend. I am a bit tired now, bed soon. Under the full moon....😌 

Suffolk Walk: Shingle street beach - Orford

 2/10/2022

We went out to Orford after our dip in Shingle Street on Saturday, I hadn’t been there for ages. Initially when I saw the castle, I really thought they were making the castle into apartments😅 It does look like that doesn’t it. Then saw a drawing of what it looked like years ago when it was in hay day. I spent a few minutes looking around imagining how people used to live. Shingle street beach looked different again, the sea pushed shingles from both sides, now becoming one huge mound-like on the shore. We dipped into the lagoon, ooo, how did those algae appear again? Nothing in summer! Then wondered, maybe algae and sea plants like chilly water….

Have you been to Orford NT? I haven’t been there yet. Hopefully we’ll visit next weekend. Someone on youtube once did a documentary about Orford Ness, and recorded some EVPs ( for ghost hunting😅 ). I doubt I will encounter some sprit people there🤔 . Anyway, today’s walk in this afternoon, we popped down to Chillesford church, off B1083, Shottisham. Heard some fossils of shells were found, so we drove there and had a look. There’s a huge ditch next the church ( cute church☺️ ). Below is what we found on edge of the ditch, and lots of old shells on the ground too. The church looked like standing on a mound. My imagination tickled, maybe perhaps, it was built on a mound, (mound) made by Anglo- Saxons😍. After that, we popped into Rendlesham forest for a little walk on Biking track into Suffolk Wild Trust footpath. I attached MT bike track below, if you would like to check it out for a weekend activity😁. This is the track, a pair of buzzard tried to kidnap me to their nest. So, you may find buzzards circling above you waiting for you to get injured….😅

https://www.forestryengland.uk/rendlesham-forest/cycling-and-mountain-biking-trails-rendlesham-forest

 Photo above is flowers in a vase in the church. How the light came through, it looked like it had a light inside the vase. It looked very pretty and magic. Lovely church. And, If you are member of a camper club ( can'r remember which one....) you are able to stay a night! What a spot to spend a night...