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.