The appliance of science

Safely ensconced in our beautiful micro-cottage near Leiston Abbey in Suffolk, we wanted to visit the strange and desolate landscape of OrfordNess, which came to our attention for its huge radar array.  With lots of walking anticipated it was a relief to eschew heavy motorbike clothes for civvies, and in any case we were only riding a few miles and on bimbly wee roads, so I left Sensei Africa Twin in the garage and pillioned on the back of The Little Bike That Could.

At Orford village we waited for the little ferry, while being steadily blown to bits in the wind.  The ferry only carries a dozen people at a time.  We were met by one of the volunteers who described the military and pre-military history of the site which stretches several miles northeast to southwest, and is partly wetland and partly a shingle beach of no little special scientific interest, and is protected with a series of dykes and drains and ponds.

Of interest to us were the remains of scientific research into early radar systems, and latterly research in the Cold War, where unarmed, newly designed bombs were tested for stability and inertness during their transport and deployment.  There are several derelict and intact laboratories and test facilities nicknamed Pagodas for their roof shape, and two buildings have been converted to visitor information centres.  At our attempted cuppa stop in one of the former workshops/admin buildings there is a book donation/swap room and bestie and I whiled away half an hour reading a book about rallying in 1979 when our hero, Tony Pond, was tearing around in TR7 V8s and Chevette HSRs.

We were quite glad to get our bone domes back on because the strong wind had been blowing incessantly across the island; I was glad for my hat and bestie for my Buff.  The whole place though is really quite amazing, and we walked a good six and a half miles.  It also took up most of the day!

From Orford bestie let me take the controls of little Biscuit, so I could see how she felt to ride, and we rode to Aldeburgh to putter up and down the high street and find somewhere to have tea.  The best fish and chip shop had a big queue on the pavement, so naturally we joined it, and soon enough enjoyed our food sitting on the shingle beach in the afternoon sunshine.  After tea we rode to Thorpeness to see something we'd read about in a book the previous evening: a strange house in the clouds, with its own windmill.  The house was once a water tower in disguise, while the windmill, built in 1803, came in 1923 from Aldringham and was converted to pump water from a well.  Thorpeness also has a large lake that is manmade and is very shallow, with lots of ducks.

From there it was a short ride back to our cottage and an evening of journey planning and cups of tea.