Orford Mess (not really)

Today was to be less miles on the bikes, more catching our breath a little and enjoying the improving weather. I mean, we still had places to see and had to get there but after a hiking to sound mirrors, riding around Kent in wet squally weather, and riding to Suffolk on a rapidly warming day we had gotten a little frazzled.

The main event for Suffolk was to be Orford Ness. Fellow blipper @RobinDown had recommend a visit after I posted a screenshot of it from Microsoft Flight Simulator almost a couple of years ago not knowing what I was flying over. A drained marshland and shingle beach, the 'Ness was formed and continues to shapeshift thanks to longshore drift, its shingle slowly migrating south with the tide. Dressed in more civilian attire and travelling as much as possible by longstroke shift on quiet lanes, Bestie sat behind on the pillion seat as we bimbled through Leiston, passing the lovely Snape Maltings, cutting through an unexpected forest towards the coast, swooshing past a few Giant Redwoods living their best life, and finding our way to the jetty at Orford Ness. Parking on the quayside was discouraged so Biscuit sulked into the nearby carpark to sunbathe for a few hours.

Catching a little boat the short hop across the River Alde (extra bottom left), we were given a briefing by the National Trust on which paths were open and why we shouldn't stray from them. For much of the 20th century Orford Ness was used for the testing of military equipment of one sort or another (not much of which is nice) in secret, from early development of aircraft for combat, through to testing parts for atomic weapons in different conditions, to pioneering radar systems for aviation purposes. It was a fascinating place of contrasts - its inner marshland (main blip - the camera at an angle...is definitely not hilly) providing birdsong for the ears, an abundance of large caterpillars (look with the eyes not the hands - highly irritable to the skin we were told) and lots of wading birds, the Avocets being an easy spot. In the near distance was the huge array of medium wave antennae visible in by flightsim screen shot mentioned above.

The shingle spit on the other hand was instantly bleak & desolate, a really strange experience but as the NT guide had mentioned, quite unique too. What looked like an old windmill (extra top left) had in fact housed an early radio beacon for aircraft to use for navigation. The work it began proved invaluable for aircraft returning back across the 'channel during the second small disagreement of 1939 to 1945. What we couldn't spot from its top floor vantage point was Orfordness Lighthouse. We later discovered it had been demolished 5 years ago after the shingle protecting it had been washed away to the extent that it had become likely to collapse anyway. Further south were the bomb testing facilities - think lots of dense concrete shored up with shingle for one type, along with the 'Pagodas', two testing facilities consisting of thick flat concrete roofs supported by concrete columns. We were there for hours, the site being really spread out, and thus we walked around 5 miles which sounds a lot, although it was flat and the going at a 'very' leisurely pace. 

Back at the carpark, Biscuit was awoken from a slumber and this time Ms.@Arell took the riders seat to see how she got along with the little bike that can, enjoying herself by all accounts, as did I experiencing the pillion seat for the first time. She commented that the sound the engine makes when ridden gently at low rpm sounds similar to a Citroen 2CV, despite being one piston and two hundred & fifty two cubic centimetres short of the Gallic charmers amazing little engine. I think she has a point, it does too.

She took us inlanmd again past Snipe Maltings and back out to the shore to Aldeburgh Beach where we parked our and joined a looooong queue for a fish & chip shop. The unwritten rule for chipshops, the longer the queue the more worthwhile the wait was proven right, our fish & chips being absolutely delish, more so from where we sat in the sunshine on the shingle beach. In a sidestreet we Ooohed & Aaahed at a beautiful Austin Healey 3000 sportscar - a really pretty machine :-) (extra top right) Before leaving, we bimbled Biscuit along the sea defenses to a well preserved and very impressive Martello Tower.

The original plan for the afternoon had been to ride up to Lowestoft but am glad we didn't, the rest & recuperation doing us the power of good - the ride back from Aldeburgh for example having been puncuated almost immedietely by an unplanned but very cathartic stop at Thorpeness, just sitting for a while to sit by its little lake to 'just be' for a good half hour. We also had a very quick nosey at a beautiful windmill and the vertiginous House In The Clouds. For night number two at our lovely Airb&b, we enjoyed a couple of cuppas before retiring, sifting through a book called 'Aerial Views of Suffolk' to see another birdeye perspective of where we had been before Zzzzzzz.