Log No 339. Sun 8th Jun 2014 - Newbourne to Shottisham, 17 miles (5231 miles walked)

After a day of inactivity I was raring to go, with no more long days ahead of me there is no point in having too early a start but the habit is hard to break and I was away at 07.20.

Rather than retrace my steps along the road from the campsite I thought I would take the footpath through the wood at the bottom of the campsite.

There was more wood and more footpaths on the ground than shown on the map and I could only walk in generally the right direction and hope I would know where I was when I came out of the trees, fortunately I came out near the pub.

It was a beautiful day and I got back to the river bank just south of Waldringfield, I had a bit of a mishap on a flooded section of footpath, it was deeper than I thought and the water went over the top of my shoes, oh well they wouldn't take long to dry out in todays heat.

I stopped for an early break and a runner stopped to talk to me, this was the first time any runner had done more than break stride for me. Dave was training for an ultra marathon he was taking part in.

I soon came back inland onto a minor road as I had been told there was a breach in the embankment footpath and it was high tide.

I got back to the river at Martlesham Creek but soon found the footpath blocked off with a sturdy wooden fence, there was no closed notice, I took a chance and squeezed round it as I could make out other footprints in the dried earth. I soon saw the reason for it, the river had obviously breached the embankment some time ago, the gap had since been temporarily filled again and was easily walked over.

The section of path coming into Woodbridge was very busy but only one young lady made time to speak to me.

After another break and some shopping in the town I continued alongside the River Deben to the road bridge.

With no footpath on the other side I went along the road then turned off to go to the visitor centre at Sutton Hoo, it was nearly midday and with plenty of time stopped for a pot of tea.

I took a variety of footpaths from here which eventually got me back to the river just across from Waldringfield.

In the space of 5 mintues I met and chatted to two couples, Ruth & Colin had done over 400 miles of the SWCP and were planning to more of it later in the year while Jo & Paul were going to be tackling the Coast to Coast this year.

Shortly after meeting them I turned back inland to take the roads to Shottisham and the campsite for today, arriving at 14.45.

A very enjoyable 17 miles.

The phone signal here keeps dropping out.