Wheels Around Europe . . . . . . . : Thorpeness and Southwold

It turned out to be a very good place for a peaceful night in Aldeburgh even though it was a freebie.

It had been very windy in the late afternoon and I feared we were going to be rocked all night by the wind. But by bedtime it had subsided to a gentle breeze and it was very quiet all night.

Only the workers trudging wearily to work on a Monday morning woke us at about 7.30 as they drove past to get to the boat yard at the Marina.

As soon as they`d gone it was back to sleep for another hour or so.

A brisk morning walk along the promenade was taken before breakfast, after which we set off up the Suffolk coast.

We had found a garden to visit called The Walled Garden at Saxmundham, but unfortunately it`s closed on Mondays.

Instead we went to a small coastal village called Thorpeness.

There`s not a great deal there but it has an interesting boating lake called The Meare.

It was dug by hand over the winter of 1912-13 on the instructions of the Ogilvie family.

It covers six and a half acres and has a depth of two and a half feet, hard work for someone !

The Ogilvie family were friends of JM Barrie, author of Peter Pan and many features from the book were created on the lake and islands.

These included the original Wendy House and the Pirates Lair.

All for the enjoyment of the village children as I don`t suppose there were many tourists in those days.

Later, on the drive to Southwold we passed a field full of large hutches. Not sure what they were at first, all was revealed when we saw the Pigs.

Each one has it`s own hutch and many had a family of piglets following mother around !

I guess they`re classed as free range and they seemed very well looked after and in beautiful surroundings.

Happy piggies !

Southwold is a popular seaside town in these parts and with good reason.

We parked close to the town`s old water tower and walked the short distance to the High Street.

It has a good selection of independent shops and artisan bakers and almost every shop has a dog bowl of water outside so Louis was happy. One even had a bowl of dog biscuits as well !

Later we walked down to the pier and had a drink of luke warm overpriced coffee.

It was very windy on the sea front, so we headed back for the town, through the Church yard.

There are not too many camping options in Southwold as there is only one site in the town, Southwold Camping, so that’s where we are. (GPS 52.316347 1.672481).

It`s convenient for the beach and the harbour where we had a walk around this afternoon.

Tomorrow I think we may head back to The Walled Garden unless anything else catches our eye.

The weather has been excellent today with warm unbroken sunshine but it`s been windy here in exposed places but it seems we`re all going to get a good buffeting from Storm Helene in the next 24 hours.

So batten down the hatches and stay safe !