Wednesday, April 18, 2007

I love Mondays

On Monday this week R and I headed over to Felixstowe for a day of walking and geocaching. We parked up on the seafront got on our boots and headed off through town. The first mile and a half was along the road until we were across the A14, almost into Trimley. From there we turned down a footpath and followed it to Searson's Farm, the starting point for the first cache of the day.

The picture on the left was taken just by the final cache location - a lovely quiet spot.

From here we continued on to the banks of the Orwell, where the next cache was located. From here we sat overlooking Levington marina. Lots of boats sailing up and down the river today too.

After this we re-traced our steps back inland, emerging at the far side of Trimley. We had last walked here a couple of years ago. There's a footpath hidden right alongside the A14 in a narrow strip of woodland. This is part of the Suffolk Coast and Heaths path.

Next stop was Falkenham church which was the starting point for cache number 3. By using dates and ages from some of the stones we put together the coordinates for the final location. Before setting off we found a very conveniently placed bench to sit and have dinner. Fully refreshed we made our way down to the banks of the Deben - also packed with people enjoying sailing in the sun.

We looked over to Ransholt and the pub there. We could have done with a boat ourselves to head over for a quick drink, but instead turned along the river to head back towards Felixstowe. Once we reached Felistowe Ferry it began to get busier. Plenty of people playing golf on the course there. The final couple of miles were along the sea-front past loads of beach huts. Several were in use today.

In total we walked 16 miles and found 5 geocaches. A good practice for the Pembrokeshire Coast path, although our coastline here doesn't have quite so much up and down.

2 comments:

Christina S said...

Looks like a lovely place to go walking.

Mark, what's geocaching? I've never heard of it before!

MarkG said...

Geocaching is a game for anyone with a GPS. Someone will hide a cache - usually a tupperware container that has a log book and various small items for trade in it.

They then post online the coordinates of where it is hidden. Others then enter those coordinates into their GPS and track down the location. Once you find the cache you record your visit in the log book, and swap out an item from the box.

See www.geocaching.com/faq for more.

There's actually a cache that starts from the Abbey Gardens in Bury.