The Sunrise Coast - the Gisborne of England

We’re in that bit of England that sticks out on the east like a rounded ball shape. It is pretty flat, and sparsely populated. There are a few notable cities; Norwich, Ipswich, Bury St Edmonds and a greater number of holiday resort towns.

We’re staying in one such place. The beach where we are is more like a cliff, but there are actual beaches close by. The area is great for bird watching, although I think bird watchers are immensely more patient than we are. Plus, they know what they are looking for, and we haven’t a clue really.

We went to Minsmere near Dunwich Heath and although we walked about 4kms around various trails we didn’t actually spot anything remarkable. The list from the visitor centre said we might see woodpeckers, avocet, sandpipers, otter, deer, godwits, herons, geese, harriers, warblers, coots, tits, swans, ducks, wagtails, squirrels, foxes to name a few. We will need to study our photos to determine what we actually did see later.

We did see a fox as we drove in, but weren’t quick enough to be able to get a photo of it before it disappeared into the undergrowth off the road. On the way back to the car we saw a squirrel, but it was camera shy too. Apart from them, we mostly saw swans, a heron, some wading birds – possibly little ringed plovers, geese, moor hens, a marsh harrier, ducks, and an abundance of dragonflies and damselflies (very tricky to photograph).

They were all a wee bit further away than we expected

It was a nice afternoon out, the only thing missing was food for us - again. Then to top off the day our planned excursion to the supermarket to stock up on ingredients for our stay was foiled. The giant signs reading “24 hours” at both Tesco and ASDA lie. When you get close the small print actually says they close at 4pm on Sundays. What’s with that ? We get caught every time, you’d think we would remember by now. We did find an alternative which was open, but no salads, no meat free options, and not much else either. So, another night of poor takeaways.

Just as an aside, I can’t understand why there is apparently an obesity problem here. I wouldn’t choose to have takeaways ever, if I could avoid it. The only ones we have tried and been impressed with are Domino’s – much better than at home, and the Chinese at Shipston-on-Stour. Even McDonalds, that great US Embassy found all over the world has been a disappointment. Vegetarian options all have quorn patties, getting a plain salad burger isn’t possible, and some stores don’t even sell vegetarian “sandwiches” or wraps. Breakfast was also not what we expected either. No BLT bagel, and hotcakes are pancakes with golden syrup and no butter. Blerk.

Anyway, enough of the moaning. 

Suffolk on the whole seems quite nice, we took a trip to Ipswich yesterday just to see. Lowestoft near we are staying is the most easterly point in England. Just like Gisborne at home, the sun's rays reach here first every morning. Maybe, hopefully we might have found where we want to stop for a bit. The job hunt is about to go into overdrive.