Wednesday 5th June (Day 1)
So, having been home since last Sunday, we are off again. We left Braintree a bit after 11.15am for a 90 minute trip to Eastbridge, Suffolk and the lovely area of Minsmere. Not only did we cut some time of the estimated journey time but I tried to drive conservatively and we returned just over 35mpg! A 15% increase in the usual average. I don't expect my driving to continue like this so it is a 'one off' probably. Arriving before 1.30pm we had lunch and sat in the sun waiting for Resa and Eric to arrive, which they did at around 3.00pm. We were booked on the Certified Location (CL) at the Eel's Foot Inn. Apart from the fact that Resa and Eric are not members of the Caravan and Motorhome Club the CL was full. We had arranged for them to park and stay on the grassed car park area. We sat and chatted and played Rummicub until we went our ways for dinner. Then around 8.30pm we went for a pint or two in the pub and were, virtually, the only people there. Around 10.30pm we retired for the night.
Thursday 6th June (Day 2)
One of the others on the site had mentioned they were woken early yesterday by a cuckoo. 4.10am it started and I have never noticed that cuckoos (or certainly this one) once they start are loathe to stop. Thankfully the soporific sound of the rain on the roof won out and I drifted back to sleep. The morning greeted us with clear blue skies and sunshine and breakfast was eaten outside. While not liking to be predictable there is a really nice circular walk from this site which incorporates a nice walk across fields then along the sea front and into the Minsmere RSPB reserve for a coffee stop before a two mile walk back through the woods - a five / six mile total. At the coffee stop we watched sand martins flying into their nests and a black headed gull waiting for any tit-bits. Back at the site I wanted to re-photograph the pub sign as this morning's effort had a shadow across it. Lo and behold it had gone! Looking into the car park was a van marked 'signs'. Speaking to the driver it would appear he had removed the sign as it needed re-painting. He got out and allowed me to photograph the sign close up. Talking to him he was the original painter of the sign which had his signature on 'D Barber'. Well Dave was Dave Barber Junior - he still worked with his dad, Senior. Reprinting would take about 3 hours work and then five or six varnish layers. After thanking him we had a light lunch before just sitting on the sunshine lazing and chatting. By 6.00pm we had gone to the pub to ensure a seat for 'Squit Night' where local, and some not so local, musicians and poets would arrive and entertain. Squit night usually started around 8.00pm. By then we had eaten 'whale' and chips - the size of the fish was so large. But 8.10pm saw just one guitar playing woman. We were getting concerned (and so was she). Eventually by just after 8.30pm there was a dozen or more. What followed was rip roaring good fun. Sea shanties, jigs, humourous songs, pop songs all with audience participation encouraged. We left just after 11.00pm and went to our motorhome for a night cap before going to bed after midnight.
Friday 7th June (Day 3)
The cuckoo started about 3.15am but was quieter than last night and stopped after about fifteen minutes. I hoped due to having a sore throat. It was not to be the case and said cuckoo started again, albeit much later. Breakfast was good old market sausages sandwiches and then just after 10.00am we were both off to Sutton Hoo. This is a place we have driven Past on numerous occasions and just never stopped at. As we could not get on the next site until 2.00pm at the earliest we decided it was time to visit. We parked up and entered (free as we are National Trust members). We found that a tour started at midday, about 50 minutes away. So a coffee was sought while we waited. Sutton Hoo is where a full size seventy foot Saxon ship was found buried in a mound with a king underneath it. In addition, other burial sites were found of kings, queens and their family. The Saxons were here around 650ad and the discovery was in 1938. Many gold items and brass pots along with swords, spears and even warrior horses have been found. A lady calledPauling gave us and about twenty five others a walking tour of the site which was both informative and interesting and would have been better had it not been for a howling wind whipping across the open space to try and chill the bones. Lunch was eaten in the car park before setting off for a Motor Caravanners site at Ratsborough Farm, Burnham Road, Southminster. We arrived about 4.30pm and were set up in minutes. We sat around and had dinner and then I watched the opening ceremony of the Women's Football World Cupand followed by the first half of the opening game France .v. South Korea. 3-0 at half time so we went over to the main tent and joined the fifteen or so others and had a very pleasant night chatting.
Saturday 8th June (Day 4)
Having driven about sixty mile from our last night stop we had escaped the cuckoo's clutches and had a quiet night. That said it was a bit on the windy side and we awoke in the morning to a rocking van due to the gusts. So after breakfast we walked up the lane and caught a bus into Burnham-on-Crouch. Having arrived we spent a while walking along the sea front. Part of the way we saw a man working in a shed on a 1936 Austin 7. It was lovely with pump up seats and semaphore indicators, He uses it daily for work - 50 miles a day. To think this vehicle was made the same year that Jesse Owen frustrated and annoyed Hitler at the Olympic Games. Next a snack and pint in 'The Star'. While there I contacted some friends, Georgina and Alan and, having left the pub we walked up to their house to meet them. What followed was predicable; sitting in their garden drinking copious amounts of red wine and a 'picky' snack before we left at around 7.00pm and caught the 7.30pm bus back to the site. Back at the site we had a cooked snack and then went over to the party tent area joining the other 16 - 18 people. What followed was a good night, mainly chatting but a game of bingo (the prize being a box of Maltezers, and then a second game with the same prize but this was animal bingo. For this you had to pick an animal and every time one of your number was called you had to male the noise of that animal. Sounds weird but very quickly became so funny. It was almost midnight when we retired for the night.
Sunday 9th June (Day 5)
Typical, the day we are all to travel home and the gale force winds had gone as well as the rain and it was glorious. Breakfast and then a few moved off. We stayed for the 11.00am tea and chairman's chat before saying ur goodbyes. A good journey home with a Tesco stop for dinner.