The Back of Beyond

Second trip of the year, five nights at the Club site at Kessingland, White House Beach, or the back of beyond if you prefer! This means we have now equalled the number of nights we spent away last year. I hope it’s not false confidence but I think we are both getting a bit more comfortable getting out and about but still quite cautious. The site was pretty full when we arrived but managed to secure a hardstanding on the main site with the bonus of it being near a service point as we won’t be using the site facilities.

On our first full day we had a bit of an explore of Kessingland. The beach first, where the sea seems to get further away on each visit! We were grateful to whoever laid the old conveyor belts across the pebbles as it made walking a whole lot easier. The number of fishing boats also seem to diminished also over the years. We wanted to get some information on where the buses depart from. This means a half mile walk up to Wash Lane where there is a surprising good bus services to either Lowestoft, Norwich or Southwold. A young lady waiting for a bus kindly explained which side of the road which services went from.

The following day we decided to take the bus to Southwold which would be our first visit to this delightful town. Until now we had, had nice sunny weather but Murphy’s Law deemed that today would be duller although fortunately still dry. This was the first time we had been on a bus in about eighteen months but masked up and windows open we seemed quite comfortable with the experience. The journey only took about twenty minutes. The town was surprisingly busy, it was Market Day although the market didn’t seem to amount to much. To fortify ourselves we stopped for a coffee and found an outside table at the rear of the building. I was surprised to note that the café was run by Tiptree the jam people.

Refreshed we went off in search of the sea and the famous lighthouse. The sea was easy to find but the lighthouse had us walking in the wrong direction! How can you miss a lighthouse! Thank goodness for Google Maps! My excuse is that it is set back a bit from the sea. Wandering back into town we passed a group of people in Hi Vis vests and it seemed they were on a Brewery tour at the well known Adnams Brewery, noted perhaps for another visit?

Friday was a pretty lazy day except for a walk around the site. Saturday, our last full day here we had another walk along the prom which doesn’t go that far. If they extended it to Lowestoft, it would make a lovely walk/cycling route along the sea. What I had noticed was the numerous wild flowers that were growing in what must be quite hostile conditions. These plants include Dog Rose and a very large bush of yellow Wild Lupins. We took one of the series of steps back up into the village, although when we reached the top we had no idea where we were. We eventually extracted ourselves from what is a hotch potch of buildings and found our way back to Beach Road and the sea front. For once the Waterfront restaurant didn’t have a queue so we treated ourselves to coffee and cake which was very nice. Given its position you could close your eyes and think of Moule a Frites and a cool glass of Rose!!!