Reinterred: Eastbridge Walk and a Game of Pétanque

Today we had a lovely walk by the coast, with the added bonus of a game of pétanque and meal afterwards.

This was the invite from Joyce.

"Tuesday September 12th Please park at The Eels Foot pub for a 10am start. We will walk towards Dunwich (visiting this installation then having a coffee stop at the Coastguard cottages and then lunch near to the Flora Tea Rooms, Dunwich Beach. We are grateful to Tania + Andy for giving up their time to show us how to play competitive Pétanque back at the Eels foot (4pm) followed by tea there at 6pm. I do hope you will join us. This will be a leisurely walk of about 10 miles"

Before we left I looked at the weather forecast. It didn't look promising!

Remarkably, we managed to dodge the showers (with the exception of 5 minutes light drizzle) up until we had finished our first game of pétanque.

This was our route.

Much of it was very familiar but the loop around Westleton Heath and past Westleton Common was new to me, I think.

Here are a few of my photos (including a couple of Miranda's).

This is the sculpture by the pub sign.

"The history and name of The Eel's Foot Inn dates back as far as 1533. Recorded in the parish records as an Ale House situated somewhere near the present location. The current Eel’s Foot Inn building dates back to 1642, when it was originally two cottages. The third cottage was added on in approximately 1725. You may notice the wonderful looking dressers in this room, and these are original (c1725) and were made by an Essex carpenter hence the fancy columns and arches, Suffolk dressers go straight across at the top. As far as records show the middle cottage became the village pub in the late 17th century. This was formally the cobbler’s cottage. We cannot be sure how the pub got its name. It may have come from Heel's Foot, a cobblers implement, or more likely named after the Eel's Boot, a type of woven reed basket used in Eel Fishing. A more fanciful explanation is that it is a derivation of Neale's Boot, named after a medieval priest who trapped the Devil in his boot and tossed him into the river. The Devil escaped disguised as an eel! The Eel’s Foot, because of its close proximity to the sea was a favourite stop off point for travellers, drovers and smugglers." ...and a favourite for the BBC Springwatch crew... and walkers like us!

We soon reached the ruins of the original Leiston Abbey, the only foundation of the Premonstratensian order known in Suffolk

We went closer to view the Wing And A Prayer installation.

Beautiful. We decided the bird with its wing was at the top and the prayer was kneeling below.

There's no escaping the view of Sizewell 'B' power station, which we visited recently, (see here).

We walked along the sea front past Minsmere Nature Reserve.

It was quite busy today. Dawn had a chat with one of the bird-watchers. Apparently they have some rarities in residence, a buff-breasted sandpiper and a black tern.

We stopped at the Coastguard's cottages for a drink from the café there.

We we re disappointed not to see more heather flowering on Dunwich Heath. It looks very dry.

As we neared Dunwich we saw some lovely autumn crocuses outside one of the houses.

We passed Greyfriars Abbey...

...and posed for a selfie at the cliff tops.

Here we are having our lunch at Dunwich beach.

We returned via the Sandlings Walk until we got to Cutter hill and then rounded Westleton Heath before heading back south towards Eastbridge. We enjoyed this path, but were glad it wasn't raining.

Back to the Eel's Foot, we were soon joined by Tania.

After a short introduction to the game of pétanque (see the top of the post)we started - Tania, Miranda and I (with 2 boules each) against Dawn and Joyce (with 3 boules each). After racing into a 6-1 lead Dawn and Joyce got pegged back once Miranda had got the hang of it and Tania found her range. Our team eventually won 13-8. Sometimes it was so close we had to get a measuring tape out.