Woodbridge Tidemill, Minsmere and aching legs.

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First activity of the day was a visit to the museum on Woodbridge waterfront, a look at the replica life sized boat being built in the Longshed and then a visit to the rather fascinating TideMill. Still operational and selling bags of flour, a lovely piece of history in a unique location. The tide started to come in while we were there and the deep mud was quite quickly covered with river water which completely changed the outlook.

Back to the campsite as Bob had forgotten his sunglasses and the sun was out in all its blue skied glory, we grabbed a bit of lunch and headed out in Smart Arse to Minsmere. RSPB Nature Reserve and Wetlands of SpringWatch fame. I would have liked a map to guide us but didn't get one and did mutter later that the maps scattered very occasionally around did not show any sort of distance or scale. We walked a long way. The walk was indeed lovely and we saw more butterflies than we have seen all year. We didn't see many birds. August is not really best time of year for bird spotting and nor is a hot afternoon but once settled in one of the hides we saw lots of Avocets which was lovely.
The walk took us round 3 lakes and along the sand-dunes behind the stony beach for quite some distance. The problem with no map is that you have no idea how much further you have to go and to be honest was quite relieved when we at last found ourselves back at the Visitor Centre as for one long stretch we hadn't seen another soul, unless you count the hornet I photographed, from a distance ! The Visitor Centre was closed by the time we got there so it was back to the car and then down to Woodbridge for a very nice dinner.

Smart Arse really is proving its worth. It happily tootles along, pretty fast actually, can turn on a sixpence and park isnvery small parking spaces. We used to love Kisbee our scooter but are getting to like the flexibility of being able to do longer trips in the car and without having to worry if it starts to rain... which it didn't..

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