Coastal heath

Another very long drive to the Suffolk coast - made even more tedious by heavy traffic on the A14 and being stuck behind a caravan and coach on the winding Suffolk roads. While Chris and Pete collected leafhoppers from the Dingle Marshes, Rosie and I spent the morning in Dunwich Forest, watching white admirals and graylings and getting rather lost. After lunch in a leafy forest glade we headed to Dunwich Heath, where the magenta bell heather contrasted beautifully with the soft pinkish grasses and the vivid green of the dwarf gorse, which will be out shortly. And on one of the hottest days of the year, the North Sea looked quite blue!

After a rather traumatic meeting with a lorry on a single track road, which eventaully necessitated a very long reverse back to the junction, I picked up the workers and we headed to a handy tea shop for refreshments. We then had a gentle stroll on the shingle at Dunwich (as Rosie was quite tired out by this time) to admire the sea pea before setting off for the journey home. We travelled back via the northern route, which meant that we did a circuit of East Anglia, having been past Huntingdon, Cambridge, Stowmarket, Yoxford, Halesworth, Diss, Thetford, Downham Market and Wisbech before arriving back in Peterborough. No wonder I felt shattered!