Walking Off The Beaten Track

[Meantime]

Getting towards Kessingland and there were one or two people out enjoying the wind and the sea. They were making swift progress.

Not sure I'd like being stationed in this defense shelter, especially at high tide!

[Gracie]

You didn't go to Calthorpe Broad then?  x

[Meantime]

I'm no geologist, but I could stop and look at the colours, the layers and various exposed formations of the cliffs for hours.

The only problem is that Kessingland is calling and there is a pub there and I could do with a pint. The Sailors Home serves a very nice chilled pint of Aspalls.

 

[Smoggy]

I've seen benacre broad on my chartplotter many times heading down the coast to southwold but never realised it was that close to the sea, I guess it's a salt water broad but is it a real broad? Was it dug out or just a naturally low area that has been inundated by the sea?

 

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20 minutes is my limit unless there's a wine bar on the horizon of course 

There are some good pubs in southwold you know.

[Meantime]

Leaving Kessingland I retraced my steps some way against a very fierce wind and having consulted the OS app decided to head inland on a foot path and turn it into a circular walk back towards Covehithe. When I reached the car I decided to walk down Mill Lane to the cliff edge. There is no public footpath marked, but enough people seem to have forged a path to the left along the cliff top and the edge of the farmer's field and it is possible to walk along the edge of the cliff in the direction of Kessingland until you reach Benacre Broad.

This would make a very nice short circular walk if when you reach Benacre Broad you double backed along the beach towards Southwold to Covehithe Broad and then took the public footpath back towards Covehithe.

Having mapped it out, it would be in the region of 2.6 miles.

[Meantime]

17 minutes ago, Gracie said:

You didn't go to Calthorpe Broad then?  x

No but one day I shall have to go and check it out. So many places under our noses we didn't know existed.

[Meantime]

18 minutes ago, Smoggy said:

I've seen benacre broad on my chartplotter many times heading down the coast to southwold but never realised it was that close to the sea, I guess it's a salt water broad but is it a real broad? Was it dug out or just a naturally low area that has been inundated by the sea?

Which makes me wonder what is a real Broad? The Norfolk Broads were known as such before it was realised in the 1950's I think, that they were flooded old peat diggings. They were thought of as a collection of rivers and lakes and known as the Broads.

Benacre Broad could also be described as a coastal lagoon. It is fed by freshwater but regular breaches of the sand bar occur and the last in 2020 increased the salinity quite a bit.

[Meantime]

25 minutes ago, Smoggy said:

There are some good pubs in southwold you know.

There is indeed, although if you go to Southwold harbour, then it is a short walk across an old Bailey bridge to get to Walberswick, which also has one or two good pubs. Alternatively you can also get the ferry from Southwold harbour to Walberswick.

[Vaughan]

19 minutes ago, Meantime said:

Benacre Broad could also be described as a coastal lagoon. It is fed by freshwater but regular breaches of the sand bar occur and the last in 2020 increased the salinity quite a bit.

Therefore it should be known as a salting, or salt marsh, but perhaps not as a broad?

[Meantime]

1 minute ago, Vaughan said:

Therefore it should be known as a salting, or salt marsh, but perhaps not as a broad?

Possibly, although all three Benacre, Covehithe and Easton are referred to as Broads on the OS maps. The whole area is now designated as a site of scientific interest. Differing estimates give the village of Covehithe anywhere from 30 to 100 years before it is gone.

[Smoggy]

32 minutes ago, Meantime said:

Differing estimates give the village of Covehithe anywhere from 30 to 100 years before it is gone.

So Floydraser and the leicestershireians are planning to steal the broads after all then!

Oh that's right sea level change, silly me.