Coastwalk

Woodbridge → Bawdsey Quay

Distance: 15.5 miles
Ascent: 202 metres
Duration: 4 hours 59 minutes

The Battle of Nettle Hill
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It's the cartographer's job to convey the truth. Map makers have to present in two-dimensional form an approximation of the landscape and key features. At times cartographers seem to take the odd liberty. Just north-west of Brighton, the Ordnance Survey's 1:25,000 map is annotated with the instruction Rest and be Thankful. (No other map shows it, but I like to think it's twinned with the pass east of Beinn Ime.)

I'll admit now that I've grown lazy on this coastwalk. Navigation's easy - keep the big wet thing on the right - so I rarely study maps in detail. Today that was a mistake. The cartographer was trying to warn me. Nettle Hill is marked on the map presumably because Six-foot nettle, bramble and thistle hill was too long to fit.

I eventually made it to the other side of the wood, and dropped down to the Ramsholt Arms. In the pub I asked if it was possible to complete my walk on the riverside or whether - as the map suggested - I'd have to head inland by the roads. "Oh you can walk it," said a burly guy in a chequered shirt. "Just head up this cliff, then cut your way down through the undergrowth for a mile or so..."

I didn't hear the end of his directions. My mind was immediately settled on the roads.

So today I walked the other bank of the Deben from my house to the sea: a walk I've wanted to do ever since moving here.

Thunder storms rolled in as this scratched, stung, exhausted walker reached the river mouth. It wasn't quite the glorious walk I'd imagined.

Next time I decide to walk to the sea I'll take the other river bank.