October 7th 2016: Suffolk: Sutton Hoo

Monty the Motorhome is preparing to say ‘goodbye’ to Suffolk as we move on tomorrow, back towards home.

Today started where we left off yesterday - food.

Last night I was catching up with last weekend’s papers and saw a small piece about a bakery at Orford - a small village about 20 minutes from where we’re pitched. The place did breakfast and when I mentioned this to Ruth she immediately decided that was to be our first destination today. Needless to say I did not put up much opposition to this idea.

We arrived in Orford to find it just about deserted, and this was also the case when we got into the bakery and found ourselves alone on a long communal table in their cafe. However by the time our bacon sandwiches with prune sauce arrived there were a number of other people seated and ready to eat. So, marks out of 10 for the sarnies - 10. Marvellous sour dough bread, really really tasty bacon and a sauce that was just right as an accompaniment. We’ll be trying to replicate this back at Morgan Towers. Then there were the cakes - pain au chocolat and eccles cake - both really sumptuous. We also took away a few bits from the bakery - more on those when they are eaten.

Pump Street Bakery - got to be one of the best in the country

 Suitably nourished we pressed on to the second destination of the day - the National Trust site of Sutton Hoo. This is the burial site that was excavated just before the Second World War to reveal an impressive Anglo-Saxon burial ship and a collection of treasures that were heralded as one of the most important British archaeological discoveries of the last century.

Some of the original finds are displayed, such as weapons and pots, but the valuable treasure is all in the British Museum in London, which was a little disappointing, but understandable.

We also walked round the original burial mound site, which still has a number of mounds still to be excavated.

This burial mound has been excavated; it has now been filled in again to restore it to the  original shape to demonstrate the size

This notice amused us

A quick lunch of sausage rolls from the bakery (8/10) and then a quick look at the coast near our site. This involved a trip along a narrow dead end road to a row of coastal cottages that seemed in the middle of nowhere. A barren shingle beach stretched in both directions, with just a few fisherman braving the gusty wind coming off the north sea. We walked along the sea bank for a while, before turning for home.

The sweeping East Anglian sky from the sea bank

Tonight will be a simple meal in the van, a moroccan chicken dish that was prepared some time ago and frozen. It made the journey all the way to Scotland and back on our last trip, and has languished in the freezer for the whole of this current one, so it’s about time it should be eaten. Accompaniment will probably be sour dough from this morning’s foray.