Day 37 Southwold to Great Yarmouth

27th October 2016

Sole Bay Inn, Southwold

I always intended to do this part of journey round the edge slowly. East Anglia is one of my favourite parts of the country and Southwold one of my favourite parts of East Anglia. In fact, until I discovered the price of hotel rooms in the town I'd considered staying here two nights!

I did however allow myself a good couple of hours to explore before leaving, with a walk down to the pier, then along the front to the brewery and into the town, where it was market day with a small collection of stalls in the town centre.

Buses have been banished from the town centre nowadays and start from the pier, but also pick up on the edge of the centre at a stop called the "King's Head", although the pub of that name no longer exists. With a choice of departures available I was glad to see I chosen correctly, as not only was my bus a double-decker it was painted in "Lowestoft Corporation" heritage livery. Lowestoft Corporation buses never came to Southwold, but the route runs via Pakefield, which they did serve, and stops outside the Tramway Hotel, which bizarrely has an Edinburgh tram on its inn sign!

Southwold market

I thought at one point early in the journey that our bus would become the second breakdown of the trip as we lost drive and slowly coasted almost to a halt, just over the brow of a hill and round a sharp bend! The driver, who may have had this happen before, kept his cool and kept revving the engine until eventually the drive re-engaged and we continued towards Lowestoft.

Lowestoft marked the the most easterly point of the journey, being the easternmost town in England (at 1 degree 45 mins. East of Greenwich). I'd already passed the most westerley (Land's End at 5 degrees 7 mins West) and the most southerley (Lizard Point at 49.9 degrees North of the equator) and  only have the northern extremity - Berwick-upon-Tweed - still no reach). After an hour in Lowestoft, where I bought a phone charger to replace the one I'd left behind in Felixstowe (no chance to go back and recover it as I did in Southend!)  I was lucky enough to get another double-decker on to Great Yarmouth, mostly along the A12 but with a few coastal diversions such as Gorleston.

The only way to travel. . . .

Great Yarmouth town centre was busy and I had a late lunch from one of the "chip saloons" in the market place, although in contrast to previous visits only one of them now describes itself as a "chip saloon", the others now advertise "market chips".  I wonder if "m'learned friends" have been involved?

Then I walked down to the south quay and back along the sea front, still busy with its final half-term fling of the season, to find my B&B opposite the Britannia Pier.








Day 36 Felixstowe to Southwold                                Day 38  Great Yarmouth to  Cromer