Fourteen: Suffolk and a little Essex: Snape to Harwich.

June 22, 2013

Raining this morning too, but the rain always sounds worse from inside the tent. It was only light rain, an inconvenience packing away the tent wet, it wasn't much to ride in and had cleared by the time I'd reached the next town Woodfield; from where in a grey and drying breeze, I rode a combination of B roads and cycle-paths to avoid the busy A12 into Ipswich.

In Ipswich I'd my usual stop at a Starbucks in order to upload photos to the journal. I should be looking for other places for free Wi-Fi, as I don't like patronizing big chains all of the time. The same with supermarkets. I could look for the small shops and markets, but I think it's because I'm always in a hurry to get what I need doing and then get back on the road.

Manningstree was another nine miles with a light crosswind, across a bridge and into the county of Essex; here, I was passing a Fish and Chips shop, it was quarter past one, so I stopped for lunch. I was really glad I did, as it was a long time to eleven that evening when I boarded the ferry and could eat a reasonable priced meal in the restaurant. I had a five-hundred millilitre bottle of Sprite in the terminal building which cost one pound seventy.

From Manningstree I'd now a tailwind as the road was east and began along the estuary with a nice view across to the Suffolk side, then swung inland a little, the wind bowling me along through gently rolling farmland for the last nine miles to Harwich. But the International ferry terminal wasn't in Harwich, it was in a place called Pakenham, a left turning two miles before Harwich which didn't not that I saw, have a ferry sign. So in Harwich, I asked instructions at a Life Boat office and the woman there sent me right. It was a tough ride into the wind back around close to the water's edge. When I got there and in the line of waiting vehicles, Is told by a frustrate motor biker that the ferry's been delayed or something. The ferry had ramped into the berthing or something and nobody could tell how long the delay would last. At the terminal building too, no one had any information on what was going on. Meanwhile lots of frustrated passengers started to pile into the terminal building to wait.

The ferry to Esbjerg in Denmark was finally canceled. There was no way I was getting on it anyway as it was fully booked up, and they didn't sail Sundays; I would've to wait until Monday If I wanted to sail to Denmark. Knowing this, it was easy to decide on Holland instead, but that sailing was jeopardized too by the damage to the berthing.

It was a long wait and most of the people waiting thought they'd be there for the night. When I asked to buy a ticket to Hoek van Holand, the woman behind the reservations desk said we are not selling any tickets. The man with the yellow hi-vi vest leaning over the desk spoke up, "we don't know what's happening yet. The ferry from Holland is at sea and is due soon, but cannot dock until the berthing has been passed safe".

I wrote. It's now 20.23. There is no information regarding tonight's sailing to Holland. Most likely it'll be cancelled too. Nobody seems to know anything on what's going on.

There was a long queue to the Denmark ferry desk. And personal were out speaking with groups of travelers. Then a woman with a microphone made an announcement which was hard to make out from where I sat as her voice broke up, but there was a cheer in the queue when she had finished. Then people from the queue began to queuing at the Holland ferry desk. Their tickets were being transferred for onward passage to Holland instead. Whatever the woman said, the ferry to Holland was at long last on. It was good to be travelling somewhere.