Maria Clarke Wilson, Pennant 100

Bawdsey Beach

Mile 100 of the walk is at the coastline at Bawdsey a remote and relatively people free stretch of sand and pebble beach. It is close to my home and at the mouth of the river Deben bringing with it the tidal flows, in and out of Woodbridge, and the echos of Saxon settlements along it’s banks. Sutton Hoo is close by and this stretch of beach would have been landings for travellers from afar in the history of our civilisation. This area called me in, connecting the present with the past, being a mile stone number 100 on the 500 mile stretch. The cliffs are rapidly being eroded revealing millions of years of sea floor as each loose sandy patch cascades to the beach. Storms have battered this coastline causing the cliffs and man-made defence to buckle and fall, years of sea swells calving natural forms in the wood and colouring the metal.

Walking with shells and sea gatherings underfoot, it is a beautiful paradise for a beach comber. The freshly dropped seaweed and shells mixed with the ancient cliff fall. This place offers a deep connection to the past and present and will continue to be ever changing in the future. There is a only a few 100 feet of the banked up cliff edge left, before it’s claimed by the sea. The flat lands behind, at sea level will not hold back the sea. This place will not exist as land - this place will be reclaimed by the sea. The wildness of this coastline with its graveyard of groynes is evidence that there’s not much we can do, best leave it to nature and respect it while it’s here.