Giants at Felixstowe

We were blessed with a fine day for Eddy and Ann's joint birthday celebration, in the form of a grand buffet lunch for twenty in their lovely back garden at Kirton. Before we drove to Ipswich to collect Owain from the train before joining them, I walked west along Felixstowe's promenade in the direction of the container port for half an hour, as far as the nature reserve on the Landguard Peninsula at the mouth of the Orwell estuary. 

A pleasing feature of modern environmental conservation activity is how information about flora and fauna in the local ecosystem are described in wayside interpretation panels. It enables one to see the environment with fresh eyes. I learned that Landguard peninsula is one of the driest areas of Britain, and that Britain has no less than one third of Europe's shingle beaches. Both factors determine the kind of vegetation that thrives best here.

The east bank of the Orwell beyond the peninsula is occupied by the port. When I first photographed Felixstowe's shore, five years ago, there were five giant cranes on the horizon, loading containers on to ships. Now seven are visible, evidence of development taking place, even during a time of deep economic recession. 

The port now hosts some of the world's largest ships on routine visits to Britain and ports in Germany. Holland and Belgium. Yesterday, we caught sight of one of the giants of the United Arab Shipping Company leaving for Hamburg where it starts its return journey to Quingdao in China.

A quarter of a mile long, holds full to capacity and decks piled high, it carries nearly nineteen thousand shipping containers. Seeing this was an unexpected bonus of our seaside sojourn.