A LONG WEEKEND RIVERS ORE AND ALDE
Julia Jones shares the hidden delights of these two Suffolk rivers as she sails her childhood cruising ground
There are no marinas on the rivers Ore and Alde. If your getaway happiness depends on shore power plug-ins, laundry facilities and step-aboard access, these Suffolk rivers are not for you. Their beauty stems, in part, from a sense of secretiveness – you’re never quite sure what’s over the seawall or round the next withy; is it a breeding site for avocets or a world famous concert hall? The soon-to-be-demolished Orfordness Lighthouse pops up on the horizon from disconcertingly unexpected angles. ‘Still here!’ it insists, having been decommissioned by Trinity House in 2013. That’s worth a visit and, when one begins to list the Ore and Alde attractions – extraordinary scenery, fine food, history, culture, nature, intricate navigation, exhilarating sailing
– a five-star tourist brochure begins to write itself.
The mix is subtle and the delights must be worked for. Arriving at the river entrance needs careful timing. Like its neighbour, the river Deben, the Ore is guarded by shingle banks which shift annually. Currents are fierce. One of the thrills of my childhood (and adulthood too) was the fabulous yee-ha! moment when we were finally into the river, tucked close to the steep bank on the Shingle Street shore, and the flood seemed to pick us up and whirl us on, and even our 1946 Laurent Giles Peter Duck hit speeds of 7.5-8 knots. It’s not such fun coming out when every rev of engine power strains against the incoming tide – in our case anyway. Possibly modern yachts with more powerful engines make the whole procedure feel easy.
We surge northward. To starboard the long low spit of Orford Ness stretches ten miles to Aldeburgh. Several centuries earlier this dramatic manifestation of longshore drift closed off the entrance to the river Alde and forced both rivers into a single entity. The Ness today is a nature reserve. Approaching Orford it’s the former MOD weapons research station, now managed by the National Trust; then it’s the site of the Cold War radar experiment Cobra Mist, (subsequently broadcasting BBC World Service). It concludes with a quatrefoil Martello Tower just south of Slaughden Quay. This is the northernmost of 103 Martellos built between 1804 and 1812 to defend against Napoleon.
DECISION TIME
Half a mile in from the entrance the land on the port side rises to reveal HMP & YOI Hollesley Bay. From 1938-2006 inmates worked on the prison farm, including the unique breeding centre for Suffolk Punch horses. Regrettably this no longer fits with today’s penal regime.
Decision point for sailors comes at the end of Long Reach where a cardinal buoy marks the southern end of Havergate Island. When tired, the choice is easy: take the port hand fork and drop anchor in the deep water off Abraham’s Bosom or carry on and anchor in the Upper (or Short) Gull which is within sight of Orford Town.
On this trip we prolonged our sailing pleasure by choosing the starboard channel which offered an exhilarating brisk beat up the Narrows along the east side of RSPB sanctum of Havergate Island then storming down its western side until we dropped the mainsail and slid into the peace of Butley River to bring us up just above Boyton Dock. ‘Don’t tell them Jul!’ protested my Aldeburgh sister-in-law.
‘The secret’s out,’ I answered, ‘Dad wrote about this
Their beauty stems from a sense of secretiveness – you’re never quite sure what’s over the seawall