Sutton Bridge to Shep White's carpark

I don't think we have ever walked a section of a long distance path so soon after its opening! Most of the section from Sutton Bridge to Skegness was announced as being open to the public  just four days ago, on 11th September. I'm not sure how long the shiny new signposts (all bearing the full name : King Charles III England Coast Path) had been in place but, as is so common in paths of all ages, there were were signs in some places where we really didn't need them, but no signs in other places where we really did need them.  The OS maps App hadn't been undated to show the route, and it will no doubt be  a number of years before it appears on paper maps, but fortunately we had used the map on the National Trails website to mark up the route on printed pages from the App  (well there's no point buying a paper map when you know it doesn't show the route you're going to follow...).

We drove in two cars to Shep White's car park at the end of our walk; this is shown on the map, at TF408339. Most of the route (in terms of distance) is on main roads, but after leaving the A47 near Long Sutton, the roads got progressively narrower and twistier until, after Holbeach St Matthew, there was grass growing in the middle of it. Reviews of the car park talk about the potholes on the approach to it; we've seen worse, but the access is definitely down a track and I wouldn't want to drive down here in a sports car. We drove back along the country roads to the car park on the opposite bank of the River Nene to the Port of Sutton Bridge (TF486221) where we had parked when we walked down to the lighthouse on the eastern bank (known as the Sir Peter Scott Lighthouse) at the end of 2018. We set off walking about 9.10am. 

We've actually walked to and across the Cross Keys Bridge at Sutton Bridge before, when heading south to Wisbech on the Nene Way. It's an attractive swing bridge, and it does have to open to let large vessels through (we drive over the bridge relatively regularly and have had to wait a couple of times) but we weren't expecting it to open today because the tide was lowish and falling, so it would not seem to be a suitable time for large ships to pass down the River Nene and out into The Wash. The bridge has a separate walkway for pedestrians, to the right of the vehicular route. This afforded good views along the River Nene to the north, towards the mouth of the river.

We parted company with our previous route and turned right to head north, now on the western bank of the river. The area was mostly industrial, with a slightly derelict feeling, but we passed a wooden sculpture on our right, overlooking the river, and slightly further on we passed a little wooden bench in the shape of a foot. It turns out that these were part of the "Perch Here" trail, created by local craftsman Peter Tree, and unveiled just a couple of months ago. The foot does indeed represent the England Coast Path and when a later sculpture featured a goblet and a crown, I assumed that these were a reference to King Charles III. Wrong!; the king in question is King John, whose treasure is thought to have been lost as his entourage crossed the salt marshes en route from Kings Lynn towards Newark. There is also a toad on the sculpture; a reference to the fact that King John became ill at Swineshead Abbey and died at Newark Castle; it has been suggested that he was murdered by drinking ale that had been laced with poison from the skin of a natterjack toad.

We continued past and around various buildings and yards associated with the Port of Sutton Bridge and, in this rather unlikely setting, Sutton Bridge Golf Club, We reached open countryside and continued along the bank, passing through a field of cattle complete with a bull. There's a pair of lighthouses close to the mouth of the River Nene, Guy's Head Lighthouse on the western bank (the one we were following) and Sir Peter Scott Lighthouse on the eastern bank. We had good views to the Sir Peter Scott Lighthouse, but the angle from which we were approaching and shielding by trees meant that we only had occasional glimpses of the Guy's Head Lighthouse. Eventually, we reached a road, and followed this to Guy's Head Farm (with a little car park opposite), then a path led to the seaward side of the lighthouse.  We said hello to a  couple of dogwalkers coming the other way and, just past the Guy's Farm lighthouse,  stopped to take off our fleeces.

The bank across the top of a sluice, with a drainage dyke to our left, looked to have been recently rebuilt - so perhaps they have actually done some work beyond putting up signs in opening this new stretch of England Coast Path.  I think the drainage dyke is Lutton Leam, and there was an egret in it ; this led us to ponder how much more common these birds have become in the UK.  A runner with a dog came past, thoughtfully putting her dog on a lead attached to her waste before overtaking us. Following the runner and her dog, our route took a turn to the left, now on a long straight bank with the Wash National Nature Reserve to our right, with what we could convince ourselves was sea beyond. The strange artificial island that we had noticed when we were walking on the other side of the River Nene was also clearly visible, and I thought I could make out a boat.

Inland, a tractor was ploughing and when we stopped for a sit-down on the edge of the bank, to enable me to change my sweaty socks, it looked as if the tractor driver was also taking a break; it was, after all, 11am! The considerate runner and her dog came back towards us. As we continued along the sea wall, there was a short section which isn't shown as a public right of way on the OS map pre-dating the opening of the England Coast Path, but which I had marked up as being the correct route. There were no signs to help, just an old rickety stile towards the bank we thought we meant to walk along, but we took this route rather than following the footpaths marked as heading inland to White House Farm and then back again. At the point where the marked path rejoined us, a group of cattle were standing slightly to the left of our path, but right in front of where the marked path joined the bank, so I was pleased we'd come the way we had.

As we continued along the sea bank there were occasional changes of direction, but the scenary didn't change much otherwise: below us to our right was  saltmarsh and then the sea; below us to our left  was agricultural land (usually slightly lower than on the coastal side). Amazingly, at about 11.50, we came across  a bench,  just off the path on the coastal side. It was a bit early for lunch but this was the first bench we'd encountered since the "Perch Here" trail in Sutton Bridge and (rightly it transpired) didn't expect any more places to sit on the rest of the walk, so we seized the opportunity and stopped for lunch. The bank sloped away steeply at our feet, which led to an interesting exercise to pick up some food I dropped.

We were getting closer to some tower-like structures ahead of us, and we guessed that these were associated with RAF Holbeach, which we were approaching. Sure enough, we soon went through a gate, with a prominent King Charles III England Coast Path sign, but were immediately greeted by two rather unwelcoming signs, one alerting us to the possibility of unexploded bombs, and one reminding us of all the things we weren't allowed to do.  We were on the Holbeach Air Weapons Range, which provides facilities for RAF and NATO-allied aircraft to practise dropping bombs etc.  Apparently you sometimes get a good view of the action from the path, but not today; the range is sometimes used during the evening (to allow practice for night-time operations) but I don't think it is routinely used at weekends.

There's a tarmacked track running parallel with the sea wall for the whole of the Air Weapons Range and we weren't sure which we were meant to be following. At one point a sign definitely looked to imply that we should be on the bank,  but the look-out towers, which were quite frequent, were located on the top of the bank and it would have been difficult to pass them. The tarmacked surface was a bit hard, but the grass at the top of the bank was sometimes a bit tufty, so neither was perfect; we walked mostly on the track with occasional sorties to the top of the bank. We passed occasional dog-walkers and we also passed a couple of pumping stations. Around the halfway point of our walk across the Air Weapons Range  we passed a more substantial observation tower, with a helicopter landing pad outside, and towards the end, we passed a small area that looked like a military base. We eventually twigged exactly what it is, the headquarters of RAF Holbeach; it's tiny!