A better nights sleep for our final campsite stay, and this time the clouds held off for longer so it was still hot and sunny when we reached the picture postcard village of Kersey. It’s off the main road and there are no tourist facilities, just the village inn, so it has remained unspoilt. Lavenham is just as pretty but it’s bigger, on the main road, and is well furnished with cafés and gift shops and hence more touristy. We lunched here in the town square, a large open space by the guildhall which is used as a car park – such a waste.
Long Melford is another fascinating village, strung out along the main road but busy so we kept going. A mixture of minor and main roads took us to Cavendish and then we stuck to the main road to reach Clare, another pretty village rich in architectural interest. The tea room was formerly a post office, a disused George VI letterbox is embedded in the wall of the property. The cake provided us with the energy for the final push to Wethersfield in Essex, where we stayed with Christine’s sister and family.