Christmas 2007 is now over and yes, despite all my fears, it was a good Christmas. We spent time with family and friends, no one argued, the turkey was delicious and the cat wasn't sick! What more could I ask for?

Well........, it sounds terribly indulgent I know, but actually I could do with a quiet and peaceful holiday away from everyone. Long walks, bracing sea air, not too much to eat and somewhere cosy where I can curl up and read all those wonderful books I was given for Christmas.

From Snape take the B1069 towards Woodbridge and Orford, passing the Snape Maltings on your left. At the next road junction take the left fork B1084 to Sudbourne and Orford. Follow the road through Orford to the Quay.

Reached by boat from Orford Quay on the Ore estuary, Havergate Island is an RSPB reserve and Suffolk's only island. Just two miles long and half a mile across at its widest point the island is sheltered from the North Sea by the long shingle spit of Orford Ness.

Perhaps one of the greatest musical festivals in the world; the inspiration for The Aldeburgh Festival came in August 1947 when Benjamin Britten, Peter Pears, Eric Crozier and a group of around forty British artists - the English Opera Group - were travelling across Europe performing Benjamin Britten’s operas Albert Herring and The Rape of Lucretia to packed audiences in Belgium, Luxembourg, France and Switzerland.

Snape is perhaps best known today as the venue for the Aldeburgh Festival; the Snape Maltings Concert Hall its most famous building. But the village has a long and fascinating history aided, no doubt, by its position at the navigable head of the Alde Estuary.

Two thousand years ago it was settled by the Romans, evidence of occupation being found on the banks of the Alde where ancient wooden uprights revealed the presence of salt pans - shallow wooden structures where water from the river could be diverted and then evaporated to produce salt.

A delightful five mile walk over heaths, through woods, and beside farmland with magnificent views over the Alde Estuary between the village of Snape and the coastal town of Aldeburgh.

Until a few hundred years ago the village of Snape was far larger than Aldeburgh, perhaps the reason for the well trodden path which runs between the two. Called The Sailors Path it gave seaman access to Aldeburgh, then a centre for both local and offshore fishing, boat building and of course a certain amount of smuggling.