This 500-mile walking adventure has provided revelations – and huge incongruities – in its coastal towns and villages
• Follow the walk: Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3
I stand aside to let a tractor go past down the lane and only then notice the field of sunflowers. There is a sign out front: Please help yourself.
I wander up the side of the plot and stand among thousands of yellow flower heads, nodding gently in the breeze under an almost-blue sky. In the distance I can hear the sounds of London Gateway port, where ships as huge as the Ever Given can dock (the Suez canal blocker recently arrived at Felixstowe), but for a moment, I might be in Provence.