It was here that we we were blessed to observe the behaviour of the Mad March Hares. I had heard about Mad March Hares, including the notion of them boxing, for most of my life but never observed them. It is behaviour that occurs during the breeding season which is not only in March but two or three weeks either side of it. What we saw was probably four males trying to impress a female. We were walking past a crop of wheat when we noticed a kerfuffle going on in the middle of the field. Suddenly, five large brown hares emerged from the crop, formed a circle and two of them went in the middle and started boxing for what was only a few seconds then just as suddenly they disappeared back in to the crop to run about wildly again only to re-emerge and go through the whole process again. They did this three or four times as we watched. It was a truly wonderful moment. Although we did not think to capture it on video the Youtube link gives you a good idea of what went on.
On the ferry crossing we met and spoke to Daniel, whom we had seen the day before at The Maltings where we were having lunch. Unbeknownst to us he had camped on the hill just above us by the Butley River. Daniel had walked out to the coast from Birmingham and was walking to Jerusalem in Israel. He was to follow some of the main rivers in Europe while making the journey across and through Turkey. We thought our journey was long but Daniel's certainly put it in the shade. We spent some time having tea and scones with Daniel and talking about our respective journeys before going our separate ways. Daniel has sinced emailed to advise us he had reached Freiburg in Germany after 1,500 kilometres and was resting up before moving on to the next stage of his journey.
The port of Felixstowe website notes that it is Britain's biggest and busiest container port and one of the largest in Europe. Over three thousand ships visit it every year. The largest container ship to call in North Europe so far has made its maiden call at the Port of Felixstowe. The 20,568 TEU (Twenty-foot Equilavent Units) Madrid Maersk, operated on one of the Asia to Europe services and arrived at the port with over 6,000 TEU for the UK loaded in China and Malaysia.