(bright music) (Kate) From its pebbled beaches and rugged cliffs, to its seaside towns and fish and chips, I love the British coast.

Ah, look at that!

Beautiful, beautiful.

The birds, the flowers, and most of all, the sea.

(waves crashing) So across this series, I'm taking a journey along some of the most beautiful walks in the world.

These footpaths, gloriously uncluttered.

I'll be meeting the people who live... (man) If they're alive and big enough, it goes into that basket.

(Kate) ...and work along them... -Wow.

-Oh, look!

(man) Both the sunshine and the dolphins were ordered special.

(Kate) ...as I discover paths I've never walked before... -It is a kind of sci-fi set.

-It is.

-You don't think England.

-No.

(Kate) ...and reveal the secrets of ones I know well.

(man) It's a dinosaur's footprint.

(laughing) -No, it can't be!

-Yeah, toe here.

-Oh, you are right!

-Another toe there.

♪ (Kate) It is heaven.

If I didn't have so far to walk, I'd just sit on here all day.

(laughter) Today I'm walking a beautiful stretch of the Suffolk Coast that's fast disappearing from view...

So you're saying that five cottages, including your own, have been swept away by the sea?

-Yeah.

-...where I discover a taste for wild greens...

It is delicious.

-See, just bash it.

-...and an ancient craft... -What on earth is that?

-That's called a Dutchman.

(Kate) ...before brewing my own batch of gin from my favorite herb... -That's pretty good, actually.

-That is very good.

(Kate) ...and learning to master the tides.

A bit more oomph, I feel.

(laughter) (dramatic musical flourish) (seagulls calling) (mellow guitar music) ♪ (Kate) That's really lovely.

(birdsong) ♪ This beautiful place is Dunwich Heath on the Suffolk Coast Path, and, um, I love, I love areas of heathland.

They're quite rare, and at this time of year, the heather is just starting to come into bloom, so they are beautiful.

(bee buzzing) So my walk starts here, and I'm following the Suffolk Coast Path north up to Covehithe eventually, that's where I'll get, but first, I have to find the sea which, I think...is that way.

(vibrant music) My walk today takes me north along an 11-mile stretch of Suffolk Coast that's under attack from the sea.

Starting at Dunwich Heath, it's a short stroll to where the village of Dunwich, Britain's very own Atlantis, is lost beneath the waves.

From there, I'll cross reed beds to the picturesque village of Walberswick where I'll navigate the River Blyth, heading on to the charming seaside resort of Southwold.

I'll then head along the crumbling cliffs of Easton Bavents before finishing at Covehithe where one of Suffolk's most iconic buildings is under threat from the sea.

♪ (waves crashing) (leaves rustling) I'm approaching the village of Dunwich now.

What's really strange is walking through woods but hearing the sea right there.

I'm basically walking on top of a cliff here.

Not a particularly high one, but one that is eroding and eroding almost right beneath my feet.

(mellow music) This Suffolk coastline is one of the fastest eroding in Europe.

Formed around 50 million years ago, it's a whippersnapper in the world of rock formation, and a storm can cause meters just to disappear.

♪ (crumbling) There's the sea.

(leaves rustling) (wind howling) Now, I know it sounds slightly fanciful, but I'm actually looking at Dunwich from here.

(laughs) Dunwich was a really important town.

It was once the capital of the Kingdom of the East Angles, but as the sea has eaten away and eaten away at the land, it kind of took Dunwich with it, particularly in the 12th and 13th centuries.

Huge storms really battered this coast and literally took Dunwich out to sea.

(waves lapping) It's sort of like our Atlantis.

It lies beneath those gray blue waves.

(light music) (waves crashing) ♪ Today, the one-time capital of East Anglia consists of a handful of houses, a pub, a museum... (birdsong) ...and the ruins of the ancient friary which was moved inland in 1289 to stop it being swallowed by the sea.

♪ And there's an entry about it in my guidebook, "The King's England: A Guide to Suffolk," which was published about 80 years ago.

It describes Dunwich rather poetically, in fact.

It calls it "The Lost Capital of East Anglia."

"A thriving Saxon town four miles from the sea."

I mean, I'm right on it now.

"Where stood the marketplace, the busy streets, and the monasteries, now stand but a few gray walls with open windows looking out to the all-devouring waves.

After a battle of a thousand years, Dunwich is no more."

(bright music) ♪ Beyond Dunwich, the landscape gives way to one of the country's biggest freshwater reed beds, bordered by forest, heathland, and, of course, the sea.

♪ When you can get in to reed beds, they are so, so beautiful.

Although these marshes are a haven for wildlife, that's not why I'm here.

Nick?

Nick is a local craftsman and thatcher.

You're emerging out of the reeds!

(Nick) My natural habitat.

(Kate) It really is, isn't it?

(Nick) Yeah.

(Kate) You see a lot of thatched buildings generally around Suffolk, and not just on the coast but inland as well.

Is it because there were reed beds here?

(Nick) Absolutely.

If you think about how the world was before cheap transport, before railways, for example, people couldn't ship material great distances, so if you were to be quarrying slate in Wales, for example, you wouldn't want to be shipping it across the country to Suffolk to put on a roof, so you used what occurred naturally, and inland in Suffolk, it would've been wheat straw because it was a big, big farming area.

-Of course.

-But as soon as you get out to the coastal areas where the reed naturally occurs, people would've made the most of that, and it's a fantastic material for thatching with.

It's got this beautiful durability.

On a roof, it can last over a hundred years sometimes.

-Seriously?

-Yeah.

So it's basically, the way reed grows, it grows in these nodes, nodules there.

So each one of those is essentially a sealed unit that contains air, and it's why it's a good roofing material.

It provides a natural form of insulation because it's got the air trapped inside it, which works really well.

This is obviously kind of in its prime of growth at the moment.

If we reach in a little bit further, this is reed from last year, and this is... (rustling) (Kate) Oh yeah, so that suddenly looks like a thatching material.

(Nick) Exactly, see, that is what you would imagine the color of a thatched roof to look like.

This will be starting to be cut about November time.

These whole reed beds will start to look like this, and the reed cutters will come through with their cutting machines, gather it up afterwards, and clean each bundle out, grade it, and then it's ready for the thatcher to collect.

So it's quite a labor-intensive process, even with the machinery available to us.

(Kate) And it's rather wonderful hearing you talk about the reed cutters coming in.

I mean, it sounds like we've gone back 150 years.

(gentle guitar music) It takes up to five years to train as a thatcher, and thankfully, having fallen out of fashion during the last century, demand for thatching is back on the up.

There are now over 60,000 thatched buildings in Britain being looked after by craftsmen like Nick, including this Suffolk barn.

Wow, that is a project!

(Nick) It certainly is.

it certainly is.

-It's a bit of a labor of love.

-It really is.

So how long have you been working on this?

(Nick) I think it's been about eight weeks now.

-Eight weeks?

-Yeah.

(Kate) I thought you were gonna say eight months.

(Nick) Well, it sometimes feels like it.

I mean, I've put nearly 2,000 bundles of reed on this roof, which equates to ten tons of reed, which all has to be carried up and placed in place.

(mellow guitar music) ♪ (Kate) It really is so beautiful when you get up close to it.

♪ So these are the tools of your trade.

-Yeah.

-What on Earth is that?

(Nick) That's called a Dutchman, and I've no idea why it's called a Dutchman, but it is.

Where you have two rooves meet and form a valley, this would be used for pushing the reed up and forming the right shape in the valley, so you just dress it up.

The main tool which we use, really, in thatching is this.

This is called a Leggett.

It's a board of elm, and we use elm because elm doesn't split, and I've nailed some copper rings into it.

Now, traditionally, they might've used horseshoe nails as well, there's various things, and then just put a handle on it, and this is what we use to push the reed into place.

So when you open up a bundle of reed on the roof and put it into place, it needs to be pushed into the pitch of the roof, and this is the tool which we use to do it with.

So you can see, just bash it and dress it and get it tighter.

It becomes an extension of your arm, I mean, you might be holding this for six or seven hours a day.

This really has not changed for a thousand years or more.

(Kate) It's so intricate.

It's about a different mindset, isn't it?

We live in a world where we want everything to happen now, you know, click a mouse, and we want it all finished in a week or two.

-Yeah.

-So this is kind of working with nature and with the cycles of nature and saying, "Well, if you want your roof thatched, these are the considerations that you have to take in."

It's not an instant just-add- water-and-mix kind of thing.

(Nick) Absolutely.

(Kate) I mean, just to see an expanse of it like this, it's so beautiful, it really is.

(Nick) Oh.

Well, it's been a pleasure to show it to you.

(Kate) Thank you.

Coming up... -Can I be nosy?

-Yes, of course you can.

(Kate) I learn why this coastline is heaven for artists and photographers.

(photographer) I think there's a luminosity to the light in Suffolk that's just really lovely.

(Kate) And I take on the tide in a traditional wooden punt.

I can tell that it's all about technique, of which I have none.

(vibrant music) ♪ (birds chirping) I'm heading north along an 11-mile stretch of Suffolk's Heritage Coast, so called because of its natural beauty, abundant wildlife, and rich history.

♪ Look at all that, all that space.

♪ (wind howling) It is big-sky country, and this is an area of wetlands, of lovely, muddy estuaries, and that means that it is a really good place for wildlife.

And if you're into your waders, into the birds that love picking their way along tidal estuaries and in the mud, this is a lovely place to be.

(upbeat music) From the Dingle Marshes at Dunwich, I'm following the Suffolk Coast Path to my next destination, the Georgian village of Walberswick.

♪ It might not look it, but for 500 years, Walberswick was a major trading port after Dunwich was swallowed by the sea.

♪ Today, it's known as a secluded and tranquil resort, loved by painters and artists.

And you can see why.

(camera clicks) Gill.

-Hello, Kate.

-Hello.

-How are you?

-I'm good, thank you.

A love of the flat landscape and open skies turned Gill into a professional photographer.

-Can I be nosy?

-Yes, of course you can.

(Kate) Can I have a peek through your viewfinder and just have a look at what you are framed up on?

I'm so admiring of photographers like you because if I stand here and look at that in front of me, it's a bit, if I'm honest, nondescript.

Soon as I look at the way-- It's all about framing, isn't it?

Yes, it is.

You've got to pick out a subject, and then you've got to find some kind of foreground, and then something that connects with what your subject is at the background, so in this case, it's the line of water.

(Kate) So, when did you come to Suffolk?

(Gill) About 13 years ago.

(Kate) And were you a photographer before then?

(Gill) No, not really.

I've always had a camera and I've always gone out and taken pictures, and it's just been a hobby, but it was coming to Suffolk that really inspired me.

(Kate) Where were you before?

(Gill) I was in Somerset.

(Kate) I'll say, you know, Somerset is quite beautiful... -I know, it is gorgeous.

-...and quite photographic.

-It is, absolutely, yes.

-So what was it about Suffolk that inspired you to take up photography professionally?

I think there's a luminosity to the light in Suffolk that's just really lovely.

(camera clicks) And there are so many different shapes in the landscape.

It could just be plants or areas of shadow, and you can use those as compositional elements.

(camera clicks) Lots of my pictures are quite out-of-the-way places, so quite--I like to portray the wild side of Suffolk.

And I think people just connect with that.

They like the remoteness, and they like the idea of the peace and tranquility.

(Kate) And I suppose the thing about Suffolk is it couldn't be anywhere else.

(Gill) No, no.

(Kate) It has a really strong identity.

-Doesn't it?

-Yes, it does, definitely, yes.

(mellow music) (Kate) It's time for me to try and capture some of that luminous light Gill was talking about.

(camera clicks) I might go down there.

I love the contrast between the grasses and the mud.

♪ (camera clicks) -It's not easy, is it?

-No!

(laughter) (Kate) There is a really old boat.

That might be good.

♪ (camera clicking) ♪ (Gill) I think that's a really nice shot.

You've got the lines of seaweed coming in at an angle, which is quite dynamic, and you've got those poles that split up the image a little bit, and then you've got this lovely luminous water in the middle which just draws your eye into the center of the picture.

-So there's hope?

-There's definitely hope.

-Thank you very much, Gill.

-Thank you.

(laughter) (bright music) ♪ (Kate) My next destination is a little over a mile back along the estuary and up the coast: the ancient town of Southwold.

♪ And for hundreds of years, there was only one way to reach it.

♪ (water lapping) -Hi, Dani.

-Hello, Kate.

(Kate) I am fascinated by the story of this ferry because it's been going for...

I mean, how long?

(Dani) Well, records show that it first started in 1236.

-No way!

-So we're nearly up to our octocentenary, which is 800 years.

(Kate) That's extraordinary.

It wasn't until the 1940s that a footbridge was opened further upstream, but to this day, the ferry is still the most direct route to Southwold.

Was Southwold sort of the big city, effectively, in those days?

(Dani) It's always been the bigger-- the bigger town of the two.

In sort of the 1800s, they would have like butchers' vans and things come, you know, meat coming over, vegetables coming over to the smaller village on this side, so... (Kate) Oh, so it wasn't just people.

(Dani) No, no, no, the ferry's taken all sorts.

(light music) (Kate) For centuries, the ferry was a rowing boat just like it is today, but in 1885, it briefly upgraded to a pontoon carrying cars, cattle, and even elephants, which was when Dani's great-great-great-uncle started work on it.

♪ And it's been in her family ever since.

♪ So you took over from your dad.

I sort of heard that, A, your dad was fantastically handsome and girls used to queue up desperate to take the ferry-- -Who told you that?

-Well, just a little bird.

(laughter) -Is that true?

-It is very true.

-Is it?

-He had quite a following, yes.

(Kate) But also, that there was concern that because he didn't have a son, maybe he would be the last of your family to operate the ferry.

(Dani) I think there was that concern, and people did say to me, "Oh, it's a shame you haven't got a brother, isn't it?"

That he would then have taken it on.

But Dad taught me from an early age, five or six, how to like row across, and I've always loved it ever since I've been younger, and I always knew that I would do it.

-Really?

-Yeah, there was no question that I'd have done anything else.

(mellow music) -What's the distance?

-About 50 meters, roughly.

(Kate) Okay, so it doesn't sound terribly far.

It is obviously tidal, isn't it, this bit of water.

So does that mean there are strong tides, currents, to battle with?

(Dani) Yes, it can change so quickly on this river.

One minute, it can be like this where there's not much tide; within two hours, it can be running at nearly six knots.

-Gosh.

-But it's purely technique.

It's not strength at all.

-Really?

-Yeah.

(Kate) But a wooden boat is a heavy thing to maneuver.

(Dani) It is, and also, when we're at full capacity, we take 12 people as well.

(Kate) Yeah.

Luckily, it's just Dani and me today because I volunteered to row us across the 50-meter stretch.

I mean, how difficult can it be?

(Dani) Have you rowed before?

(Kate) I've paddled a canoe.

(Dani) Uh-huh.

Okay, that's a start.

(Kate) I'll try not to mess up.

-Push off.

-Yup.

(cheery music) -Nearly there.

-That's it.

Now you can sit down.

And hold the oars on the handle.

(Kate) Yup.

♪ I don't feel like I'm actually going anywhere.

(Dani) That's it.

Pull your hands together.

That's it.

It's just coordination, really.

(Kate) Yeah, that's what's worrying me, Dani.

(laughter) (Dani) A bit more oomph, I feel.

(laughter) Dani, you're unfailingly polite.

(Dani) So basically, as we go across, it's called ferry gliding, and you're holding the bow of the boat into the stream.

(Kate) I can tell that it's all about technique, of which I have none.

(Dani) Row together.

If not, we're gonna miss the jetty, so row together to keep it going up.

That's good.

It's all to do with angles, really.

(Kate) It's like parallel parking, isn't it?

(Dani) A bit like that, yeah.

(laughter) The aim of this is to hit the end of the boat on that big metal pile there.

That's it.

Like that.

Perfect!

(Dani claps) (Kate) There you are, madam.

-That'll be two quid.

-Thank you.

(laughter) (Kate) That was absolutely fantastic.

-Thank you so, so much.

-You're welcome.

-Nice to meet you.

-And you.

(Dani) Okay, good luck with your rowing career.

(Kate) Thank you!

(laughter) -See you soon.

-See you later, bye.

(bright music) (Kate) Coming up... Oh, that's lovely.

Hedgerows and verges are transformed into a larder of freshly-picked produce.

(man) Oh, God, that is really lemony.

-Isn't it?

-Yeah.

(Kate) And I turn my hand to alchemy to create one of my favorite spirits.

♪ -That's pretty good, actually.

-That is very good, yeah.

(vibrant music) (waves crashing) ♪ (Kate) I'm halfway along my 11-mile Suffolk coastal walk.

Ah, it's absolutely beautiful here.

♪ And it's a coastline in retreat.

My final destination is one of Suffolk's most iconic buildings, now also under threat from the sea.

(waves crashing) The coast has always been fragile here.

It's always been eroding, but it has fertile land, and it's obviously been a place that people have wanted to live.

There's been settlements here.

you know, way before the Romans.

So there's an interesting conundrum going on between human populations and the sea nipping away at the land.

(bright music) ♪ Having crossed the River Blyth from Walberswick, my next stop is the much-loved town of Southwold.

(waves crashing) ♪ Today it's a fashionable and upmarket seaside resort.

♪ But for centuries, it survived on herring fishing and sailmaking.

♪ There is one historic business, though, that's still going strong.

♪ For nearly 700 years, beer has been brewed here using grain and barley grown in the surrounding fields.

(steam hissing) Are you John?

-Hello.

-Lovely to see you.

-Nice to meet you.

-Thank you so much for showing me around.

-Oh, you're very welcome.

-Shall I follow you?

(John) Please, come upstairs.

(mellow guitar music) (Kate) I'm here to see how they turn that beer into one of my favorite tipples.

♪ Chief distiller John is the man who makes it happen.

Wow!

It's like a Willy Wonka factory in here.

(John) It is, yeah.

(Kate) It's amazing!

So, gin, as far as I'm concerned, is connected to vodka.

It is not connected to beer.

(John) No, so we make vodka from our beer.

(Kate) Aha, okay, it's now starting to make sense.

In order to turn the beer into vodka, John boils it up through these huge copper columns.

Do they have to be that tall, or are you just showing off?

(John) They have to be that tall because these columns will separate the alcohols out into the different alcohols... -Right.

-...and the one we need ethanol has to be above 96 percent legally to be called vodka, and you need 40 plates to do that.

See the temperature there?

Seventy-eight degrees, boiling point of ethanol.

(whirring) So if you have a look here, we can see the vodka running.

(Kate) Oh, so that is vodka that has basically come from that?

(John) That is vodka at 96 percent alcohol.

(Kate) You're like an alchemist, aren't you, John?

(John) It is a bit like that, yeah.

(Kate) So, what turns vodka into gin?

Another process.

We'll go see that now.

(Kate) Okay.

(bright music) ♪ But before the gin, a view onto one of Britain's more unusual lighthouses.

Wow.

The lighthouse feels like it shouldn't be right in the middle of town.

(John) It's very close to the sea.

It's two streets away.

(Kate) Like many buildings along this coast, the lighthouse was built inland to protect it from being swallowed by the sea.

And not only is it still standing, but it still guides ships along the shipping lanes off East Anglia, 130 years after it was built.

♪ (John) And this is where gin is made.

(Kate) Wow.

The vodka that you have distilled from your beer, that gets transferred into here?

(John) It does, and we put some water in there, and then we add the botanicals, and they'll soak in there for about 16 hours to be distilled the following day.

(Kate) So the botanicals are, what, the sort of... (John) So the juniper, the spices, the herbs, the fruit peels.

-Right, the flavors.

-The flavor, all the flavors.

They're gonna soak in that liquid, and that flavored vodka is gin.

(Kate) So that's what I was gonna say.

Why is that not flavored vodka?

What makes it gin?

(John) The juniper makes it gin, but gin is juniper-flavored vodka.

There are lots of other botanicals that go along with the juniper to make different gins.

-Okay.

-There's probably thousands of different gins.

(mellow guitar music) (Kate) Now, I'm as partial to a juniper-flavored vodka and tonic as the next person, but I imagine John's job of blending different botanicals to create new styles of gin is even more fun.

(John) So, here we can make your own bottle of gin.

(Kate) See, now, I've always wanted to do this.

I'm looking at all the things that you've got here.

Meadowsweet, which is something I love and, you know, is in the hedgerows at home.

(John) I think it's like tea.

(Kate) Oh, it is like tea, but it's a lovely-- there's almost that hay quality.

It's a warm summer's day.

I'd like this to be a meadowsweet gin.

(John) Okay, we'll go big on the meadowsweet.

-Okay.

-Three and a half.

(Kate) Three and a half gram.

I think I might go lemon.

(John) Only a couple of bits of that one, I think.

-One gram?

-Yeah.

(Kate) What's a grain of paradise?

(John) It's a pepper from Africa.

It's also got a fruitiness about it.

(Kate) Oh, it's lovely, isn't it?

It creeps up on you, John.

Oh, I'm gonna have a bit of paradise.

Your job is fun, John.

♪ I'm gonna go gentle on the ginger, much as I love it.

Can you have gin without juniper?

(John) No, juniper has to be the predominant flavor of gin.

(Kate) And why is that?

(John) It's EU law.

It's actually written into law.

(Kate) So juniper has to be the key.

(John) Yeah, we're gonna put 15 grams of that in, we'll say.

(Kate) Okay.

So that's my mix.

(John) So now we need to add the vodka.

(Kate) Um, how much goes in?

-All of it.

-Ooh-hoo!

(vodka pouring) I can already hear the clinking of ice, John.

(John) Time for my bit.

(Kate) Right, go on then.

(upbeat guitar music) Now my meadowsweet and juniper-flavored vodka goes into a smaller version of the copper stills next door, and ten minutes later, my first batch of Humble Gin is distilled and ready for tasting.

(John) Perfect.

♪ (Kate) That's right.

(John) It needs to have a few weeks for all the flavors to properly meld, so when you drink it in a couple of weeks, it'll be a bit different.

(Kate) Well, I have to say, my meadowsweet is coming out, and the lemon, and that grains of paradise is there, isn't it?

-I can smell a peppery note.

-Yeah.

(John) And the ginger too.

-That's pretty good, actually.

-That is very good, yeah.

-Do you really mean it?

-Yeah, I do, yeah.

-Because I quite like that.

-I really like it.

I might have to remake it.

(Kate) Remember, ten percent.

(John) Yeah, I know, ten percent.

(Kate) Or maybe twenty.

(John laughs) (cheery music) ♪ Heading north out of Southwold, the path briefly turns away from the sea across more scenic marshland.

♪ With the aromas of Humble Gin still on my tongue, I'm curious to discover what the local creeks have in the way of wild botanicals.

♪ And whilst I might know my mushrooms from my berries, I'm meeting someone who's promised to show me a feast of wild food... (man) This tastes fantastic, Kate.

-What's this one here?

-This is sea wormwood.

-Sea wormwood?

-Yes.

Oh, wow!

...Mark, the forager.

(birds chirping) You know, when I'm walking, I tend to look at landscape and, uh, and views, and also I listen for birdsong sort of obsessively.

-Yeah.

-But you must walk around here and just see the whole thing a bit like a kind of greengrocer's, don't you?

(laughter) (Mark) That's a very good way of putting it.

I haven't thought of it myself like that before.

More of my attention would be on the plants a lot of the time.

(Kate) Yeah.

Most people would know what a blackberry is and feel very comfortable about picking a blackberry, and blackberrying is foraging, isn't it?

-Absolutely.

-So introduce me to some of your coastal specialities.

(Mark) Okay, well, here, this is sea beet.

It's the ancestor plant of beetroot, Swiss chard, sugar beet.

So the cultivated beetroots will all have come from this.

So is this something that you would only really find on or near the coast?

(Mark) Most commonly.

-So which bit of it do you eat?

-The leaves.

Beetroot leaves are practically my favorite vegetable, actually.

They are so underestimated.

(wind blowing) (Kate) Nibbling that raw, it's a little bit bitter.

-And a bit soapy.

-Yes, a tiny bit.

-What do you do with it?

-What I love to do is make these delicious fritters.

(Kate) So is it a little bit like, I don't know, a sort of Japanese tempura or something like that?

(Mark) Absolutely, it's like a Japanese tempura.

(vibrant music) (Kate) Even a short stroll reveals plants I'd have happily walked past.

That looks very like peas to me.

(Mark) That is indeed a pea.

I think it's an Everlasting Pea, in fact.

This is wild carrot.

(Kate) So if you pulled this up, would there be a lovely orange root?

(Mark) No, there would be a spindly, yellow root that smells really very strongly of carrot.

♪ Oh, this tastes fantastic, Kate.

This is sea purslane.

(Kate) Oh, I've heard about this.

Is it--and it is edible, isn't it?

(Mark) It's absolutely edible.

A lovely salty taste and a great texture.

(wind blowing) Oh, that's lovely.

As you say, there's a saltiness, but it's also got a lovely lemony sharpness to it as well.

(Mark) Yeah.

Oh, that is really lemony.

-Isn't it?

-Yeah.

(Kate) See, is that-- Have I just found you the best plant?

(Mark) I think you probably have.

(laughter) (Kate) Stick with me, kid.

I tell you what that is.

That is a margarita in plant form.

(Mark) Yeah, it probably is.

(laughter) That's right.

♪ (Kate) One of the things, I suppose, that puts people off foraging is knowing that what they're picking is edible and isn't suddenly gonna make them go... (Mark) Absolutely, you have to... (laughter) You really don't want, um, to eat anything you don't know.

If you don't know it, then don't eat it.

(Kate) Yeah.

Well, thank you very, very much.

It was a really lovely introduction to the wild plants of Suffolk.

(Mark) You're very welcome.

It's been a pleasure.

(Kate) Okay, I'm gonna make fritters as soon as I get home.

(Mark) Yeah, do.

Bye now.

-See you.

-Bye.

(vibrant music) (Kate) Coming up, my walk ends at one of Suffolk's historic landmarks, but for how much longer?

This is medieval, and yet where I'm sitting could have eroded away in maybe a decade.

And I meet someone who lost everything to the waves.

So you're saying five cottages, including your own, have been swept away by the sea?

(woman) Yeah, we were told to get out by the weekend, in about three days' time.

(waves crashing) (upbeat music) ♪ (Kate) The final leg of my walk along Suffolk's disappearing Heritage Coast lies ahead of me as I continue north.

♪ I've now got a three-mile hike along some of the coast's fastest eroding cliffs at Easton Bavents before ending at one of Suffolk's most iconic and historic churches at Covehithe.

♪ And even on a beautiful day like today, this coast feels wild.

There are signs of the land losing its battle with the sea all along the shoreline.

(waves crashing) Nowhere more so than here at Easton Bavents where Juliet used to live.

♪ (waves crashing) Walking this part of the coast, I mean, it is literally crumbling, and no one has had more dramatic experience of that, I would say, than you.

(Juliet) Well, we used to live in a cottage on the edge of a crumbling cliff which was known to be crumbling, and we were there for 12 years.

(Kate) But, Juliet, who would choose to live in a cottage on the edge, as you put it, of a crumbling cliff?

I mean, that's madness, isn't it?

(Juliet) Well, it's an incredible place to live.

It's partly the visual emptiness.

-Yeah.

-Sometimes it's like this, sometimes it's dark, dark storm.

There was horizontal lightning one time, which I've never seen before.

We were there for 12 years.

We had to move very suddenly because the erosion, the coastal erosion usually comes at a certain rate that you can assess.

It's about three meters a year or so, but it came in-- (Kate) Three meters a year is still an extraordinary amount.

(Juliet) It is a great amount.

But there were great scouring storms in November 2019.

-Yeah.

-And it came in diagonally, and the coastal engineer just said, you know, it isn't safe anymore.

So, where normally you'd have a reasonable amount of notice and you'd try and do it in the summer, we were told really to get out more or less by the weekend, in about three days' time.

(Kate) Seriously, I mean, three days' notice to get out?

(Juliet) And we really had very short notice.

(Kate) Wow.

(gentle music) (waves crashing) ♪ Did you choose it because it was precarious?

(Juliet) It wasn't specifically because it was precarious.

It was just unusual and beautiful, and we only pass this way once, you might say... -Yeah, that's true.

-...and, um, what you're actually investing in, in a way, is quality of life.

When we were up there, we'd lived with tidal surges.

You woke up one day, a whole dune disappeared overnight.

(Kate) So, literally, you could go out on any given day, and the landscape that we're standing on now would look different.

(Juliet) Yes.

♪ (Kate) Another place that faces the same fate is my final destination, the church at Covehithe.

It's somewhere Juliet knows well and a reminder that these buildings are so much more than just historic monuments.

(Juliet) It looks very ancient and beautiful and ruined, and it's a hugely romantic landmark.

There's gonna be some fairly big thinking about how to deal with that.

You know, it's a community building and a collective place and much more than just a church.

(Kate) Yeah.

There's something extraordinary, and maybe I can romanticize it because I don't live here, I haven't lost my home, but I'm beginning to understand why you stayed here in a place where nature is 100 percent in charge, where we can't turn the tide.

(waves crashing) ♪ (sand crumbling) (waves crashing) (gentle piano music) ♪ There's just one final stretch of beach before I turn inland to Covehithe.

♪ Here, a small 17th-century chapel sits within the ruins of a 15th-century church.

♪ The story goes that in 1672, the locals couldn't afford to maintain the bigger building, so were given permission to take it down and reuse the materials to build the chapel within its walls.

♪ It's absolutely beautiful here!

(birds chirping) ♪ This is the most extraordinary place.

This is St Andrew's Church.

There's sort of two churches, really.

My trusty guidebook explains.

First of all, it describes Covehithe like this: "South of the woods and water of Benacre Broad, half a mile from the sea," which it definitely isn't anymore, "lies this small place overshadowed by a mighty ruin, one of the most majestic in all Suffolk."

That sounds fair.

"It is Covehithe's medieval church which the villagers destroyed late in the 17th century.

Like a shoot from a living root, a thatched church has grown up within the broken walls."

It's a strange thought that where I'm sitting could very easily have been eroded away in maybe a decade, two decades' time.

(soft piano music) Sometimes, we humans are reminded that the buck doesn't always stop with us, and we may build something beautiful like this, but it isn't permanent, and however important we think we are, however much we feel we can shape our landscapes to suit us, ultimately, whatever we do and whatever we build will disappear.

And...what's happening here in Suffolk is like a speeded-up version of that, but it's quite a salutary reminder, and I quite like that.

♪ (birds chirping) (waves crashing in the distance) (lively music) Next time...

I feel like queen of the world up here.

...I'm descending some of the highest cliffs in England...

I'm quite glad it's not wet.

...spotting playful dolphins at sea... Oh my goodness, look!

...before finishing in the shadow of a stunning abbey ruin.

It really is a staggeringly beautiful bit of Yorkshire's coast.

(vibrant music) ♪ (bright music)