Message in a bottle answered after 10 years

TO try and cheer her children up on a chilly November day, Caroline Durrant, daughter Carla and son Jordan, wrote a letter, rolled it up inside a bottle and tossed it into the sea.

Nearly 10 years passed and the letter was forgotten about until a reply landed on the family’s doormat which revealed their message in a bottle had been found around 1,000 miles away near Sola on the south coast of Norway.

Caroline, 39, of Pyke Court, Caister, and her children Carla, now 20, and Jordan, now 19, wrote the letter on November 26, 2002.

The message introduced the family, including their younger brother Jay, who was just a year old at the time, who they were, and where they lived.

Slogunn Kolnes found the bottle while walking her dog, Laika, in fields near the beach last month.

She wrote back, saying she hoped they could understand her English and apologised for the late reply, adding she had found the bottle a couple of weeks ago.

She said: “There have been many storms and all kinds of things get (washed up) from the sea.

“Between many stones I saw a bottle filled with pink water with a paper roll inside.”

Mrs Kolnes, a grandmother-of-five, took the bottle home and cut it open in her kitchen and could read almost every word of the letter.

Caroline said: “When I told Carla and Jordan about the bottle being found they were in shock but quite excited too. I am going to write back and Jordan will put pen to paper and write back as well.”

Carla, who is at university in Ipswich studying photography, plans to use the letters as part of a creative project for her degree.

“It’s fantastic someone has found it and replied,” Caroline added. “She sent the original letter back as well. I remember doing these kinds of things with the children - we didn’t think we would get a reply!

“We always used to go and fly kites on Caister beach.”