Cambridge schoolboy's message in a bottle found by German girl 377 miles away
When a Cambridge schoolboy threw his message in a bottle into the English Channel while on holiday in Kent there was much doubt from his family that it would be found – or that he would ever get a reply.
But 10-year-old Arthur Lea was left astonished after his message was discovered by a German girl 377 miles (more than 600km) away.
Arthur said he bought the message in a bottle souvenir from Dover Castle while on a family holiday in Kent in July.
He wrote a brief letter and enclosed some sweets and rubber bands before putting in the cork and throwing the bottle into the sea off Ramsgate Pier.
The youngster said: “I wanted to see where it would end up.”
It did not take long for him and mum Kate to learn how far his bottle had managed to travel and just who had found it.
The recipient turned out to be 14-year-old Charlotte Schoppmeier from Hamburg in Germany, who found the bottle while holidaying on August 23 on Sylt, a small island close to the border with Denmark.
She sent Arthur two postcards of the beach at Hörnum where the bottle had come ashore and now the Cambridge youngster has written Charlotte a postcard from the city and hopes to meet her before long.
He added: “It is amazing to think that the bottle survived after all that distance in the sea.
“I was so happy to receive the postcards – my parents really doubted that I would ever hear anything more about my bottle, but it did turn up which was so exciting.
“This just goes to show how important it is to use recyclable bottles and not throw rubbish away carelessly.”
Right, Arthur with one of the postcards he recieved from German teenager, Charlotte. Far right, the back of the postcard and Arthur with his message in a bottle
Picture: Keith Heppell
