Bury St. Edmunds Ramblers Walk - Dedham

This was my first Saturday walk with the Bury St, Edmunds Ramblers. Saturday walks are longer than Tuesday's and Friday's and generally more than 10 miles. Today's was just over 10 miles.

The car share meeting point was just along the road for me, so I turned up there and was able to give 3 ladies a lift. In total we had 13 on the walk. This was our route...

Well almost! I forgot to turn my tracker on until we stopped a the toilets to admire the decorations. From Dedham, we followed the Essex Way to Manningtree Station.

Along the way we found someone had gathered their hay while the sun shone. The church tower we could see was St Mary's church in Dedham.



We stopped for a drinks break at another St Mary's church, in Lawford.



Some parts of the church date from the 14th Century and the nave windows are rather unusual with interesting carvings. Here are the owls...



As we headed onto the St. Edmunds Way we found some new signposts. Time for Ron to get out his new hammer and do some waymarking...



We stopped for our picnic lunch by the river at Flatford and saw the sights while we were at it, including Willie Lott's Cottage.



We diverged here from the St. Edmunds Way to walk through the countryside rather than along the river. Here we had a great view down to the river.



We rejoined the Stour just outside Dedham. Gosh! The river and riverbank were busy!





So thanks to Ron and Rosie for a great walk, and the others for their company. I'm sure I'll be doing more in future.

You can see details of our route here and a more of my photos on Flickr.

Bury St. Edmunds Ramblers Walk - Barnham Common

This was my second Bury St. Edmunds Ramblers Tuesday walk.

 

Rather fewer out today than the previous Tostock walk, but it was rather hot, which may have put some people off. This was our route...

As we set off, the parched landscape looked more like August than June.



Just look at this...



We were glad of the stop at Sainsbury's, not least for the chance to walk around inside in the air-conditioning.
Dave gave us some informative highlights along the way, not least the explanation of the Barnham Common Cross. Not much left of it now, I'm afraid, just this post



Coming from Bury St. Edmunds, we should have washed our hands in the water at the base, so as to avoid bringing our dirty germs into the parish, but It was behind a fence so we couldn't.

Eventually we got back to the river. Now are these little fish or tadpoles, we wondered?



Nearby, we found these Highland Cattle sheltering in the shade...



A gentle 5 mile walk, but that was probably enough given the weather conditions. Thanks Dave!

You can see more details of our route here and a few more of my (rather mediocre!) photos on Flickr.

Wild Women on Top C2C Walk Finish

By a happy coincidence, on the same weekend as my Old Barnardian reunion, a long-standing friend of mine, Beverley, an ex-workmate from my spell working in Melbourne in Australia in 2006, was completing the Wainwright Coast-to-Coast walk, from St. Bees in Cumbria to Robin Hoods Bay.

So I arranged to stay in Robin Hoods Bay and meet the group as they finished the walk. Beverley was on a trip with the Wild Women on Top; a group for this trip of 12 ladies.

They still had their last leg to do from Egton Bridge...

...so weren't going to arrive until late afternoon. But I drove across from Barnard Castle in the morning to check into my hotel



...in time to watch the England v Panama football match in the bar...



That made it 5-0! After the match I had time to take in the sights of the Old Village...



...and go for a there and back walk along the Coastal Path....



...which would be the last leg of their route... but I only walked this much...

...although I only logged my return journey. It was a lovely afternoon for it and I enjoyed the wild flowers and birds, including what sounded like a Sedge Warbler, who's song I learnt on my Dawn Chorus Walk in May.

I knew that their route would pass my hotel, so I was able to sit in the sun with a pint of Wainwright Golden Beer. By 6pm, I reckoned they must be getting close, so I went up to the end of the coastal walk and waited. I didn't have to wait long until I saw what could only be them...



A group of ladies all wearing blue T-Shirts. And there, third in line was Beverley! I went down with them to enjoy their celebration of the finish, and see the ceremonial tossing into the sea the pebbles they had carried from St. Bees Beach.



Then it was the group photograph....



...and the ceremonial signing of the book in the Bay Hotel, along with some well earned fizzy wine.



Well done ladies! Completed in 12 days, which is very impressive. And thank-you for making me welcome at your celebration meal.

You can find more details of my walk in my Map My Walk log and more of my photos on Flickr.

P.S. The following morning I took Beverley, Jodi and Bernadette to Scarborough station to start their journey home...

...before driving home myself. I hope you all had a good trip!

Old Barnardian 70's Leavers Reunion

It was Back to School... 43 1/2 years after leaving!



The Old Barnardians, as alumni of Barnard Castle School are known,  had their annual Summer Gathering and invited as many leavers from the 1970's to come as possible. Sadly, due to a falling out of a previous headmaster with the Old Barnardian's Club, contact had been lost with many. Nevertheless we had a pretty decent turn out, about 70, I think, with, over the Friday and Saturday 14 from my year.

We assembled in the new Sixth Form centre where we were greeted by the new headmaster, and then had a service in the chapel...



...with an excellent and witty sermon from the former chaplain, and freeman of the town, John Moore.

We were then offered tours of the school. No more lines of beds in big dormitories, but individual rooms for the now somewhat rather fewer boarders.

Lunch in Big School..



...was supplemented by a display of material from the school archives...



with lots of old photos, programmes from old school productions and the House log books. It was fun trying to collectively identify people in the old photos....



One thing I had completely forgotten was that I had acted as House Scribe for a few terms before I left.

Then it was on to watch the cricket and enjoy the beer tent.



Pete Fenwick, who had joined us in the Old Well the previous evening wasn't there, but his beer was. And very good it was too!



And here is a photo of almost all of the December '75/July '76 leavers...


It was a great day of catching up with old friends and shared memories. Roll on the next '70s reunion! You can see more of my photos of the day and excerpts from the archives on Flickr.

Upper Teesdale Walk

I was going to a school reunion in Barnard Castle, Co. Durham, and decided to travel up a day early so as to go for a walk in the lovely Upper Teesdale countryside. From a selection of walking routes I had, I chose walk 44B from my 1990 AA Tours and Walks of Britain.

I pretty much followed the route as described... I started at Bowlees Visitor Centre, went down to and crossed the river by Low Force, along the river past High Force for another 3 miles or so, turned left and up the hill to walk back along the top via the Green Trod and Silver bank to Holwick, then back down to Low Force.
About 9 miles in total and it took me about 3 3/4 hours.

Not only was the scenery lovely, the weather was too and there were plenty of wild flowers and birds to be seen.

Here is a selection of views along the way...



Bowlees Visitor Centre.



Low Force.

And here was a wild Hybrid Monkey Flower,  Mimulus x robertsii.





High Force.



Further up river.

Bleabeck Force.





Lapwing in flight.



Holwick Scars.

As the inscription said underneath the concrete sheep statues near Low Force... "A wonderful place to be a walker".
You can find more details of my route in my Map My Walk log (although I forgot to start my tracker until over an hour into the walk) and the rest of my photos of it here on Flickr.

QC Blogging Day

Times Quick Cryptic No 1119 by Tracy

A lovely variation in clue difficulty today, from the very easy to the slightly tricky There are also some nice inventions with a couple of more unusual anagrinds and the clever HIDDEN AGENDA, which was a clear Clue of the Day for me. Or should that be obscure Clue of the Day? The neat surfaces got me wandering down a few bye-ways as I chewed over the clues and answers, which gave me an extra bit of fun. I hope you all enjoyed it as much. Thanks Tracy! How did everyone else get on? By the way, I'll be out enjoying the Upper Teesdale countryside today, so may not be able to reply promptly to any comments or queries. But I'm sure there are plenty of others who will.

Read all about it here

Summer Wheat Beer

Tassel Nanobrewery has been in action again. Bottled yesterday and labelled today, the Summer Wheat beer should be ready to drink in 2 weeks. Bring on the Summer sunshine!