This is the morning walk. The map is almost right, apart from the bit where we appeared to walk through peoples gardens by Mount Road where my tracking had a snooze.
Joyce brought some yummy freshly-baked gingerbread Christmas Trees to help us get into the spirit.
Here she is explaining the plan to the Monday group. which included some of the ladies from our recent Felixstowe 'sunrise' walk, a couple of members of the Ipswich Outdoor Group, and Anna from the Suffolk Walking Festival.
Our Friday group included some regulars from earlier walks this year, including the Bury St. Edmunds to Lavenham walk, the River Stort walk, and Marbella.
We started by heading south along Hollow Rd past the quirky Grade II listed St. Nicolas House.
This house was built on the site of the former Medieval Hospital of St Nicholas and still incorporates fragments of it. The building was constructed mainly in the 17th and 18th centuries. The architecture has a blend of Classical, Gothic and Jacobean styles. At the bottom of the garden is some stonework Founded by an unknown abbot of Bury St Edmunds, the hospital of St. Nicholas was situated just outside the east gate. It consisted of a master, a chaplain, and several brethren. The earliest known dated reference to it is of the year 1224, when Henry III granted a fair to the master of the hospital of St. Nicholas, to be held on the feast and vigil of the Translation of St. Nicholas.
The south wall with a window that is believed to have come from St Petronilla's church sits in the fork formed by Hollow Road (at right) and Barton Road.
We went up Mount road to Natterer's Wood. Here is Joyce explaining the giant bat.
The trees have grown since I did my first blog post about it. The design of the lights along the Mount Road path has also changed. Gone are the baffles. Instead there are an array of LEDs that provide a focussed light that doesn't stray behind to the wood.
You get a nice view back into town from the path through the wood.
We continued through the housing estates, crossing Ortewell Rd via the footbridge and down to the bottom of Appledown Drive and along by the railway line for a bit before returning to Mount Rd. On the way we passed a deserted playpark...
...and, when we crossed the road, we were only about 200m from my house.
Heading up Mount Road we came to the impressive Flight of Peace sculpture
...previously visited on our recent Tickety-Boo walk. From here we walked through the new Lark Grange Estate, now in Rougham, along the oddly named Shackeroo Road to the railway crossing.
How much longer before it is closed, we wondered. We had a lovely path the other side of the railway, turning left at our nearest approach to Great Barton Church...
... and heading down and across Barton Road. We avoided this puddle by going along the edge of the field.
And here we finally got to a path I'd never walked before - on the far side of Barton Road we walked through fields past these nice horses...
...and with good views of the iconic Sugar Factory.
On the Friday we also saw this creature at the far side of a field bounding away from us. Was it a hare or a Muntjac deer? It was too far away from us to see clearly and the light-level was too low for a decent photo without a tripod.
Recrossing Barton Road we returned to Marlows where we stopped for lunch.
While others stuck to the teas and coffees, I indulged myself in a small libation of Adnams Ghost Ship.
A lovely morning walk with a great finish - thanks, Joyce. Here is a slide show with more of my photos (Flash required)...
You can also see the photos here on Flickr. As for our route, you can see more details in my MapMyWalk log.
See a separate post for the afternoon walk - Part 2.
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