Bury to Lavenham Walk

Dear friends,
 
I am walking my Suffolk Walking Festival routes with my 'back markers' and you are welcome to join us.

Friday May 3rd - Bury to Lavenham walk number 42 in the brochure. Pls meet near Red Wing Road Bury St Edmunds IP33 2NX even earlier at 8.30am to get the whole walk done. Pls bring snacks, drinks for this one as it's a toughie. Bus back from Lavenham.

...said the invite from Joyce.

The walk is a repeat of one we did early in July last year, which was  my first with Joyce's group. This was our route today.

I hadn't remembered, but we did, perhaps lackadaisically,  miss a turning at one point...

...and we had to use the map to find our way in places where there no clear waymarks. But The Ramblers must have been busy as there were lots of new signs to help us find our way and we didn't make the same mistake today...

That was much nicer.

We started quite early and I walked the 2 and a bit miles to our starting point so I didn't have to drive later - I was planning on visiting the Beer Festival when I got back.

Here are some of my photos.

At the start with Miranda, Jane, Joyce and Roland.

The skyline had a nice mixture of shades of green as we passed the pea field.

Miranda and Jane aren't short but they looked dwarfed by the rape plants.

We were heading towards Sicklesmere...

...but this time we didn't stop at the Rushbrooke Arms.

The stretch of the old railway line was much greener than in July.

We nearly missed the turning off it. Joyce did some snipping of stray greenery blocking the way.

This cottage had some lovely bluebells.

We saw plenty of other flowers too. Here are some pretty Red Campions.

There were some pretty big fields of oil-seed rape.

Roland had brought some rather nice chocolate.

We had a pitstop to munch our sandwiches where we stopped last year.

We passed a field full of sheep and their little lambs.

Which of these lilacs smelt the best - white or pink? I thought the white.

This wisteria was lovely.

...as were these cowslips. and buttercups.

...and this apple blossom.

Our first sight of Lavenham church.

We were nearing our journey's end now. Would we be in time for the bus?

We passed Lavenham Hall with its statue garden. Somewhere to visit another time.

And here we are a the centre of Lavenham.

I just had time to slake my thirst with a lager shandy at The Greyhound before catching the 1:30 bus back to Bury St. Edmunds....

...so I was at the Beer Festival just after 2pm. We did well in completing our 14 1/2 miles there in about 4 hours 20 minutes. I think the Walking Festival walk might take a bit longer.

That was fun. Thanks all. You can see more of photos from today here on Flickr, and of our July version here... and you can see more details of our route here on MapMyWalk.

P.S. What with walking to the start, meandering around  the Beer Festival and walking home, I had done more than 20 miles before I took my new walking boots off. 5/5 stars for comfort for them!