Suffolk Walking Festival Launch Walk - West Stow

Today was the start of the Suffolk Walking Festival and we joined one of the two the launch events at West Stow.

We turned up at 10:45 expecting everything to start at 11, only to find the speeches had already been and we were a bit late for a free cuppa as the walk itself was starting shortly. But never mind, we were in the official group photo... assembling here...

The walk was led by David Falk, the Festival Director,   here with Anna, our back-marker.

 This was our route.... which was exactly as described.

And here are a few photos from the walk. David telling us all about the ancient Icknield Way.

We had to give way to some motorbikes. I don't know who was more surprised, them or us. They can't have been expecting some 70-odd walkers in their way.

At one point, we got a view of that classic Brecks tree skyline David told us about.

We turned off the Icknield Way into The King's Forest. Here we stopped for David to tell us about the trees and the distinctive cones of the Douglas Fir.

He also told us about the birdlife and the planning that goes into managing the forest. You can see the plan for King's Forest here.  The smell from the piles of logs we passed was fragrantly resinous. Very refreshing.

As we recrossed the road to head for the river, we came across this turkeytail fungus.

Soon after, we were back at the south end of the country park, at the old pumping station. You can read all about the history of the area here.

Then it was down to the River Lark and back towards the visitor centre.

We saw an egyptian goose on the river.

And then we were back.

Thanks David and his helpers for an excellent walk and very interesting and informative narrative along the way. So now the Walking Festival is well and truly sent off!

You can see more of my pictures here on Flickr and more details of our route here on MapMyWalk.