Suffolk Walking Festival - Nowton Park Circular Walk to Great Whelnetham

I was very pleased to be able to join this walk and get to visit the artisan bakery and coffee shop of which my regular fellow walkers had extolled the virtues. [Carefully worded to avoid prosecution by the grammar police from saying "which... had extolled the virtues of". One really shouldn't end a sentence in a preposition. Oh dear. I think I've been spending too much time with my Cambridge Assessment English colleagues at work].

Delightful it was, indeed. This was our route, which was a figure of 8.

Here are a few of my photos from the walk. We met up just outside the Nowton Park cafe.

Joyce gave us a briefing before we started.

As we walked through the park we passed 'Woodhenge'...

...and the panda in the chinese trees arboretum.

We called in at the The Friendly Loaf artisan bakery. The sausage rolls were still hot from the oven. Yum!

We had a bit of a munch stop...

...before heading off into the countryside with some carrying goody bags for later.

We had a nice view of Sicklesmere before descending to the village.

Roland kept us from stepping in front of the horses.

We came to our only challenge of the walk... a path through a field of rape. Here is Joyce telling us about it.

If you were tall enough... i.e. taller than me, you could see the view better than I could.

It wasn't too bad and, fortunately, we didn't have anyone with an allergy get affected.

I cheated earlier by lifting my camera over my head. This is what I could really see.

We stopped for a sweetie break. Anyone for a mint or a chocolate lime? Joyce had brought a packet of each to share.

Soon we reached our lunch spot. Hennessey's Lifestyle Coffee Lounge.

We could buy drinks and sit outside....

...and have our packed lunches on the grass.

 There was bunch of poppies just coming out. In a week or so this will be a mass of flowers.

Now we joined part of the St. Edmunds Way to head back to our starting point.

This part of it is along the route of the old railway line. There were lots of daisies underfoot.

The fields of barley were waving in the breeze.

We returned via Sicklesmere....

...and up to Nowton Church.

Soon we were back in Nowton Park.

What a lovely walk, and a lovely bunch of fellow walkers too. Thanks, Joyce.

Of course there isn't room for all my photos here in the blog post. You can see them, including more of the lovely views, in this Slideshow by clicking the arrows.



...but you can also see my photos here of Flickr. You can also see more details of our route here on MapMyWalk.