"Friday Dec 13th we will meet at Lackford Lakes free car park IP28 6HX ready to start walking at 11am. Do arrive earlier if you wish for a coffee/cake. We will then walk into The Kings Forest for an explore. Expect a 9-11 mile walk. Refreshments only at the start and end so please bring lunch with you to eat on a tree stump!"
Luckily, the earlier rain had stopped, but we still got plenty of puddles to avoid as we walked and on that road to the Visitor Centre... the pot-holes don't get any better!
This was our route.
Well I say it was our route, but, unaccountably, my tracker paused just over 6 miles into the walk so I had to recreate it from what I had logged and add the rest of the walk on the Ramblers' walk planner.
Here are a few of my photos. I had a little surprise when I uploaded them from my camera.... I found I had a couple of bonus pictures taken on my camera when I left it at the picnic table to nip into the West Stow visitor centre! Thank-you!
At the start. Joyce said, "I predict we will see a bonfire today".
And here it was, at Lackford Church.
She was able to make the prediction as she hadn't parked at the Visitor Centre like the rest of us, but avoided the pot-holey road by parking next to the Old School House in the village and had walked past it already. Ha ha!
We were trying a path we hadn't been on before. When we got to the reservoir we climbed the bank to have a look. It seemed remarkably empty given the amount of rain we had had.
Looking down the bank, we could see the path we should have taken. although we didn't know so at the time (more anon).
Crossing the River Lark. It was pretty full!
We entered West Stow Country Park at the West end of the lake....
...and crossed the heath...
...to get to the Visitor Centre where we had our lunch stop at the picnic tables rather than a tree stump.
Now my memory may not be as good as it was, but I know I didn't take this photograph!
Or this one!
But no. We weren't going that way. Instead we crossed the road by the entrance to the Country Park and headed into the King's Forest.
Eventually we were rewarded with some sunshine.
Some distinctive Breckland skyline of Scots pine trees.
And another line of them we passed close to.
We were on the Icknield Way here and it was getting a bit muddy...
...so we took a little diversion to go round part of the West Stow lake. It looked lovely in the sun.
Then it was back through the otter-proof gate...
...and back towards Lackford.
We decided to do the path we had missed earlier.
And this is why we missed it. No sign on the post that there is also a public footpath to the right from here!
Then it was back across Lackford heath...
...to finish at the Visitor Centre.
Thanks Joyce for the lovely walk and the others for the company.
You can see more of our route here on MapMyWalk and a few more of my (and the mystery photographer's) photos here on Flick.
No comments:
Post a Comment