"We have an evolving situation in the UK at the moment and I'm continuing to monitor the government’s latest advice but, as of right now, I do not believe that we need to cancel our weekly walks. My motto is Prepare not Scare so with that in mind we will continue with our common sense keep-our-distance approach. Please respect people's personal space! If you do feel unwell then do not soldier on - even if you wish to downplay the risk to yourself, there are other members of the group who are more significantly at risk. At this time, you may wish to drive separately to our walks or continue to car share....I'll leave this up to you. If you decide to avoid social contact for a while then we completely understand and be assured of a very warm welcome upon your return.
This week’s walk will be on Thursday 19th March from the lovely village of Thorpe Morieux. John is leading this walk as I'm deep in school budget work. John will lead a 9 mile circular walk along quiet country lanes, field edge paths and bridleways, stopping for refreshments at the Six Bells in Preston St. Mary. Pls park in the parking area by the village hall on Bury Rd, Thorpe Morieux IP30 0NR ready to start walking at 10:30am. For those who would like to car share, John will leave Dobbies garden centre, Bury St. Edmunds at 9:45. Do bring a drink/sarnie in case the pub does suddenly close its doors. Please email John if you wish to join him."
We decided to travel separately, but some of us still met a Dobbies. And here I discovered a new responsibility of a walk leader in this social-distancing times - to lead the convoy of cars to the walk start!
There were six of us in total. Three had done the walk with Joyce before, so I felt less worried about leading a walk I had never been on before than I might.
I had discussed it with Joyce on our impromptu walk on Tuesday and she had suggested a detour to avoid some of the road-walking on the busiest of the roads, so that's what we did. This was our eventual route.
It was a lot colder than Tuesday and we didn't get much sun, but we had a great walk of about 10.8miles. I forgot to bring my camera so had to rely on my phone for both tracking and photos. Here are a few of them.
No elbow-touches as we keep our distance, but cheery hellos as we set off.
St. Mary, Thorpe Morieux church was soon behind us.
We started on the detour Joyce had suggested. Oh no. A path across a field.
But it was only a short one and not muddy. Soon we were on nice green field edge paths.
As we approached Brettenham to rejoin the 'official' route, we had to watch out footing. "Caution. Rabbit holes", said the sign.
It was pretty chilly so we were glad we were wrapped up warm.
We struggled to find a path at one point that was supposed to go across a field, but we followed field edges to get back on track at this bridge.
Oh. We didn't do that. Bad walk leader.
But we were fascinated by this tree which appeared to have two trunks, one either side of the stream.
We found some pretty cowslips. The shared spark of joy they gave us was what we were out walking to get.
"Are we going to stop soon?", asked Miranda. Yes. we weren't far from our planned lunch spot now. We passed the picturesque Grade II listed Preston Hall....
...and entered the churchyard of the eponymous St. Mary, Preston.
Here we found a profusion of delightful primroses of all colours.
At last, after over 7 miles, our lunch stop. And, hooray, the Six Bells, Est. 1416, as it says on the wall, was open.
Jane bought me a pint of the Mauldons Silver Adder. Thanks Jane! Very refreshing. Outside we were able to social-distance by having a table each for our lunch.
Arriving just after 1pm, we were their first customers of the day. The landlady said they may not stay open much longer. "Don't go to pubs" is the government advice, but they haven't ordered that pubs be closed so they can't claim on insurance if they do close. Worrying times for so many.
As we set off again on the last 3rd of our walk, we passed the village library.
After a second path missed we had a short stretch on the road to get back to the path, which took us past the stunning Down Hall, with the River Brett running past the bottom of the garden.
In the field opposite there are lots of animal statues.
We passed another telephone box, but no books here.
Not far to go now. We reached Bird Farm with a weighbridge and these odd structures. We wondered what they are.
And then we were back at the village hall where we started.
And with some virtual hugs at a distance we went our separate ways again. So thanks to all for coming. That was better than sitting at home! We didn't quite follow the route from the book, but we were never lost. Plenty of lovely countryside, spring flowers and interesting buildings. Not sure how much longer we will find an open pub to stop at, but this individual walking in parallel seems to work.
You can see more of our route here on MapMyWalk and more of my photos here on Flickr.
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