Sutton Heath Walk

 

Today was my third walk in Joyce's Mini Walking Festival. This was the listing in the brochure...

"Tues: 15th Sept *A NEW WALK* Sutton Hoo. An 11-mile circular walk with great views of the River Deben ***"

This was another walk that Joyce had led for the group before, but on a day I was working, so I was glad to get a chance to do it. The three stars today meant  "Might make you puff", but we all managed it fine.

This was our route...

Despite the joining instructions saying "This lovely walk is starting at 11am at the Sutton Heath Car Park. It is on the B1083 on the way to Bawdsey", I managed to end up in the wrong Sutton Heath Car Park (I'd googled a postcode which was for the village for my satnav, and followed the road there - the road sign didn't give the road number). Doh! Nobody else was there so I phoned Joyce to find there was another Sutton Heath Car Park. I was bit late arriving there, then. Thanks for waiting! We set off 10 minutes late as a result, but at least we didn't have a train to catch today.

Here are a few of my photos...

Off we go across the heath and through the bracken and  heather.

We soon reached Shottisham. We wondered what this curious building used to be.

We passed but didn't visit St. Margaret's Church.

But we did stop for refreshments at the quaint thatched Sorrell Horse pub.

We admired this old map of Suffolk on the wall.

The hot drinks weren't readily forthcoming, but Roland had his mug to take away his tea as we carried on.

We admired the grand Woodhall Manor as we passed.

Across the other side of the River Deben we could see BT's Adastral Park tower at Martlesham Heath.

Onions! We resisted the temptation to scrump a few.

A wherry on the river.

There was a bit of up and down along the river side...

...but we got some lovely views.

We had our lunch stop at the side of a field of turf. It was getting rather hot now so we were glad of a bit of shade.

 

 

A nice field of cabbages with a view over to Woodbridge. We were now where Joyce ponted to yesterday saying we would be walking here today.

We got some more lovely views.

Heading inland, we passed Tranmer House at Sutton Hoo...

...and the burial mounds.

Time for another drinks break. I was glad I had frozen one of my bottles of squash as it was still nice and cold.

We avoided the direct route back to the car park and went along the edge of Woodbridge Golf Course....

...before crossing the heath again back to our cars.

Thanks again  Joyce for the great walk, and to everyone else for the charming company. No walk tomorrow, but I'll be back on Thursday.

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

Postscript: I mentioned on the walk that I was hoping to get back without filling up my car. I did. Here is my dashboard just before filling up a Sainsbury's...

 671.5 miles done on the tank with enough left for another 12 miles.... and as you can see, it was still rather warm.