I haven't had a proper rainy walk for ages... since my retirement celebration walk, I think. The forecast was for heavy rain, but I had a walk I wanted to try to potentially offer to Joyce's Weekly Walks. It was a figure of 8 walk to I had the option of stopping after the first loop, but I carried on.
This was my route...
It wasn't quite as I had planned and my phone was struggling to track accurately towards the end. Here are a few photos.
I parked just across the road from the White Horse pub. Unfortunately it wasn't opening till 4:30 so I wouldn't be able to get a drink there after my walk.
I took a look at the outside of St. Mary's church before heading out into the countryside.
I followed the distinct path by the trees. Actually I should have been going diagonally across the field, which got me to the road where I was going to turn off and come in the other direction.
I could still see St. Mary's church through the murk of the falling rain.
Rather than just backtracking, I decide to do an extra loop to Great Ashfield. This is All Saints church.
The entrance to the church had a ford. I did wonder if it was normally dry.
As I turned east along the nice track of Hantons Lane, I passed some apple trees. There was plenty of windfall but I picked one from the tree. Delicious.
There are plenty of berries about. I liked these rose hips dripping with the rain.
It was still raining quite persistently and the puddles were growing
Iwas on the edge of Long Thurlow now and passed the Old Coachhouse and the Old Forge.
Back on track, this was the end of a nice path from my originally planned route where it met Back Lane....
...which was a pleasant route back into Badwell Ash.
And here I was back at the pub. Stop or go on? I decided to go on, but cutting the second, longer loop a bit shorter.
There are apples everywhere!
And now, after nearly 2 hours walking, I met the only other walker I saw all day, walking her dogs.
The bells of St. Mary Langham came into view...
..as I passed these horses who came to say hello.
The path past the church...
...crosses the estate of Langham Hall. They have a walled garden you can visit - worth remembering for the summer.
Passing through the village of Hunston I was glad my route had very little road walking. The puddles are getting seriously splashy now.
My final church of the walk was St. Michael's, Hunston.
My route back from here took in a wonderful tree-lined path.... and more apples!
Along the way I came across a flock of young pheasants. Here they took fright and flew off....
...but not very far. Can you see some of them on the path ahead of me?
Despite the damp and dullness there were still some lovely autumn colours to be seen.
I went a little off track to see this Sand and gravel pit.
...and ended up by Shackerland Hall.
And here I was back at the church.
Yes it was rather wet, although it had eased off to light drizzle before the end, but I enjoyed the walk. I think it would be nice to do a variation of it again with friends.
You can see more details of my route here on MapMyWalk and more of my photos here on Flickr,
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