Bluebell Walk

Today was Day 11 of Joyce's Mini Waking Festival and the perennial iconic Bluebell Walk from the Suffolk Food Hall. Would we see some bluebells?  Where would the best ones be? We had 3 groups of 6,6 and 5 walkers - a great turnout for a classic walk. I led the third group. Joyce went clockwise and I opted to follow the second group going anti-clockwise. It was a walk I had done several times, and I would have been leading in the Suffolk Walking Festival, but, alas, it was cancelled for a second year, so it was great to be able to do it anyway.

This was the invite from Joyce a few days earlier...

"Hi everyone,

The bluebells are looking resplendent already and we have 3 groups walking on Monday with a couple of spare spaces if you wish to join (let me know please). We are meeting/parking at The Suffolk Food Hall  (we have permission) for a 9.30-9.40am start. They always kindly let us park here so please buy a coffee or a treat if you feel so inclined. They are open at 9am and they will let you use the toilets. Two groups will walk anti-clockwise and Joyce’s group will walk clockwise. All groups will be stopping at the Alton Water Café for a pit stop before continuing.  John heard a Nightingale at Alton Water yesterday so I suspect it will be a glorious walk. Please be patient if people take lots of photos.  It’s just under 12 miles so I expect we will finish around 2.30pm- 3pm"

This was our route, a figure of eight, stopping for our lunch break at the Alton Water visitor centre cafe.

We were the third group, going anti-clockwise, but we didn't bother to try and keep up with the group in front, stopping to admire the flowers and views along the way.

Here are some of my photos.

The gave the group in front  a few minutes before following them. They were at the top of the hill here when we started climbing.

We stopped to look back at the view along the Orwell. We wouldn't be seeing the river again until towards the end of the walk.

My merry band of fellow walkers.

They are regulars on Joyce's walks and know she often sets me homework for the blog write-up. So it was no surprise when someone suggested I found out what these creamy white flowers at the edge of our path are.

I believe they are common comfrey. Well they look pretty much like this, don't you think?

We found our first bluebells by the path along the edge of Cutler's wood.

Steve spotted something ahead... Was that a deer that had crossed the path in front of us? And then there was another. Evcntually I managed to catch one of them with my camera. We counted 6 in all, but when we got to the bit of wood they had crossed into we couldn't see them.

But we could see some pretty bluebells.

We crossed a couple of fields to Great Birch Wood, which usually has a great show of bluebells.

Yes they were out in swathes, but we were perhaps a week early for the best show as some weren't out yet.

Now it was onward to Alton Water.

We paused a few times to listen to the birdsong. Yes there was a nightingale and some blackcaps in among the others. The reservoir was quite full so there wasn't a sandy edge here as we had seen before.

We crossed the dam and headed for the visitor centre, passing some model yachts.

We met up with Joyce's group coming the other way, just starting out on their after-lunch loop.

As we had our lunch, we spotted a family of Egyptian Geese with some goslings...

We also saw some windsurfers and someone windfoiling. I'd not seen that before.

The other group set out on their second loop before we had finished our lunch.

We skirted the edge of Holbrook and crossed fields to return to Cutler's Wood, this time walking along the South-East edge, and seeing more bluebells.

We passed the impressive Grade II listed Bond Hall

I eventually managed to see one of our singing companions. This is a goldfinch, I think.

Now it was into our last bluebell wood - Freston Wood, which also had swathes of wild garlic (aka ramsons).

Joyce said these were the best bluebells of the walk, and I think I agree.

And here are some ramsons. It's a word that was unknown to a number of my crossword-solving friends when it came up recently in a Times Crossword and generated some discussion, resulting Jerry sharing his receip for wiuld garlic pesto. I must pick some and give it a try. More on that another time.

One last field to cross...

...and we were back at the Suffolk Food Hall to find the others.

Lovely! Thanks, Joyce, for organising, and the others for the company. Before we left, Dawn and I bought some Braxton Bangers from the food hall and had them with mash for our tea. Yum.

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