Blackthorpe Barn and Rougham Walk

Today's was the last group walk of the year for Joyce's Weekly Walks. This was the invite..

"Tuesday December 21st we are returning to Blackthorpe Barn for our walk of approx. 7.5 miles.  Blackthorpe Barn is situated just off Junction 45 of the A14, in the village of Rougham. The Postcode is IP30 9JG. Please drive past the main barn car park and into the big parking bays.  There are toilets open here from 10am and the café is open too. If you'd like coffee then please join me at 10am. If you'd like to just join the walk then please join us at 10.45am.  Please bring lunch with you and expect mud underfoot. "

We had a great turnout of 15 in total and most of us visited the café to start with. The route was all familiar paths to me. This was it.

Here are a few of my photos.

Having our teas and coffees. While we were in there we saw a robin at the far side of the café, pictured at the top of the post.

The Christmas shop was very glittery.

Before we started walking we visited the lovely Forest Floor sculpture.

Jane spotted what looks like a coronavirus...

They grow lots of Christmas trees here.

We crossed the A14 and headed around this field to the Big Clump in Rougham Park.

We crossed the railway line via the monster footbridge and walked through some of Thurston Village, This holly hedge didn't have many berries left.

Back across the A14 again we followed the path south to Rougham Church, where we stopped for our packed lunches.

The church was open so we were able to look inside.

The path back had plenty of big fat slow berries.

And then finally we were back on the path to the barn.

That was a very convivial walk to end the year and it got me in the mood for Christmas. Thank-you Joyce and the other walkers. Time to wrap the presents now. 

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