Today I joined my first group walk of the year, and what a great day we had for it... rather cold but beautifully sunny. It was a walk in Rendlesham Forest near Woodbridge that included both the UFO Trail and Phoenix Trail, about which more anon.
This was the invite from Joyce.
"Wednesday January 5th. We will meet at Upper Hollesley Common Car park at 10.30am. (IP12 3HU). Ignore the Sutton Heath car park (on the right hand side) and the first entrance for the Upper Hollesley Common Car park and choose the second one. I think the first entrance will lead you to this point anyway. We are then heading off into Rendlesham Forest to walk the UFO Trail and the Phoenix Trail (both 3 miles each). Please bring lunch and drinks in case the mobile catering van isn't open. The total walk will be around 10 miles I hope but I haven't walked here for a while. Wrap up warm. "
The 8 of us all managed to meet up at the right car park in time to start walking at 10:30 as planned. This was our route....
...which looks a little complicated as we looped around quite a bit. From the Forest Centre we followed the purple (UFO Trail) and Red (Phoenix Trail) shown on this map...
Here are a few of my photos.
Puddles in the car park at the start, but was it a sign of mud to come?
There were still patches of frost around in the shade.
At the information point in the centre of the forest we were able to pick up some leaflets -
this one for the UFO route and
this one summarising all the trails.
So off we went on the UFO trail. "
In December 1980 several sightings of a UFO were reported in Rendlesham forest. Many think these mysterious events are the most significant UFO incident to have occurred in the UK. During the evening of 26th December, a Sudbourne resident reported a mysterious shape (like an upturned mushroom) in the sky above his garden. Later that night two United States Air Force patrolmen at the RAF Woodbridge East Gate spotted unusual lights in the forest, and were given permission to go in and investigate. What they reported was very strange...."
I spotted these colourful posts in a clearing off to the side of the path. What were they? Not alien artefacts, surely?
They make up a maze. According to the instructions below, you spin the pointer at the top of the post you are at and it tells you which colour to move to next.
But no time for that - I was getting left behind.
Soon we came to the East Gate of the airfield and the first of the signs telling the story of the Rendlesham Forest Incident, with text that is also in
the brochure.
The story is of some lights seen in the sky which were then investigated. Oo look. We can see a light in the sky too!
At point 3 on the trail there is a replica of what the witnesses described they saw... "At the clearing towards the edge of the forest the patrol were to report that they had spotted a conical object about the size of a car, floating on beams of light just 12 inches above the ground. There was a mist surrounding it and the craft appeared to be metallic with black markings on one side. They tried to approach the object – it was like walking in slow motion. Suddenly the craft rose rapidly in a flash of light and disappeared. Had the patrolmen been spotted?"
The markings these days are graffiti. "ET go home". Ha ha.
We continued through the forest and dappled sunlight from the low sun...
...back to the start of the route, where we stopped for our lunch. Well that was an interesting story. Had aliens really visited the forest in 1980? You can find some links to explore this more at the end of this post.
Then it was on to our second trail... the Phoenix Trail. "
This trail is named after the recoveryfrom the great storm of 1987. It starts from the car park. There is a shortcut for the longer trail, denoted by white waymarkers. The longest trail takes you through conifer plantations, heathland and wetland areas. Each walk allows you to see the unique flora and fauna of the Sandlings."
Indeed we did get a variety habitats and vegetation.
And, inevitably, conversation turned to the
Great Storm of 1987. Who remembered it and where were they at the time? As we walked through the area that had been replanted, Joyce told us that her Dad, who had worked for the Forestry Commission, had been sent there as part of the team remedying the aftermath.
Coming towards the end of the walk...
...we came across some wood sculptures.
Then it was back through the forest to our cars....
...with our boots unmuddied. Weren't we lucky with the weather?
Thank-you Joyce. A nice walk on new paths to us all, and thanks to everyone else too for the company.
You can see more of my photos
here on Flickr and more details of our route
here on MapMyWalk. And if you want to know more about the Rendlesham Forest Incident see here...
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