Shotley Point Walk

It was a lovely sunny day so I thought I'd take Dawn and Sarah for an old favourite walk for the morning from Shotley Point, with the promise of lunch at the Butt & Oyster to follow.

This was our route, just as we did in October last year, when it was just Dawn and me.

We parked opposite the Bristol Arms at Shotley Gate for the nearby public toilets and set off clockwise along the shore of the River Stour.

Here are a few of my photos.

Walking up from the shore towards Shotley village we had wildflowers on both sides of the path, including this purple tansy (aka Phacelia)...

...and poppies.

Heading towards  St. Mary's Church. now.

We found these orchids in the community Viking Forest.

We stopped for drinks at the church with its array of war graves.

A robin perched on the arm of my seat as I drank my coffee.

A great show of buttercups.

Here is Sarah using the Landscape Lens down at the Orwell. We used the one at the church too.

The view from this one is at the top of this blog post. Then it was back along the Orwell to Shotley Gate where we started.

This boat was leaving the marina as we crossed the lock.

A lovely morning's walk... and great lunch to follow.

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