Today we attempted our 5th stage of our mission to walk the entirety of the 93
mile
Angles Way. This was the invite from Joyce...
"Friday March 10th. Please park at the Free Public Car park near Bungay + Waveney Valley Golf Club NR35 1DS for a 9am start. The Golf Club is open from 7.30am if you want a drink/loo beforehand.
Obviously we have to re-walk a portion of Outney Common to pick up The Angles Way to continue. I think it will be approx. 5/6 miles to Shipmeadow, where we will have an earlier refreshment stop at 11am. The Maisebrooke Garden Centre can only offer us outdoor covered seating in a small area but let’s go for an early hot drink ! We then walk to Beccles, eat our lunch at Beccles Church as we pass by and then start a long stretch along Beccles Marshes. We then drop south to The Three Horseshoes pub at North Cove to finish.
I have pre-booked a Community Minibus to collect us at 4.15pm from the pub and return us to our cars. The cost will be very insignificant (under £10 each) and not payable until next month (invoiced monthly). The route is detailed below and approx 14 miles. Please check the weather forecast – you may wish to pack dry socks, waterproofs etc. We should be back at our cars by 4.45pm. Thank you for investing your time and energy into the walk – I know it’s harder as we drive further away from home."
This was our route today...
"But that doesn't finish in North Cove", you might think... and you would be right, as you will see. Before I left, as Joyce had recommended, I checked the weather forecast for Beccles, just over 1/2 way along our planned route...
Yes. dry socks and waterproofs looked in order.
I collected my three passengers and we set off in rain that was turning to sleet and arrived in good time for the start. There were 8 of us today.
Here a some of my pictures, such as they are... weather conditions weren't conducive to getting great photos as I had to carry an umbrella to try and keep my camera dry and the wind was rather fierce.
The golf club was quite deserted so we had no problem parking.
It was waterproofs all round as we gathered at the start.
Juggling umbrella, camera and phone (to start my MapMyWalk tracker) I was left behind at the start. Here we are retracing our steps across the common to get back to the Angles Way.
The photo at the top of the post shows us recrossing the River Waveney. Now we were on the Angles Way again.
As we passed the Maltings the rain started turning to sleet.
We came to the river again at Wainsford.
I spotted that this sign showed we were also on the
East Suffolk Lines path and the
Via Beata.... and also that there were Tea Rooms 600m way. "Maybe we should head for them and wait for the weather to improve?", I suggested. But we had a bus to catch at 4:15pm.
Miranda and Joyce here were looking a bit windswept and sleetswept despite the protection afforded by their umbrellas. We had a brief downwind leg here as you can tell from the orientation of the umbrellas.
Somehow here we missed seeing the remains of
Mettingham Castle before we turned eastwards again Now the snow was blowing horizontally across us....
...and, despite the wet, was starting to accumulate. Here we were approaching Highfields Farmhouse.
Conditions were quite ferocious now. Temperatures had plummeted to zero degrees and we had proper snow rather than sleet. This was rather worse than we had expected. At the back of the group I spotted that someone's backpack waterproof cover had blown off and was on the edge of the ditch. I went to retrieve it but, with the wind pushing my umbrella, I lost may balance and fell into the ditch. I clambered back out clutching the backpack cover, but my boots, which had stoically kept my feet dry so far were full of water... and so was my right glove and trouser legs. I was a little way behind the rest of the group now but they looked back to see I was following.
We passed the rather characterful Viewpoint Mews.
It was lovely to get inside and get a warm drink (thank-you Wendy). They have a great selection of produce, including some
Baron Bigod cheese - we passed the farm where it is made last week.
We took stock. 6 miles gone and 8 to go and the weather was much worse than we had anticipated. Joyce sensibly decided we should stop and arranged for the Community Bus to collect us and take us back to Bungay. We didn't have long to wait.
Conditions had become decidedly wintery.
Rescued!
Thank-you Mick. Soon we were back at the start. Time to scrape the snow off before heading for home.
Well that was quite an adventure! But it was right to stop when we did - we were at risk of suffering from exposure, and it was more than our enthusiasm for completing the planned walk that was dampened! A bit of rain, sleet and snow is one thing but coupled with such strong winds, it wasn't so pleasant. We will be back to complete it another day. Meanwhile we will continue as planned for the remaining two stages next Friday and the Friday after.
Thank-you Joyce for the leadership and keeping us safe and to the other intrepid walkers for the company.
You can find more details of our route
here on MapMyWalk and a few more of my photos
here on Flickr.
You can read more about today's stage here:
You can read more about the Angles way using these resources:
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