Today we did the 6th stage of our mission to walk the entirety of the 93
mile Angles Way.
This was the invite from Joyce...
"Friday March 17th. Please park near The Three Horseshoes NR34 7PH at North Cove. It is the old Lowestoft Road and not open to passing traffic. The pub said it's okay to park there. We start at 9.30am.
We have to walk 1.5 miles to get back onto The Angles Way. After 6.5 miles we will be in Oulton Broad and I have booked Everitt Park Cafe for midday. This will be an extended stop for drinks/lunch as we have just a further 6.5 miles to Somerleyton. Once again, I have pre-booked Mick from the Community Minibus to collect us at 4.15pm from the Somerleyton Cycles Ice-cream parlour and return us to North Cove.
Please check the weather forecast – you may wish to pack dry socks, waterproofs etc. We should be back at our cars by 4.45pm."
I checked the weather forecast, as suggested...
Hmm. Yes, wet weather gear again. But the wind would be lighter and the temperature nearly 10 degrees higher than last week.
This was our route today.
I collected my passengers as planned and we made good time as we had nothing slow in front of us for most of the way. Time to visit the church and its Portaloo beforehand.
Here are some of my photos.
St. Botolph's Church was chilly inside and rather spartan. The nave and chancel seemed quite long for the width of the church. It has a thatched roof.
I wish I'd read Simon Knott's description of the church before we visited - I completely missed the 14th Century wall paintings he mentions.
Come 9:30 we were all ready to to get walking.
I had an umbrella as well as waterproofs so I could try and keep my camera dry.
We passed North Cove Hall and headed towards the river, crossing the East Suffolk railway line on the way.
The ditches here were rather full with water. "I'll try not to fall into one today", I said to Mike.
Soon we reached the river and rejoined the Angles Way.
The river is quite broad now and there were signs saying watch out for rowers. It looks wide enough for rowing races here, but it's difficult to see how boats could be brought to the river here. Perhaps they row here from Beccles.
Now we had a long stretch along the river with the reeds waving gently in the light wind.
The marshes here all seemed below river level and our path was along an embankment.
In Castle Marsh we saw our first deer. What sort was it? It was quite small but not a muntjac.
We walked by the disused Castle Mill.
We continued past the boundary of
Carlton Marshes Nature Reserve, a Suffolk Wildlife Trust reserve with over 120 acres of grazing marsh, fens and peat pools. Flower studded marshes drained by a system of dykes and grazed by cattle in summer, creates a paradise for marshland birds. Water vole may be seen and around the dykes along with special plants including the rare and protected water soldier.
Walking through the Nature reserve now, we came across some more deer. I suggested they might be
Chinese water deer, which I knew were to be found in East Suffolk and had glimpsed on Orford Ness on
this walk in 2019. Here's one in the water...
...and we saw this one sitting not far from the path.
We had a brief respite from the light rain, although the puddles were quite large.
We left the nature reserve close to the large and inviting Visitor Centre. In the next field, opposite Ivy House Country Hotel, we found a ewe with two lambs.
This stunning mural of a march harrier was created by the artist ATM in 2018. Read all about it
here.
We reached the broad itself. It is believed to be the remnant of medieval peat cutting. To the east it is linked to the saltwater Lake Lothing which passes through the centre of Lowestoft and opens into the North Sea. To the west it is linked by Oulton Dyke to the River Waveney.
Oulton Broad is one of the finest stretches of inland water in the UK and forms the southern gateway to The Broads. The Broad is perfect for water sports such as sailing, rowing and windsurfing. The Broads have been important for sailing and other types of boating since the end of the 19th century. It is a unique navigation system where special inland sailing craft have evolved and where sailing has remained a significant influence.
Suitably refreshed, we set out on the second half of our walk.
The broad is separated from the saltwater
Lake Lothing by
Mutford Lock. It has an unusual pair of lock gates. It is used about 800 times a year.
We passed through a residential area with some rather nice houses. I liked the daffodils in the garden.
St. Michael's Church Oulton, is unusual in having a tower in the middle. It is believed that the church stands on the site of a church founded by St.Felix, circa 650 AD. (from whom Flixton is derived). It is also thought to have been the site of a Roman Temple. When the church was first built, possibly about the year 1100, the
village clustered around the church. In the medieval period the
sea-levels would have been 10 to 15 feet higher than they are today and
there would have been imposing views across the flooded valley below the
church to the distant Norfolk village of Burgh St Peter.
We skirted the edge of Oulton Marsh. Daffodils were the flower of the day.
Now we were back in the countryside and had to go through
Flixton Decoy. Here we had a bit of hurdle... a tree had fallen across the bridge over the stream leading from the lake.
It was a bit of a scramble, but we all managed to get across without incident.
We had been told we would find sand under foot today. And here, at last, we found some, but not for much further than up this little slope and the next 1/2 mile or so along Waddling Lane.
Passing the edge of Blundeston and Somerleyton Marshes we came closer to the river and railway line again,
The rain had got heavier and was rather relentless now. We were glad when we reached the village of Somerleyton. Passing the village pond...
... and Widows Row cottages...
The cup of tea was very welcome. We squeezed in beside the bikes to stay out of the rain.
Mick, our rescuer of last week, was able to come with the
BACT bus and pick us up slightly early.
It was still raining when we got back to our cars and drops on my lens spoiled our group picture at the end. We'll have to try that again when we finish the stage we abandoned last week.
On the bus on the way back Joyce asked people to guess how many photos I had taken. This was the guesses... Lin 45 Hillary 160 Wendy 37 jane 49 Miranda 64 Joan 65 Mike 89 Joyce 147. Well I'd taken more than I had expected. I thought Joyce would be the closest, but she wasn't. Hilary is the winner as I took 191 in total 😀
Thank-you Joyce for all the organisation and leading us and to the others for the company. Stage 7 to the end of the Angles Way next Friday! Watch out for news of it here.
You can see more detail of our route today here on MapMyWalk and more of my
photos here on Flickr.
You can read more about today's stage here:
You can read more about the Angles Way as a whole using these resources:
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