Today we had another walk in the Brandon area with stops at Brandon Country Park, Santon Downham and High Lodge.
This was the invite from Joyce.
"Friday January 12th Please join Miranda and I on a 12.5 mile circular walk starting at the free car park at the Mayday Bird Hide . Turn off the B1106 Thetford to Brandon Road ( what3words///sprint.crucially.competing) into a wide unmade road (the Forestry England post is section 6) and head to the parking area. I know that the phone signal is poor in that area so if you let me know that you are joining us, we can wait for you. There are no toilets here but we will head to Brandon Country Park for coffee/toilets and then into Brandon Town centre to catch the path over to Santon Downham (toilets). Then it's back into the forest over to High Lodge (more toilets and refreshments available here too). The paths should be soft and fairly dry underfoot. Plenty of wide paths for talking too. Start time 10am "
We had a good turnout of 9 despite both Miranda and Joan not able to make it as they were a little poorly. This was our route.
Here are a few of my photos.
Assembled at the start.
The paths were dry and covered in leaves.
We came across this display board about the flint mining in the area (previously seen on
this walk).
Some large trees have been left here.
We came to a pile of sand. We wondered what it was for.
We entered Brandon Country Park passing Edward Bliss's Mausoleum..,
...the lake...
...and Brandon Park care home.
Our drinks break was at the Copper Beech, but Shaun, Alicia and I stated outside with the flasks we had brought with us.
We walked to the edge of the country park and on through the town. We came out at the High Street opposite the Portuguese café, that my fellow U3A walkers admired on
this walk last week.
As my U3A walk last week had done, we headed towards Santon Downham along the
St. Edmund Way. This is the start or finish depending on which direction you walk it. We will be back here on the 1st March to walk the whole path over 8 stages in the following month.
It was still a bit soggy on lower ground.
We stopped at Santon Downham Village Hall for our lunch.
There are plenty of picnic tables.
The defibrillator box is also a library. We wondered how often the defibrillator has been used.
Another toilet stop by the former Post Office and Village Store. It is is up for sale for offers over £400,000.
We passed the church but didn't visit.
This was the only puddle and mud we encour=ntered on the whole walk!
What could she see? A tree. What could she hear? People talking. What did the air smell like? Cold.
We liked this owl statue we passed shortly after.
Across the main road back to the car park where we started.
Look how clean our shoes stayed!
Thank-you Joyce for organising and leading us around and to the others too for the company. You can see more details of our 12.8 mile route
here on MapMyWalk (or download a GPX file
here).
Other related walks you can find on my blog include:
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