Today we had an entertaining walk from Thurston which didn't quite go to plan.
This was the invite from Joyce.
"Wednesday January 3rd - an additional walk. I will meet the train participants at Thurston Train Station at 9.50amand then we will walk over to the Car Park at New Green near Thurst Cafe to join the others for 10am. Our 10 mile walk will be on quiet back roads and footpaths. We are heading over to Tostock Green and then having a drinks stop at The Dog, Norton. Then we head to Pakenham and more field edges and road to Thurston. There is the option of extending the walk (at the end) by a further 3 miles and also another drinks stop at The Fox & Hounds in Thurston if you wish. Please bring a packed lunch with you."
It has been raining quite a lot recently and Dawn thought it might be a bit muddy for her walking shoes in places, so decided to walk in wellies. We arrived at New Green to find several there already and Joyce soon joined us with Mike and Steve from the train station. It was a nice sunny morning as the 11 of us we set out. This was our route...
As you can see, we never got to Norton... more about which anon.
Here are a few of my photos.
We met by the recycling facilities to the accompaniment of bottles breaking as they were dropped in the container.
We were soon out in the countryside, and this path looked dry enough.
We crossed a ditch that was nearly overflowing.
This is looking back towards Thurston Church.
Now we had water to either side of us.
More puddles, but were able to walk round them.
We passed the entrance to Black Bourne Nature Reserve. It was likely to be a bit muddy down there, if not flooded.
We nearly missed this turning.
We were in Tostock soon after. Oh look! Lovely Christmas decoration!.
We enjoyed a good look around and had our group photo (at the top the post) here. Roland informed us that it was known as crochet-bombing. Yes. That's a real thing! It's also known as
yarn-bombing and seems to have taken off in Suffolk in the last couple of years.
Postboxes are favourite targets... like this one just down the road.
We took the road to Norton, going under the railway line.
Oh no! How deep was it? We sent Dawn out to check it in her wellies.
What does everyone think? "No way are we walking through that!", was the consensus.
Well it was up above Dawn's ankles in places.
We tried another route to get to Norton and our promised coffee stop at The Dog. The path alongside the garden of this house started out OKish....
....but we soon had to send Dawn scouting ahead again. She reported more water. I looked at the map. The path would be crossing under the railway line near the Black Bourne. No good. We were trapped! We would have to leave Tostock the way we came in.
We returned to the village hall to have our packed lunches...
...and have a go on the outdoor gym equipment.
We set off back towards Thurston by a different route at first, but we crossed the railway line again on the bridge we had used earlier.
This time a train came as we were crossing. We waved at the driver who gave us a cheery wave back.
We took some filed edges towards Pakenham.
The church was our toilet stop. In the churchyard we saw some snowdrops about ready to blossom.
We passed round the back of
Nether Hall....
...and continued through the estate with its lovely old trees.
We returned to Thurston along Mill Lane and passed through the new housing estate.
And here we are back at New Green.
Well that was quite an adventure. I wish I'd worn wellies too as I ended up with damp feet. Thank-you Joyce for leading us round and also to everyone else for the entertaining company.
You can find more of my photos
here on Flickr and more details of our 11.3 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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