It was the first Thursday of the month today, so time for a walk with the Bury St. Edmunds U3A Longer Walks Group. Rosalind was our leader today and, for the first time since I joined the group, we had a linear walk.
We met in Thetford and took two cars to Weeting where we left them and walked back to Thetford via Brandon, Santon Downham and the River Little Ouse.
This was the invite from Rosalind :
"Hoping you can join us for a 12 mile walk from Weeting to Thetford. Using mainly the Little Ouse Path and St Edmunds Way. Picnic lunch at Santon Downham. We will meet at Thetford Bus station car park, near the Charles Burrell Museum. Post code. IP24 1BN, W3W. rivals.scare.symphonic
On parking we will decide which cars will take walkers to Weeting, and which will stay behind in Thetford to make the journey with drivers to pick up cars at Weeting at the end of the walk.
Meet at 9:30am. Please respond so we know who to expect on Thursday."
In all 7 of us took part, so we all fit into 2 cars to get to Weeting. I took Tim and Sheila, while the others went with Rosalind.
This was our route.
Here are a few of my photos.
The free car park where we met is quite quiet now Wilko has closed down.
Here we are deciding on the transport logistics.
In Weeting we parked in front of the local shop.
With all the wet weather we had had, we were worried we might get some mud and flooding, but we came across nothing we couldn't circumnavigate. The road to the village hall has some nasty potholes.
The Grade 2 Listed "The Row "is alleged to be the longest continuous line of terraced thatched houses in the country.
We were heading along the path to Brandon Station.
A few puddles on the path...
...but rather more water in the field alongside.
As we approached Brandon we were amused by this sign for "Heritage Buildings". Um. Aren't they just sheds?
We crossed the River Little Ouse into Brandon. It looked quite full but not overflowing.
We had our drinks stop at the market place (see the photo at the top of the post). It was market day, but there weren't many stalls. We liked this one, though - the sausage rolls were delicious!
We passed an estate agents and found that one of the cottages in The Row was up for sale.
We would be taking some of the
St. Edmund Way today. This is the start of it. Or is it the end? I will, I hope, be walking all of it with Joyce's group starting on 1st March.
We were soon back out in the countryside. I remembered this path from our Santon Downham U3A walk here 2 years ago.
We reached Santon Downham.
The Old Post Office is up for sale for offers over £400,000.
We crossed the river via the Dad's Army bridge.
We passed some highland cattle.
Lunch was at the St. Helens picnic site.
We passed the display board for the hibernaculum but didn't go in search of it. Let sleeping bats lie... or should that be hang?
One last time across the river at Two Mile Bottom.
Here we found someone using the model aircraft airfield.
Now along the river back to Thetford.
We were even brave enough to take the path close to the edge of the river.
It looks like the river has overflowed a bit here at some time recently.
Coming back into Thetford...
..we passed this muntjac just yards from the path.
On the river, a couple of kayakers went by... complete with shopping trolley.
And here we are back at the car park.
Well that worked out just fine and we ended with dry feet. Thank-you Rosalind for organising and leading us, Chris for giving us a lift back to our cars in Weeting and to them and the rest of the group for the convivial company.
You can find more detail of our 11.6 mile route here on MapMyWalk (or download a GPX file here) and see more of my photos here on Flickr.
Other related walks you can find on my blog include:
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