Felixstowe Ferry Walk

Today we had a circular walk from Felixstowe ferry via Falkenham, Newbourne and the River Deben.

This was the invite from Joyce. 

"A circular walk of 13.5 miles from Felixstowe Ferry to Newbourne and back. We will be walking along the River Deben estuary with good views hopefully. It looks like The Ferry Café opens at 10am so let’s meet there at 10.15am for coffee/toilets before we start at approx 10.30am. There is parking at The Ferry. IP11 9RZ. There are public toilets at Felixstowe if you don’t want coffee beforehand . We will have lunch at Newbourne Recreation ground at 7 miles but I am not planning a pub stop on this occasion. Please bring all food and drink with you."

I got a lift from Joyce (thank-you) and we all met at the Ferryboat Inn as planned. Alas the Ferry Café was not open today (despite what it says on its website), so we had to set off without a coffee to start.

This was our route, taking the inland route first.

Here are a few of my photos.

The Ferry Café -not open today.

We set off along the Deben sea wall. Soon we came to the Jam Box, full of jammy treats as always.

There are some quirky old hulks along the edge of the river.

The marshlands here are great for birds.

We came to the body of water called "The King's Fleet". This article on local history of the area explains... " The part of the river Deben known as Kings Fleet was where Edward III fitted out his fleet for his expedition to Flanders in 1338."

We continued inland from here to Falkenham. We stopped at St Ethelbert's church but it wasn't open.

Across the river we could see All Saints, Ramsholt church which we visited on a walk in October last year.

We could also see the Ramsholt Arms.

We got a glimpse of BT Martlesham Heath.

And here is Hemley Church, which we would pass later.

We passed a field of rainbow beetroot...

...and another of butternut squash that was being harvested.

A bit of an overgrown bit as we approached Newbourne.

Caroline spotted some donkeys.

We stopped at the village hall to discuss what next.

In lieu of our coffee at the start, we took a short detour past the village sign...

...to the Fox Inn for drinks....

...before our planned lunch stop at the recreation ground.

We continued across the boardwalk...

...towards All Saints Church., Hemley.

We returned to the River Deben and followed it back to Felixstowe Ferry. We had lovely views along the way...

...and saw plenty of seabirds.

We passed Ramsholt church on the other side of the river...

...and the Ramsholt Arms.

Walking at the back of the group with Caroline and Sarah we spotted this bird. Was it a curlew? I used the zoom of my camera lens...

Yes it was!

Not far to go now.

And here we were back at Felixstowe Ferry.

Thank-you Joyce for leading us round and to the others for the additional company.

You can find more details of our 13.9 mile route here on MapMyWalk (or download a GPF file here) and see more of my photos here on Flickr.

Related walks you can find on my blog include:

• Suffolk Walking Festival - Felixstowe Marshes and Deben River Wall (May 2019)
• Felixstowe Ferry to Newbourne Walk (Aug 2020)
• Felixstowe Ferry Walk (Jul 2021)
• Newbourne Walk - The Retirement Walk (Jan 2022)
• U3A Newbourne Walk (Apr 2022)
• Newbourne Walk (June 2022)
• Newbourne Walk (June 2022)
• Falkenham Walk (Dec 2022)
• Newbourne Walk (July 2023)
• Sutton Walk (Oct 2023)
• Newbourne Walk (Sep 2024)