Thurston Walk

Today we had a circular walk from Thurston via the wonderful Tostock crochet Christmas decorations.

This was very similar to this walk last year, but we didn't get any flooding to thwart us this time. This was the invite from Joyce.

"Friday Dec 13th.  A change of plan as the original walk will be too water logged after Storm Darragh. We are going to hope that Tostock isn’t too flooded. They have added to their wonderful crocheted Christmas display too! There will be plenty of Post Box toppers to view, I am sure. Let’s meet at Thurston train station at 9.48am when the Melton, Ipswich, Needham, Stow, Elmswell, Diss train arrives. The Cambridge and Bury train is a 9.32am arrival. I have booked a table at Thurst Coffee Shop for 10am refreshments so you are welcome to meet us there. 

Our walk will start just after 10.30am from Thurst Café. We will head to Tostock and the pub opens at 12.30pm so you are welcome to have a drink/use toilets. We will eat lunch at the playing fields near the pub. The circular walk is 10 miles and of course some parts are muddy and some are on quiet country lanes. Come prepared for all weather and bring food please."

This was our route today going clockwise from the start.

Here are a few of my photos.

In the Thurst Café at the start.

Off we go.

We walked past Pakenham Church but didn't visit.

We crossed the railway line here.

While the other went to the recreation ground to eat their lunches out in the cold, I joined Mandy and Rachel in visiting the Gardeners' Arms.

We sat in the naughty corner next to the open fire.

We visited the Tostock Christmas decorations.

This nutcracker doll is new for this year.

Here is the sign explaining it.

The Christmas tree and Gingerbread House are both here again too.

We counted the ten mice and discovered that the arms move.

That will be the King at the top.

The postbox next to the Parish Council notice board also features the same story.

Back across the railway line by this crossing...

...and we were soon back where we started.

Thank-you Joyce for leading us round. And thank-you to everyone else for the additional company.

You can see more details of our 10.2 mile route here on MapMyWalk or download a GPX file here.

Related walks you can find on my blog include

• Pakenham and Thurston Walk (June 2019)
• Pakenham Norton and Thurston Walk (May 2020)
• Thurston Walk (Jan 2024)