Today it was my turn to lead Joyce's Weekly Walks group.
I chose a walk from the
Hen Reed Beds Nature Reserve, extending one Dawn and I had enjoyed at the Suffolk Walking Festival last year (see
here).
This was the invite.
"Wednesday February 12th. John is kindly leading a walk from the Hen Reed Beds Car Park on the A1095 Halesworth Road, post code IP18 6SH. We will start walking at 10:15am, visiting the reserve and then doing a circular walk via the Suffolk Coast Nature Reserve, the River Blythe, Walberswick, Southwold Harbour and Southwold. Bring drinks and a packed lunch. We will stop in Southwold for lunch and the Old Hall café in the afternoon for a cuppa tea. The walk will be approx. 10 miles. "
In all we had 14 walkers today. This was our route, taking the bailey bridge across the river Blythe twice and going via Walberswick and Southwold.
Here are a few of my photos.
We started by visiting the viewing platform overlooking the River Hen.
Here is a heron.
Then it was across the road and along Wolsey's Creek,
There are a some lovely views along the path towards both Walberswick and Sountwold.
We stopped briefly at the John Minihane hide.
We could see
Quay House, now available as a "holiday cottage" that sleeps 14 for a lot of our walk.
As we got closer, we could see Southwold in the distance better.
We liked this sign in the marsh. The only way of getting a car or trailer there to park them would be by barge, I think.
Her is the bailey bridge.
We crossed it. This is the view down-river.
We saw plenty of flocks of birds today.
Our drinks stop was at the site of the former Walberswick station.
For about 1/4 mile, we had a short stretch along this path and then a short piece of road that we had walked in the other direction on our
D is for Dunwich walk last month.
We walked down to the bird hide which overlooks Robinson's marshes.
These houses had lovely views across the marshes and river towards Southwold.
We came to the foot ferry across the river. Not operating today so we would have to walk up to the bailey bridge, cross it, and come back down the river to get to the other side from here.
We got good views of Southwold harbour to our right...
...and the birds on the marshes to our left.
The other walked on as I waited for the birds to rise again.
Back across the bailey bridge...
...and down the other side.
We continued along the King Charles coast path.
There is a wooden carving of a Sanderling here.
Up to Gun Hill, which was our lunch stop.
We could see Sizewell 'B' power station in the distance.
It was very cosy and I had trouble getting people to leave the warmth and carry on walking.
We passed the iconic lighthouse...
...before taking the path along Buss Creek.
We came to some heathland.
They had reserved 2 tables for us.
Karen and Roland discovered these phots on the wall of their summer
Maize Maze designs.
It was a bit cold for anyone to sit outside today, but they have plenty of seating with great views across the estuary.
Just over a mile to go back to the car park now.
They have a couple of walks here. We did part of one of them to get back to the river bank.
A cormorant drying its wings.
It was close to high tide when we started our walk, but the tide was mostly out as we retraced our steps along the riverbank path.
And here we are back at the car park.
Well that was fun. A pity we didn't get any sunshine, but never mind - it didn't rain, unlike when Dawn and I walk here last May. Thanks to all who came along.
You can find more details of our 10.7 mile route
here on MapMyWalk (or download a GPX file
here) and more of my photos
here on Flickr.
Other related walks you can find on my blog include
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