Today it was the first Thursday of the month and my turn to lead the U3A Bury St Edmunds Longer Walks Group.
I took them to Hen Reed Beds to do the walk I'd led for Joyce's group back in February (see
here).
This was my invite.
"Thursday 1st May. John is leading a walk
from the Hen Reed Beds Car Park on the A1095 Halesworth Road, post code IP18
6SH. What 3 Words ///paper.flaunting.against.
We will start walking at 10:00, 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.
Note that there are no facilities available for the first 5 miles or so. We
will stop in Southwold for lunch and at the Old Hall café for tea.
The walk will be approx. 11 miles. Lifts available from Skyliner Way Sports Centre at
8:30 am.
Directions to the Car Park: Leave the A12 on the
A1095 towards Southwold. After about a mile the road bends left and you will
cross Wolsey’s Creek with the marshes on your right. After another 200yds take
the turning to the left (signposted Mardle Rd) and the car park is immediately
on your left."
This was route today.
Here are some of my photos.
There were 6 of us today so we were in 2 cars. We parked at the Hen Reed Beds Nature Reserve, and started by visiting the viewing platform overlooking the River Hen.
We heard and saw so many different birds today, starting with those in the reed beds here. Somewhere in there is a sedge warbler, but I can't see it.
Then it was across the road and along Wolsey's Creek,
We stopped briefly at the John Minihane hide.
An oystercatcher. We heard plenty of these today.
We could see
Quay House, now available as a "holiday cottage" that sleeps 14 for a lot of our walk.
We walked past
Blackshore Mill on Reydon marshes.
This is the bailey bridge, which we would cross twice.
We could see Southwold past the flowering gorse.
Not much wind today and the river Blyth was like a mirror.
We came to our drinks stop at the site of the former Walberswick station.
Her we saw several goldfinches.
We saw plenty of gorse in flower today.
There was a lot of birdsound in the hedge here.
And here is why... there was an adder lurking.
We skirted the edge of Walberswick via Robinson's marshes.
We came to the foot ferry. I suggested that those who didn't want to walk the full distance might like to take it, but we all kept to the planned route.
We walked up the river Blyth back to the bailey bridge..
Some would have liked to stop here but we weren't half way yet.
We walked through the businesses and boats of Southwold harbour.
It was a warm sunny day and the cafes were doing good business.
We spotted the ferrywoman crossing the river with a boatful.
There is a wooden carving of a Sanderling here close to the start of the
Sandlings Walk.
Dave and Sheila found the seats rather comfortable.
The sea seemed to merge into the sky at the horizon today.
We had our lunch stop on benches overlooking the beach.
I hadn't planned a pub stop, but popular opinion was to visit the Sole Bay Inn by the Adnams brewery.
Then it was onwards along the sea front.
It was just approaching 2pm and we could see people gathering to watch the
waterclock on the pier.
We passed the crazy golf and boating lake to get to Buss Creek.
Leaving the creek we headed along a path above Reydon Marshes. This was our bluebell wood of the day.
Our route took us through and alongside some fragrant gorse,
It was about a mile further back to the car park.
Thank-you all for joining me. You can find more details of our 11.5 mile route here on MayMyWalk (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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