East Harling Walk

Today was the first Thursday of the month and time for the U3a Bury St Edmunds longer Walks group monthly walk. Today it was John's turn to lead and he took us across the border into Norfolk for a walk from the woods near East Harling.

This was his invite.

"The walk on 1st October is around West Harling woods and Knettishall. 16.6Km on forest tracks, Peddars Way and Angles Way. Dry underfoot, forecast is great. There is a cafe 5Km into the walk and a picnic site, with toilets at 9Km. Pub afterwards either in E Harling or Hopton (only open after 3pm). Park in layby at The Street (Roman Road on OS Maps) Map ref TL9884 8395 ".

"Alexa, what is 16.6 km in miles?", asked Dawn, although I could have told her. In the end she decided not to come so she could carry on making green tomato pickle from our harvest and restoring a table for William.

This was our route today.

Here are some photos. I managed to find the right lay-by and was soon joined by the others. 

There were 8 of us today and we were all there in good time to start walking at 10am. Into the woods we went.

After a brisk couple of miles we stopped for a drinks break.

We joined the path going alongside the River Thet. I was on familiar paths now for most of the rest of the walk.

We stopped at Thorpe Woodlands for drinks at the café.

I resisted the temptation to follow Chris's example with a bacon and egg sandwich. It looked rather yummy, though.

Onwards along the Peddars Way towards Knettishall Heath. We had some lovely dappled sunshine as we walked along the woodland paths.

We came across this lot behind a fence beside our path.

A couple had managed to escape and walked with us for a bit.

We crossed the Little Ouse river into Knettishall Heath.

Ros and Sheila had a sit on the seat that was commemorated the Newmarket Rambler John Morris (1938 - 2015),  who walked the entire 46 miles of the Peddars Way on June 2nd 1996. 

We had our lunch at the picnic tables here.

Back across the Little Ouse along the Angles Way for a while back into Norfolk for the rest of our walk.

We passed Riddlesworth Hall School, which Princess Diana attended between 1970 and 1974. Read more about her time there here.

St. Peter Riddlesworth church  turned out to be open so we popped inside to have a look.

There was music on the organ, but I couldn't work out what the piece was. Some Bach, perhaps?

I couldn't resist photographing this typical Breckland line of pine trees.

We crossed some open heathland - Middle Harling Heath.

Then it was back through the trees the way we had come at the start to our cars.

A lovely walk in some lovely autumn sunshine. Thank-you John for leading us round and thank-you everyone else for the additional company. You can find more details of our 10.5 mile route here on MapMyWalk or here on OS Maps (or download a GPX file here).

You can find more related walks here on my blog.

Knettishall Heath and Hopton Walk (Jul 2019)

The Princess the Bombers and The Ponies  (May 2020)

Knettishall Heath to Hopton Walk (Aug 2020)

Knettishall Heath Walk (Nov 2020)

Knettishall Heath Walk (Feb 2021)

Thorpe Woodlands Walk (Jan 2023)

Angles Way - Part 2 (Feb 2023)

U3A Knettishall Heath Walk (Apr 2024)

Garboldisham Walk (Apr 2025)

Thorpe Woodlands Walk (Mar 2026)