Today we did the rest of the Gipping River Valley path we had started last Monday - beginning at Great Blakenham and finishing at the end in Stowmarket. Read about Part 1 here.
This was the invite from Joyce.
"Monday October 12th 2nd half of The Gipping Valley Path. We had glorious weather for last Monday’s walk. I am going to start from Great Blakenham this week and walk to the end at Stowmarket. I am going to catch the no 88 bus from Lime Tree Place in Stowmarket at 10.21am and alight at The Chequers in Great Blakenham at 10.41am. You can meet us there and catch a bus back of course at the end. The walk to Stowmarket is a little different to the first half with some lovely meadows and then the industrial part as we approach Stowmarket. The walk is 9 miles and we will stop at Alder Carr Farmshop for refreshments at about half way. Please bring packed lunch. I have decided not to lengthen the walk after we reach Stowmarket although you can explore the town/pubs."
This was our route today.
Here are a few of my photos.
We assembled at the bus stop in Stowmarket
...for the No 88 bus which took us to Great Blakenham and the start of our walk.
We went along the path we had sent Dan on last week to get the bus, past the pink house and through the fairy garden again.
Yes we were repeating part of our walk last Monday from here to Needham Market. See the blog for last week's walk
here to find out more.
We went by several former locks that are now just weirs. This is Sharmford lock.
We also saw plenty of bulrushes, an emblem of the path shown in the waymarking signs.
With the rare breeds farm on the other side of the river I managed to jst catch an image of some of the alpacas.
Time for a game of pooh sticks!
We took a short detour to
Baylham House Farm.. where we saw the rare breed alpacas earlier.
This was our drinks stop.
While the others did some quiz rounds with their drinks inside, I had brought a flask of coffee so Dawn and I drank that outside and I sneaked a peek at the pumpkin carving tent.
On we go back to the river valley path.
...and the permanently closed Duck and Teapot café marked the end of our walk last week.
We continued along the river.
Some houses in Needham Market have some lovely gardens backing onto the river.
Ooo look. More wild hops. We saw plenty last week and even more today.
We took another little diversion to visit
Alder Carr Farm for our lunch stop.
Lots of trees had been felled alongside the path. They were willow trees and had been harvested to make cricket bats.
We came to the outskirts of Stowmarket and the new warehouses etc.
This is a new path that goes that way.
I liked the idea of this business.
Now we reached the industrial part of our walk with the factories of
Muntons and
PPG, who had taken over ICI Paints.
I smiled a the profusion of hops by the path passing the Munton's site, just what is needed to amke some beer.
The plat pot stools are cute.
There is a mural depicting the history of the site.
We emerged into Stowmarket town....
...and the end of the path.
Now all we had to do was get back to our cars, passing the council-owned
Milton House on our way.
Thank-you Joyce for organising and leading us along and thank-you everyone else for the additional company. You can see more details of our route here on MapMyWalk or here on OSMaps (or download a GPX file here). You can also see more of my photos here on Flickr.
Other related walks you can find on my blog include...
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