Ixworth Pakenham and Stowlangtoft Walk

Joyce is a bit busy this week, so she asked me if I could lead a walk for the group. She had seen my write-up of my recent Ixworth walk and suggested that could be the basis. I decided to extend it by adding in Walk 3 from the same book to make a figure of 8 walk.

"Our next walk will be Friday 7th February. John is leading a circular country ramble of about 9 miles in the rolling landscape around Ixworth. The route is mostly along bridleways and quiet country lanes, but we could get a couple of muddy bits.  On the way we will take in Pakenham Windmill, Stowlangtoft Church and Pakenham Watermill. Meet at Ixworth Village Hall  free car park  High Street, Ixworth IP31 2HH to start walking at 10am. Bring a drink and snacks/sarnies with you for a brief stop at Stowlangtoft Church half way round. Refreshments afterwards, for those who wish, at The Pykkerell."

I never got to recce the second loop, but it looked quite straightforward... as long as there wasn't any flooding. This was our route.

In all there were just 5 of us and we set off on time. Here are a few of my photos.

The bells ere ringing out from St. Mary's church as we got going. I was tempted to say I had arranged it for us, but I knew no-one would believe me.

We were very quickly in the country. Over to our left through the lingering mist we could see the Grade I listed Ixworth Abbey house, which incorporates ruins of the 12th century Augustinian Ixworth Priory.

We crossed and recrossed The Black Bourn a couple of times. It was pretty full but not overflowing.

In front of us we saw the herd of fallow deer Dawn and I had seen previously. They ran off away from us before we got anywhere near close.

It is a lovely path down from the top of the hill heading towards the Pakenham Windmill.

We crossed the main road and carried on to the mill.

Here there was a sign with information about the village of Pakenham... the only place remaining with a working windmill and watermill.

We passed a garden full of snowdrops.

And now we were in unknown territory. The path along the Black Bourn turned out to be fine.

Before we got to Stowlangtoft, we came across this poster in a bus shelter.

We watched out for them but didn't see any toads today.

Our lunch stop was at St. George, Stowlangtoft church. By now, as you can see, we had beautiful blue skies.

The church was locked so we couldn't visit, but we could sit in the sun for our snacks and drinks.

Nice though it was, sitting in the sun, we had a walk to finish. We headed on through the churchyard, across some of Stowlangtoft Park and onto the minor road heading north.

Damn! Missed! As we walked along the road, there was a hare sat under a tree. "Look, John, there's a hare", said Glen. By the time I got my camera ready it was haring away.

We passed Stowlangtoft Hall, now a residential nursing home. One to put on my list for 20 year's time, perhaps?

Lovely though the weather was, it is still winter. I love the bare trees against the blue sky.

We were heading for Kiln Farm and an instruction to turn left on the footpath and pass the barn. Oh. That looks like the barn might have been converted.

And indeed it had been, about 2 years ago. We followed the footpath sign and met the owners of the conversion. "They are taking so long over diverting the footpath.", they said resignedly and invited us to walk through their property on the footpath route.

Now we were on our way back to Ixworth. We say this nice display of winter aconites as we passed.

We could see Ixworth Church....

...and Pakenham windmill.

Soon we we reached Pakenham Watermill and the lovely topiary by the mill pond.

We headed back, pausing to do a bit of bird-spotting at Micklemere and passing loads of snowdrops...

...and who is that waving from the window of an old car in a garage we passed?

Back in Ixworth, we admired the village sign and the informative panels next to it. A village sign Glen hadn't bagged before today!

The others had to go but Glen and I enjoyed a drink at The Pykkerell, as planned, before heading home. Well. What a lovely day for a lovely walk! Thanks to Glen, Jane, Roland and Teresa who joined me to share it.

You can see more details of our route here on MapMyWalk and more of my photos here on Flickr.

Ramblers Thetford Warren Lodge Walk

Photo appropriated from Chris F's Facebook post.

Hooray. No staying in for heating engineers this week so I was able to go on today's Bury St. Edmunds Ramblers walk. This was the listing.

This was our route (approximately).

I say approximately because I managed to start my stopwatch rather than my tracker on phone at the start (doh!) and I had to reconstruct the route up to the point I realised.

Here are some of my photos.

There were 37 of us today and, as a result, the car park was full. Chris sent us to the remains of the  Warren Lodge, which dates from around 1400,  to assemble for the start.

We all read the information panels.

Here's Chris giving her briefing on the walk. There was a cold wind blowing so she didn't keep us standing about for long.

We set off across the heathland of the old warren.

We crossed the Thetford-Brandon road and went through the forest down to the River Little Ouse.

We regrouped at the Abbey Heath weir  before crossing the river.

The Little Ouse Path along the river was pleasantly dry and there were still plenty of last year's fallen leaves.The full path starts in Thetford mainly following the river towpath through Santon Downham to Brandon.

As often happens when walking around here, we had air cover at times.

We passed Thetford Power Station, the largest one in England to run on poultry litter (a mixture of straw, wood chips and poultry droppings). It produces high quality fertiliser as a valuable by-product.

We didn't see many swans on the river, but here are a couple.

We stopped for our drinks break by the model aircraft flying field, home of the Breckland Model Aero Club.

I mentioned to Chris that we had now joined up with my Ramblers walk from Santon Downham in November (read all about that here). I mentioned we had visited the Two Mile Bottom bat hibernation tunnel (aka a  hibernaculum). (You can read more about it here too). She was taking us past the sign about it but didn't know where the tunnel itself was. Would I like to take everyone past it?

But first we had to recross the river....

...and pose for the group photo at the top of the blog entry. Here is Chris lining it up.

Fortunately I remembered how to find the hibernaculum. Here is the entrance....

...and the far end....

...and the information panel.

The sun was out now. After some more pleasant walking alongside and through Warren wood, we had to cross the road again.

A helpful motorist had stopped to let us cross, but I don't think everyone behind him on the road was that pleased.

Then it was back through the forest via the exit to High Lodge and were soon back at the Warren Lodge.

Thanks Chris for the lovely walk and taking us through plenty of trees to shelter us from the cold wind.

You can see more of my photos here on Flickr and more details of our route here on MapMyWalk,

Walberswick Walk

We looked at the weather forecast. It was going to be nice today but wet tomorrow. So best we do our weekend walk today. "Can we go to the coast?", said Dawn. I had a little think and suggested we do another walk from the AA 50 Walks in Suffolk book. We were too late to do the 10 mile Dunwich one, but we could do that another time. Instead I chose walk 5 "Across the River Blyth to Walberswick" - and this was the first of a few inaccuracies in the description... we didn't cross the river at all. But never mind. I calculated that at 4 1/4 miles starting by 12:15 we would be back in plenty of time to have lunch at The Bell Inn before they stopped serving at 2:30....

This was our route.

Here are a few of my photos.

We parked by the ferry and set off in good time in lovely sunny weather, although it was somewhat breezy.

We passed through the centre of the village.

"I think it would be quite nice to live here", said Dawn. "Except it gets too busy with tourists in the summer." I replied.

We saw some early primroses.

The path was nearly all relatively mud-free. Apart from this bit going through the marshes.

The reeds were waving in the breeze.

We had views back to the village with the church prominent. The guide said we were on the Suffolk Coastal path here, but we weren't. That runs much closer to the sea.

Looking the other way we could see Sizewell power station in the distance. I was a similar distance the other side of it on our Sailors' Path  walk last week.

There were sheaves of cut reeds stacked up ready to be taken away.

We took the detour to the picturesque ruins of Westwood marshes mill. It sticks up like a sore thumb from the marsh and can be seen from miles around.

We headed inland and joined the Sandlings Way, although the instructions didn't mention that.

I think this was a shooting party.

A bird flew over and perched close enough to see. "It's a hawk", said Dawn. But is it? I don't think so.

We were heading across Walberswick common towards the river now and could see Southwold in the distance...

...as well as Walberswick church.

The gorse flowers looked very pretty in the sunshine.

We could see Quay House...

...and Blackshore Mill...

...across Reydon marshes. And, closer at hand, an egret.

We arrived at the river and the bridge across to Southwold, but we stayed this side and walked back towards the ferry.

Southwold church and lighthouse are visible here.

We returned to our car here having walked 4 3/4 miles rather than the 4 1/4 miles stated...

...but, yes, we were still in good time to have lunch at The Bell.

And very tasty it was too. Well that was lovely walk in the winter sunshine. Highly recommended!

You can more details of our route here on MapMyWalk and more of my photos here on Flickr.