An intoxicating walk of willow and marsh

This was always going to be a walk of willow and marsh and it did not disappoint, and there were some awesome other creatures and nature as well. Continuing my trip along the Angles way, to almost complete the whole trail. To do a walk round Suffolk I knew would entail key public transport at some point either to get back to my car or to do the walk entirely. I have to say it is much easier in the East of the county than the West. There is a big difference between these two sections of the county; In the West you have large numbers of single occupancy farmland or institutionally owned farmland , sparser villages altogether a more remote and distant land however  in the East there are smaller farms and it could also be that the East has a history of engagement maybe? There’s also the coast which leads to a greater Holiday industry too not to mention the Ports, rivers and trading therein and the staff needed to accommodate. Altogether a very a different feel between the two halves of the County from a walkers perspective anyway.

This walk I had planned to do by driving to Brundall in Norfolk, catching the train to Lowestoft. From there, boarding the train to Beccles and then walking back to Lowestoft. At the end of the walk, I would return to Brundall either by train, providing  times permitted as they only run every 2 hours, or there was the half hour service the X1 bus that would hopefully take me from Lowestoft to Acle and then the train back to Brundall. It sounds even more complicated when explained like this, however it actually worked like clockwork.

My train journey was actually slightly complicated and I mused the difference pre Beeching would have made. However it is a very picturesque journey to Lowestoft across the marshland. I then left Lowestoft and arrived at Beccles and jumped off the train ready to begin my walk. There’s an hourly service between the towns of Ipswich and Lowestoft now due to a new Beccles loop that has been opened allowing trains to pass. Beccles was a big station. It used to be the point where the trains from London would either go to Gt Yarmouth or Lowestoft. I tried to imagine in the Victorian and Edwardian times just how many people would have passed through this station. In those days factories would close for two weeks, unpaid of course and people would come by the train load to the sea side. There would be Yorkshire week, Scots week, Luton week etc. where shoe factories would charter special trains to go to Gt Yarmouth or Lowestoft. A huge industry which together with Fishing, Wood, Grain and exports made Gt Yarmouth and Lowestoft buzzing places.

Here at Beccles you can almost hear the ghosts of those past travellers in the air. As you leave the platform over the footbridge remember this use to go over several lines, so now it seems an odd shape. The station itself, now a furniture store, would have had porters, waiting rooms, warm fires in the winter and an efficient and punctual Station Master who would have lived in one of the bigger houses close by. If you look at the buildings as you leave the station you see what would have been the Station Hotel, a couple of pubs and a shop now all turned into houses their function lost or changed. I mused  the excited voices of times gone by, the bustling businesses  the steam and heaps of coal this scene in your, your mothers, or perhaps your

grandmothers life time.

Leaving my imagination and the ghosts I walked back towards the river on this edge of the town. Beccles and its sister market town Bungay just five miles away were centres of trade, agriculture, with important rivers. These were rich towns; look at the merchant’s houses and church in Beccles high street or Bungay high street for evidence of its past existence. All around the town you see evidence of what was the wool trade and an agricultural industry or wealthy blacksmiths, people mending boats, unloading cattle for sale etc. These market towns thrived as centres or hubs for the surrounding areas. Now of course the printers have almost gone the cattle markets and Wherries certainly have, and the two mighty market towns are now somewhat dormitory towns to that bigger hub Norwich. I know I generalise here and people will object to being called a dormitory town but deep down you know what I mean.

Arriving at the river I walked through a field of what was disturbed land. Evidence of this is the huge swathes

of Horseradish together with nettles and brambles. I must say isn’t it a great year for blackberries after that cold winter? It smelt wonderful as the sun warmed the leaves and as I walked through, the movement made the smell waft up to meet me wonderful for the nasal passages! It was here I also saw what I think was the prize view on the walk and I was only 15 mins into it. Flying past with speed was a Clouded Yellow Butterfly; such strong flyers it was hard to keep up with it, let alone photograph it.(Hence the reason for the stock photo below rather than my own) Basically a migrant  or immigrant arriving here in the 1940’s they say they now over winter and are able to breed but cold or wet winters take their toll.

I walked up the river wall, passed the great archaeological dig that has been carried out several times over the last five years. Wooden oak posts, 67 of them actually and a platform were uncovered in what would have been a landing stage or walk way. In ancient times 2000+ years ago the river would have been roughly where it is now but much less canalised and walled. The river would have gone out of the flooded river valley what is now Lake Lothing near Lowestoft. Ships would have come up here to Beccles easily and the fresh water, the grasslands, the trees and the higher ground made it ideal for settlement and trade, again showing what a strategic position many of our villages and towns in this part of the world originated from. Think of the trading which would have taken place from parts of Europe and the South, this would have been a thriving hub even back then. Don’t you just Love Norfolk and Suffolk?  As I walked on I also thought how we have become conditioned and hidebound by political boundaries.  Water, birds, butterflies in fact all natural capital isn’t aware of these boundaries.

The river wall carried on and for the stretch of the walk the river was tre- lined, only giving the occasional glimpse of the river itself. It was so quiet. I have noticed on some of these walks around Suffolk how you can get to places for a short time where the traffic is masked, the aircraft are gone and all you get is wildlife and natural sounds. This was the case as I walked up the river. It certainly was a scene of marsh and willow. Huge Crack Willows, as they are locally known, grow tall, split, fall over, regenerate and re grow leaving a knarled fibrous trunk that rots while the newly fallen section roots and grows its a great way to make sure you survive. The occasional Oak I spotted too but it was Willows and Alder for most of the way.

It was a hot day so the smell of the marshes was sweet. Hemp Agrimony in flower wafted in the air full of insects and bees, coupled with the general smell of the marsh which is intoxicating. I came across a building and like in the last blog on Breydon, this housed the drainage pump. Again from the stains of the ground this was once a diesel pump, now electric, showing the progress of time.

As I left the building I saw the tell-tale signs of blue engineering bricks. These hardened bricks are used in places where strength and support are needed. Classic signs of something big and probably Victorian. Getting closer it was the bridge supports for the old railway line to Gt Yarmouth. As I mentioned earlier, Beccles was where the line from Gt Yarmouth joined what is now the East Suffolk Line to London via Ipswich. Branch lines to Lowestoft and Bungay, then Harleston and Tivetshall, now just a crossing on the modern Norwich to London Line. This bridge was once the mainline to London from Gt Yarmouth, how things change.

Moving on I stopped again at one of the fishing platforms to look at the river and have a drink. A blue flash caught my eye. For a micro second I thought it was the reflection of my drink bottle in my glasses but quickly realised it was the flash of a kingfisher disappearing up stream. A great sight I love kingfishers. Most of their colour comes from the light refracting in the feathers, underneath the feathers are quite black. A great fisherman and a sign the life in the rivers which is good. Quite conscious now of the boat traffic I moved on

I had noticed along the bank from Beccles it was mown quite close. Looking at the re growth it looks like it was mown some time ago. I felt a bit annoyed as I calculated this might still have been in the breeding season for many birds and insects. Having spent 25 years managing land and landscapes I know these things have to be managed but its timing and methods that make the difference.

 I soon came up to a sign that said the path ahead was being mown and sure enough two great flails were cutting the bank and berm between the soak dyke and the river wall. Soak Dykes, so called as they soak away any water seeping through the river walls, sometimes called Borrow Dykes for the reason that the mud was borrowed to create the wall, are important for wildlife.

Now I know the Environment Agency is responsible for these walls and keeping them clear helps keep the wall from being damaged by vegetation and obviously  prevents flooding.  The drainage engineers will always say that prevention of flooding is the primary concern, to save life and limb. I wouldn’t want flooding for anyone but at times I do think we are a little obsessed with neatness.

We have been conditioned as humans and especially over the last 100 years or so that neat is good scruffy is bad, but this isn’t the case. We need that variety of height, species, and diversity of habitats to ensure nature or our natural capita survives. Our obsession with neatness comes with a heavy price for nature there has to be a balance surely? I hope that the case here is that the banks are cut every 3 to 5 years rather than annually and in stretches at different times so we achieve bank stability but also maximise nature’s chances of the nettles being the host to butterfly eggs and other life giving and essential insects.

I have to say though this was the most fantastic walk for dragonflies. I know timing is right, but  there were chasers, darters, hawkers all over the place and at least two species of blue damsel fly as well. Constantly around me dragonflies were flying eating and mating. So impressive to see two dragonflys mating on the wing, imagine the red arrows flying with that precision! Maybe my analogy is going wrong here about mating and flying and the red arrows I meant the precise flying, oh never mind you know what I mean J I wasn’t carrying my dragonfly book but ruddy darter, blue chaser and migrant hawkers were certainly around me.

Continuing on I said hello to two chaps who appeared to have walked from Lowestoft. They were looking for Barnby and one looked worse for wear! So I showed them where they were on the map which path to take and bade them farewell. The walk from here on the wall widened out and you could see a long way either side of the valley. You could also see in the very distance the tower and grain silos of Lowestoft port. Sometimes I like this because it gives you  a land mark or a focal point but also the devilish side in your brain says it shows how far you still have to walk as these silos are right by the train station in Lowestoft - at least 5 miles away!

The marshes were still grazed by cattle, a great thing for this part of Norfolk and Suffolk, huge beasts of many varieties great to see; natural marsh beef must be tastier and better for you than housed grain and silage fed cattle. It made me think about the Archers and the debate over the super dairies Brian Aldridge wanted to build. Economically sound I’m sure for a business accountant farmer, morally good? It’s a debate of our times as farming, industry and life becomes more industrial and efficient. I can see both cases but question if it’s good in the long run for people and natural capital, I do wonder if we don’t just need to stop and think occasionally.

I passed Castle Marshes, a Suffolk Wildlife Trust reserve, and continued to Carlton Marshes SWT reserve where I knew I had to get to for the turn back into Oulton Broad. As I turned inland on the footpath from the wall to skirt round the end of Oulton Broad, I noticed the first piece of arable land on the walk. Not the best crop I have seen, I did wonder how this stacked up economically I have to say. I always seem to be complaining about footpaths damaged by ploughing and this was again noticeable. I know having driven tractors all my life and ploughed many a field that it is not easy to always drop the plough where you want it if you are trying to finish a job but it is just lazy to just drop the plough over a footpath and carry on knowing the plough will cut into where people walk.

I walked up to Carlton Marshes nature reserve and popped in to make sure I was on the right path, a lovely lady made sure I knew which path to take and I carried on my way.

Oulton Broad hoved into view with its yacht stations, boats, parks, seats, and ice-cream all essential parts of Oulton. Essentially the most easterly of the peat diggings that formed the boards, it is separated from Lake Lothing and the sea by a lock. Fresh water it is part of the Broads scene. Busy in the east and quieter in the west. When I was a lad, as they say, we used to come here to watch power boat racing. Getting one of those Ice creams, I am so partial to a Mr Whippy (my son and I are on a life quest to find the best 99. Diamasco van at Great Yarmouth harbour hold the title at the moment served with a welcome by Richard, it is one of the most fabulous 99’s you will ever have. Closely followed by a Kelly’s 99 at the Welsh show last year!) Anyway back to the walk.

On the map there was a footpath going under the railway bridge and back to Lowestoft from the mini roundabout near the Wherry Hotel. I found it; it has to be the smallest footpath I have seen and the battered sign holding in there was a welcome direction. A section no wider than one and half people to me to the railway bridge and beyond.

I have to say I love the natural world, without a doubt it is where I am most comfortable but I do love heritage, buildings and our built history and archaeology. I am passionate about reading landscapes, interpreting them and that of course means the social and heritage parts as well as nature.

 I was part of and Chair of the Heritage Lottery Fund for the East of England for nearly 10 years. It was the most enjoyable exciting and challenging thing I have ever been appointed to. The HLF Team in this Region are absolute stars and a lot of the heritage grants, opportunities and delivery is down to that great team working with applicants to get the best for the money that you give from your lottery ticket as 4p in very pound goes to the Heritage Lottery. Without this money, buildings, museums, art,  history, market towns, nature, railway engines, life boats,  you name it Heritage is all around us, and HLF have been so key in increasing value to Tourism, and the economy as well as conserving, preserving, and enhancing our heritage and communities. Visit their website and see the great work they have done. I recommend it, you never know you might be eligible to apply for a grant for a project near you, they will soon tell you.

Back to the path and why I diverted into talking Heritage Lottery for a second, the path now takes you through some of our industrial past. Not only do you see Lake Lothing, a drowned valley we have spoken about in previous blogs in the Stour but one which has an interesting past. It is thought that the Danes and Vikings especially, exploited the drowned valleys and easy boat access to penetrate far into East Anglia especially, Norfolk and Suffolk. Again, as with the blog on Breydon water ,the Lake was open to the sea it is thought till at least medieval times before a sand bar covered the entrance. It was re-opened and trade continued when the route to Norwich was re-established and the New cut opened.

The footpath goes through boat yards and works sometime right in front  of the workshops, You can imagine

this was a shoreline before the concrete and the fencing, and boats were hauled up, being repaired by marine carpenters and experts, pitch and tar was boiling in vats to be painted onto the wood for sealing and repairs, a hive of industry and it is the SAE today, boats everywhere in various states of repair or construction fascinating array of winches, steel ropes oils rust and slipways - I love it.

From here the path crosses the railway again this time by bridge. You drop into what was clearly heathland of some kind at some point. Sandy soils, ferns and bracken, gorse and a pine tree, a real relic of landscapes past. The community and council have created a footpath system through what is now a community wetland. I saw several mothers with young children looking over the ponds, one with a net, pond dippin,. all at home in what some would call wasteland. I was heartened that people didn’t see this as scary and a no go place despite it being secluded over grown in places, and probably not where they want to be at night but during the day they could claim this as their own.

Emerging from here you walk along the main road alongside the docks, or what were the docks. Converted to shopping experiences here were warehouses and businesses with easy access to rail and boat. Things change but again the historic architecture is all around if you look up about the shop fronts or behind the new buildings often great examples of old workshops or warehouses can be seen. The rows of terrace houses were again another age, Victorian I suggest, now homes for many people some cutting hedges, polishing window’s and chatting as I passed, you could sense a  real community here I thought.

I arrived at the bus station from the high street; ‘left at O2’ someone told me and so I waited only 10 minutes to get the bus. The X1, a bus from Lowestoft to Peterbourgh via Kings Lynn. Wow what a trip to do on a bus! Hmm not sure that ‘great’ is the right superlative here; think of the communities villages and places it serves on the way. I jumped on with some trepidation, the X1 is not known for its friendly bus drivers, its reputation you hear however received is legendary, but that’s the challenge and I did get a smile from this bus driver, he was fine.

A bumpy old journey of nearly an hour got me back to Acle and a short walk to the station to catch the train to Brundall and finally my car. Yes I could have just gone from Acle to Lowestoft at the start but I wanted to experience different types of public transport to see if I could get them to work and they do in the majority of cases, you just need to plan and work out the journey times and connections. I enjoyed this walk. It was hot, I got though plenty of sun cream, but very enjoyable with lots to see and experience.

I hope you’ve enjoyed reading about this latest walk, I’ve now completed my own personal One Million Steps challenge walking around Suffolk, and so I've decided to keep going and aim for two million by Christmas!! I hope I’ve inspired some of you to take up the Healthy Ambitions One Million Steps #OMS challenge too – it all begins on Monday 16^th and that’s also the date you can see a précis of this walk featured in the East Anglian Daily Times. To see who is walking #OMS around Suffolk check out the website or follow their progress on Facebook 

Until next time, happy walking

Richard

Fame at last!

I'm delighted to write that my blog has been picked up by the East Anglian Daily Times, so they are to feature some of my walks in the East Anglian starting from next week - which I'm rather chuffed about. If you've already read my blog you will see I'm rather passionate about walking and also encouraging others to get out there and start enjoying the simple pleasures that walking on a regular basis does bring.

I'm the CEO of a charity - Healthy Ambitions.  We have created the One Million Steps Challenge for teams of 5 to walk a million steps over 4 weeks. This sounds a lot, it is but is surprisingly easy; it might be that getting off the bus a stop early or walking to work or a meeting and it becomes habit forming - you end up walking more and more each day. If you'd like to know more about the Healthy Ambitions One Million Steps Challenge click here.

Walking to me is very important. It allows me to get exercise, look at buildings and heritage, look at the clouds, listen to the birds, watch butterflies, smell the flowers or listen to music.  It increases my awareness of the natural world around and not only exercises our bodies but our minds as well. I hope you'll enjoy reading about my walks around Suffolk either here on my blog or via the East Anglian Daily Times and that I inspire at least some of you to go out there and start walking!

Until my next walk (and blog!)

Regards

Richard 

My sadness at 'sterile' fields and when silence is far from golden.

Day two of my Million Steps Challenge saw me catching the train to Manningtree Station to pick up from where I left off on dayone. The day was grey, but no hold ups on the train and I arrived in Manningtree at 08.55. I walked down from the station to the hedge-lined route across the grassland towards Flatford. I knew it was going to be a different type of route to day one, from the wide open estuary to the grasslands and meadows and farmland of the Stour Valley, however what I wasn’t prepared for was the real contrast in scenery  between the two days.  

Firstly was the butter cup filled area that was obviously a chunk of land used for draining the railway, and gloriously opposite was also butter cup rich meadow, Buttercups were a big feature of day two of my MSC (million steps challenge). I don’t know if was the cold wet winter that has made them thrive or just that I was fortunate to hit the right time of year but there was certainly a massively impressive, golden show. Instantly I was taken back to my childhood, do you remember putting a flower under your chin to see if you liked butter? I continued on the track when a horse box came passed from the local farm with a young labrador  puppy running after it and beseeching the driver to ‘wait for me’ or ‘take me with you please.’ Then the pup saw me come back into the road from standing aside and in true cartoon-style he screeched to a halt in total surprise and fear, legs akimbo then bolted back towards the farm, looking behind him as he ran, so, so funny. As I neared the farm gate he had regained his composure and started barking like the grown up dog he aspired to; which was fine till I turned round and took a step back towards him, you should have seen him turn tail and run! I could have happily played this game for ages but I had plenty more steps ahead of me so instead I left the ‘brave dog’ to his own devices.

Passing under the Railway, I came across several large Oaks and looking left, the broom was in full display on the railway track,  a truly impressive display it brought to mind the poem ‘Oh to be in England’ by Robert Browning.

Oh, to be in England

Now that April's there,

And whoever wakes in England

Sees, some morning, unaware,

That the lowest boughs and the brushwood sheaf

Round the elm-tree bole are in tiny leaf,

While the chaffinch sings on the orchard bough

In England - now!

And after April, when May follows,

And the whitethroat builds, and all the swallows!

Hark, where my blossomed pear-tree in the hedge

Leans to the field and scatters on the clover

Blossoms and dewdrops - at the bent spray's edge -

That's the wise thrush; he sings each song twice over,

Lest you should think he never could recapture

The first fine careless rapture!

And though the fields look rough with hoary dew

All will be gay when noontide wakes anew

The buttercups, the little children's dower

- Far brighter than this gaudy melon-flower! Robert Browning 1812--1889

Musing this poem throughout my walk, I thought how spring this tear is at least 20 days late, its brought all of nature out in blossom together - an amazing sight, I wondered what Browning would have made of today’s vista. As I continued down the hedge lined route for the first ¾ mile it was a cacophony of sight and sound. Young rabbits darting across the path obviously living in the base of the huge thick hedgerows, the type where livestock have been grazing for years, cut back now but originally a well laid hedge giving it depth and structure before the invention of the flail. The birdsong was tremendous, white throat, blackcap, gold and chaffinch, blue and great tits, robin, and dunnock to name but a few.

Over the sound, and in the distance, the unmistakable sound of the Cuckoo, one of four I would hear this day. A bird, loved and loathed for its practice of laying eggs in others nests but imagine how hard this must be, as a cuckoo would have to lay about 8—10 eggs a whole clutch, in the right nest at the right time, too early and it would be ignored, too late it wouldn’t be incubated so it must surely be a stressful time, but what an excellent example of evolution and adaption. Imagine a spring without the cuckoo. They are suffering badly here and in the wintering grounds and subject of a big study by the British Trust for Ornithology. They are radio tagging birds and tracking them by satellite back to Africa and building up quite a picture which will be essential for their conservation. I wonder if one of the four I heard during my walk was a tagged bird. I recorded a bit of the cuckoo in the distance(click on the video above).

Today’s walk was all about birds and other wildlife, I was literally surrounded by them. The key formulae were all here. Hedges and vegetation, nesting habitat, grass, grazing animals, water, trees and essentially insects from all those mixed together. It was so striking, the sound and sight of nature, it really was a pleasure to walk.  Once I reached the sluces before Flatford I was treated to sight of a pair of Turtle Doves, a bird that had declined by 98% in the UK. Just think when was the last time you hear the distinctive call of the turtle dove? I bet it was a while ago, unless you were listening out for it I suspect.

I stopped at Flatford for a couple of reasons; one to look at the RSPB Flatford garden.

This was a project started when I was still Director of the Region for the RSPB. It was a legacy specifically for the RSPB, and the only choice was to make it something which I hoped complemented what the other organisations at Flatford were doing. At the time a climate change proof Suffolk garden seemed to fit the bill. I am pleased to report it looks fabulous and therefore a big well done to Mark Nowers and his team of jolly volunteers for making it such a success. I also met with Tim McGregor the Property Manager at National Trust Flatford. I suppose I am unique here having been Regional Director for both RSPB and National Trust. It was great to see Tim again and catch up on what is happening at Flatford and the area, a property which always has a special place in my heart.

Declining the offer of coffee, I felt I had only walked a short distance I strode out across the grass meadows towards Dedham. The cattle were interested to see me. I love cattle, I know some people aren’t fans but they are such great beasts, I love their eyes, their inquisitiveness and the smell and sound. Some stopped to look I stopped and wondered who was looking at who!  I got an investigatory lick from one. I love how if you touch their nose it is a delayed reaction before the move back, its great fun, touch their nose and count the seconds before you get a reaction.

Continuing on I saw two ladies walking their dogs and a runner panting by, little did I realise these were to be my only company for the rest of the walk. The fields all around me were packed with buttercups, a green wood pecker yaffled away from me, gold finches and sky larks in front of me and butterflies abound.  Arriving at the road to Dedham I crossed and continued my way towards the A12 underpass. The Stour, full of water and very reflective, showing off the blossom in a fantastic mirrored image with the folly sitting by the river, simply beautiful. Interestingly, as you leave Dedham you start to pick up the noise of the A12, increasingly so as you near it obviously. I went through the underpass and joined, what originally would have been the old A12, now a vegetated edge quiet road. Past some amazing old wood framed building, I always wonder how some of these are still stand, bent and knarled as they are but always worth a look as there are some amazing carvings on the doors and porches, 

Crossing a small bridge, I went across another grass meadow obviously grown for hay, continuing the grass meadow theme of the pre-A12 walk. This time though I noticed immediately this was a commercial Italian rye seed mix not a wild flower mix. The grasses were seeding so it would be cutting time shortly but it was noticeable that there were no flowers in the mix. We have lost 97% of our flower meadows in the UK a shocking figure, but wonderful that the Queen has chosen this year, her 60^th year since her coronation, to make her mark with conservation via the regeneration of our flower meadows, creating 60 flower-rich meadows for generations to come.  

After walking past a fishing lake, the journey landscape changed. It changed in two ways; 1.) It became industrial farmland, but that gave me a chance to spot glacial and interglacial features and 2.) Nature became sparser and quieter.

As you’ll know I’m sure, there were approx. four main glaciations that affected the Eastern Counties of England. I have over simplified this for this blog but basically the ice reached London for the first, Essex for the second, Ipswich for the third, and the north Norfolk coast for the fourth. The ice sheets Kms thick affected us by planning the landscape and diverting rivers, depositing sands, gravels and tills over the landscape then re working that and re depositing each time. In between times there were warmer periods when the landscape was very important for ancient peoples and wildlife such as Hippos in the Thames, which of course was a tributary of the Rhine at that time, Lions, Hyena e.t.c. and Woolly Rhino and Elephants in the cooler periods. Evidence for this is still being found by geologists and archaeologists both of which in Suffolk we are well blessed with.

Features such as out wash channels, gravel based rivers, ice depressions and wind-blown sands e.t.c. are easily seen on the coast but these are also visible in the farmed landscape if you look. The undulating Suffolk countywide is a product of this process. The Suffolk clays, the gravels and the flints all due to the ice age reworking of the land.

There is a photo of an old outwash channel and subsequent stream below seen near Stoke by Nayland. In the fields and particularly good where potatoes are grown as the farmer moves the stones as he is planting with the machinery you can find flint Sea Urchins, worm burrows, Belemites squid like creatures, and the like; these have been replaced by flint in the chalky seas they lived 100—125 million years ago. You also find flits that have been rolled by the glaciers forming cannon ball flints as well as frost shattered and acid altered flints showing how harsh these landscapes were. What’s great is its all here to see as you walk through the countryside. For more indepth information check out the Suffolk Geosite or RIGS web site. 

So having had my head down looking for fossils I suddenly became aware of a mist. Was it raining? No it was an irrigator watering the potatoes, only trouble is it was irrigating the footpath as well! I had to time my run by once the spray had flicked left, it then moved back and I had to run ahead of the spray to keep dry. Trouble was the vegetation had been soaked and of course I brushed passed it all and got totally soaked - the water was running down the inside of my trousers!!

I understand the farmers have to irrigate their crops and I imagine I’m somehow to blame - afterall as a society  we are driven by the supermarkets to want potatoes all the same shape and size,  therefore the farmer is forced to deliver on these demands. As I walked I thought this must take its toll, he is constantly monitored by the supermarkets to get the right crop we allegedly want and therefore nature is constantly eroded with industrial farming and pesticide/herbicide sprays.

For a farmer to accomplish what we want he has to ‘sterilise’ the field. No ‘weeds’ (or wild flowers to you and me), no insects, and no crop damage. You are left with mono cultures of insect free, weed free crops, totally uninteresting and dead to life.

 I have to ask the question is this really what we want from our countryside? We have to work with farmers to give us more at the same time allowing them to be a profitable business; you and I have to demand that of our supermarkets and farmers.  It is lazy to blame food shortages and world famine; at the moment there is more than enough food in the world it is just in the wrong place so it’s a logistics issue and we need to stop throwing over 40% of our food away because we buy too much and let it go bad in our homes.

OK here endeth the lesson, but it will come back, in one of my future blogs.

Next, I crossed barley fields and through some more grassland with two pairs of displaying and calling lapwing, exhibiting all the characteristics of protecting young, I hope so, lapwing have also declined massively in our increasingly dry landscapes.

After crossing the road to Stoke-by-Nayland  near Torrington Hall a National Trust Tudor wooden framed house - a must see if you are on this road.

 You can hire the house if you fancy it! Crossing the road you go up to what can only be described as an adventure lane. It starts off as a cart track, in fact you can see the tractor tracks where the farmer had been up to see the crops, it then narrows after a small turn to the right then left, and it becomes a real old Suffolk Green Lane. With its high banks, once laid and coppiced, note the the stools at the base of the hedge many hundred years old, an art we have lost to the flail in modern times. Walking up this green lane you can practically hear the ghosts of the old farm hands maintaining the hedges, the women carrying baskets of produce with children running and playing down the lane. Ok I romanticise for a while but, these green lanes were arteries for local people going from village to village or on their way to market. A fantastic lane allows you to really use your imagination to go back in time. Again it reminds me of Ronald Blythe books, a must if you haven’t read any. I was reminded only the other day that he is still alive and about to publish a new book.

However there is a downside to this; I stopped to overlook the countryside from this great vantage point and I was struck by one thing - the silence. Total silence, broken only by a single bird calling at times. Now I like silence, love it in fact, but here it is an indication just how sterile our countryside is now and I am sad about that.

I walked on eating an apple and stopped again to overlook a small hamlet of wooden framed houses and barns and at last I was conscious of a buzzing noise. I did wonder If it was the ‘Hum‘ that so many people say they can here in the modern world, I don’t hear it myself, much too much tinnitus I suspect, but I could hear this buzz. I narrowed it down to a lone holly tree in flower. Being a holly it is tall and had been allowed to grow up above hedge height. It was in flower and those flowers, like an oasis in the desert, were being served by bees and other insects in huge numbers. Again I recorded the buzz, click on this video and turn up the volume it’s great J

Moving on, I joined the Stour River again; now a much smaller beast than pre-A12 but flowing well at a farm complex. Again great historic buildings, you climb up and down dale, as they say, over the outwash gravels, certainly gets the heart rate up a bit and who said Suffolk was flat! These lanes and paths would be a perfect setting for period dramas, no road tyre tracks no pylons looking like they could be the lanes of the 18^th century.

Climbing up over sheep pasture, the grasses and sorrel,  the rabbits and the gorse and coming down to a small lane that eventually leads up into Stoke-by-Nayland opposite the Crown Public House! I have stayed here before with some members of RSPB council when taking them on a tour of Suffolk I can recommend the beer, the food, and the accommodation, but no time to call in today, I needed to catch a bus back to Colchester station.

At the bus stop by the village hall stop and savour the great view of one of Constables favourite churches. It appears in several of his works, mostly out of context to where it is it seems, as was his wont at times. Why not? I totally align with his thinking, in your mind’s eye when you are day- dreaming or thinking, you bring back all bits of your life’s experiences and in the microseconds your brain works in, you see all sorts of things, views, and people. It’s what keeps us sane despite T.E. Lawrence saying

All men dream: but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds wake in the day to find that it was vanity: but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act their dreams with open eyes, to make it possible.

Keep having good thoughts of views, sounds, tastes and people it is good for you and your mental health.

The double decker bus arrived  (only 5 mins. late) and took me back to Colchester station for the train back to Norwich. I completed 27166 steps which is 13.6 miles and by the time I got home it was 30937 steps in total - so a good day stepping out as part of my Million Steps Challenge. I have now walked over 400000 steps so I’m well on my way to my target in fact at this rate it might be 2 million! J  Watch out for my next adventure in a couple of weeks’ time again I have added a bird list for those that do.

Until next time,

Richard P

Bird list

Skylark	Tree sparrow	Cuckoo
Bullfinch	Green finch	White throat
Chaffinch	Collared dove	Black cap
Goldfinch	Turtle dove	Willow warbler
Blue tit	Red shank	Common gull
Great tit	Egret	Black headed gull
Dunnock	Shoveller	Common Tern
House sparrow	Shelduck	Kestral
Reed warbler	Sedge warbler	Reed bunting
Meadow pipit	yellow wagtail	Green woodpecker
Gt spotted woodpecker	Lapwing	Kingfisher
Crow	Rook	Wood pigeon
Song thrush	Blackbird	Swallow
Swift	House martin	Sand martin
Mallard	Wren	Robin
Jackdaw	Jay	Coot
Moorhen	Pheasant	Hobby

Cliffs, kneebones and why you really need to check out your bluebells

1 Million Steps challenge round Suffolk Phase I Shotley Marina to Manningtree Station 

The day looked fine as I looked out of the window, so I left catching the 07:15 train to Ipswich arriving at 8:20 I left the station went across the road to the bus stop waiting for the Ipswich Bus service number 2O2 to take me to Shotley Marina.

The bus duly arrived and off we went to Shotley.  I went straight upstairs to the front seat, well you just have to don’t you; it immediately brought back many memories of bus journeys as a child. I now of course realise how sea sick my poor mother must have been upstairs, as I sat there as a young boy, this time seeing the journey through adult eyes swaying and bumping along the winding Suffolk streets!!

Travelling along we went under the Orwell bridge enjoying the view of other people’s houses and gardens until Felixstowe Docks hove into view. Next it was a short journey downhill until finally the last stop - Shotley Marina.

I jumped off the bus and, after taking a few photographs of the watery vista, set off on my journey towards Manningtree. 

The first part of the trek was fairly straightforward, taking the gravel path along by the River’s edge. The Stena Line Ferry was leaving, presumably for Holland, and there was an acrid engine oil smell in the air. I continued along the river, admiring as I walked, the gardens coming down towards the path. The iron pilings finished and the path turned inland slightly until I reached Erwarton Bay an RSPB reserve.

My journey continued through past the back of some houses and now I found myself on top of the cliff. When I say cliff, readers from Western Scotland would say this is clearly not a cliff more a ‘step’ not very high, perhaps 20 feet or 6 metres if you’re not old style like me. The cliffs are made from outwash gravels as the Stour is a drowned valley formed by melt waters of the last glaciation, the gravels form the mainly flint and crag deposits. I know there are many fossils to be found within these deposits. In fact I found one myself -  what I think perhaps is a knee bone.

The footpath follows the arable fields. In several places along this trip I found that the footpath had been cut into quite severely by the plough. I cheekily thought these must be UKIP farmers, i.e. not really interested in subsidies from Europe, subsidies that allow footpaths and nature to be looked after. I found myself thinking that in these situations it also begs the question, why are they cut so close to the path? Doing that means the crop and soil can't be as productive as the rest of the field. I know farmers will tell me it’s all about weed control et cetera but I do think it puts farmers and walkers into conflict.  After all, we’re not talking about a huge area of land here needed for walkers, providing somewhere to tread therefore wouldn’t take much, it is after all the Stour and Orwell 'footpath'.

On I continued, my journey made quite difficult with thorns and blackberry as well as other bushes and shrubs growing over the footpath and at one point walking alongside bright yellow Oilseed Rape, which made me sneeze!  Its vivid colour loved by some hated by others; I actually took a couple of photos of it, as I quite like its stark backdrop it makes the trees stand out beautifully. It might not last long but do agree it does pong!

For the very first leg of my journey, it was a fantastic walk; areas were full of birds and wildlife I have listed all the birds that I saw below. The list is quite long from Wades to Song Birds and not only birds there were also a lot of butterflies too especially Peacocks, Orange tips.

A multitude of plants stretched out in front of me as I walked, including Alexander now quite tall and in full flower. Quick history lesson now - Alexander was brought over by the Romans as part of a salad crop which is now firmly established in the British countryside and it’s one of the first umbelliferae family to flower and breakthrough in the spring; fresh green leaves you can spot on the side of the roads and footpaths.  I also passed several what I took to be, passable tall boundary Oaks perhaps 200 years old, all looking majestic, and now coming into full leaf.

Just after Holbrook school I stopped at Stutton church for a quick rest and welcome cup of coffee from my trusty flask.  I realised I was nearly two thirds of the way through the walk already. Stutton Church - my    what

a fantastic church and churchyard too with a wonderful memorial seat overlooking the duck pond.

I had tweeted earlier and received a reply and encouragement from Mark Nowers the RSPB South Suffolk Manager, as I left the church yard Mark suddenly came into view; great to see him again after such a long time.  I wished him and his family well, after catching up including finding out that his poor wife was eight days late for the arrival of number two I was on my way again.

Holbrook Bay Naval School, (The Royal Hospital School) a dominant building on the landscape. It's ordered grass playing fields and fences a change to the disorder of the countryside surrounding it. It was very quiet I assumed it must be perhaps half term rather than a day when everyone was inside. Opposite the school on the other side of the estuary is the site of the former proposed prison at Wrabness. I remember this being very controversial when I worked the RSPB and people in Suffolk objecting because of the views across the estuary. In hindsight, when you look across the river I'm glad that the prison wasn't built because I do think this would've been a bit of an eye sore.
From the church you have to walk inland through Stutton and I passed through one of the large farms before being able to walk down the footpath to join the estuary and the river wall again. This is quite a detour inland and takes you through farmland. The footpath, once you leave the track through the farm at the small quarry, is very eroded. I found at times that I had to step over the farmer’s fence to be able to walk along the footpath in safety.

Entering the woods I was met by a sea of of bluebells. Did you know, the UK holds about 25% of the world resource of Bluebells?  Go into your garden and have a look and see if the ones you have in your garden are British bluebells bells, you’ll know by seeing if the bells are down one side. If not you’ve got the Spanish ones with bells all round and a variety of colours. The Spanish ones if allowed into the wild will eventually supersede ours as they are a stronger species.  So if you want to help preserve ours, you’ll need to get to the garden centre!

Once I left the wood and came into the open Mistley and Manningtree were clearly visible in the distance. I became aware of the trains going over the bridge on the mainline, their rhythmic chunterings strangely comforting and quite noticeable after the majority of my walk had been engine noise free. I walked along the sea wall for at least two miles before diversions took me in land for a bit then I climbed up the valley to what seemed like an old wood yard. This is where I heard the melodic sound of the Nightingale singing away. (I’ve attached a short clip so you can hear it too)

Crossing the railway bridge, I followed the railway track back for a while, passing through the edge of the old paint works at Cattawade. Over the old footbridge I joined the A137 back to Manningtree station. I was welcomed by some cheese and tomato sandwiches from the Station Bar - famous for its watering and feeding ability with good beer, good coffee and rather good locally made sandwiches.

This very first leg and I’ve taken 30000 steps already as part of my one million steps challenge. If you’d like to follow me or get in touch I’m @RichardsRambles #1millionsteps I’ll post again when I set out again shortly on phase II. To see an album of my pictures from my one million steps challenge click here

Birds I spotted during my walk

Oystercatcher
Redshank
Little term
Common tern
Bar tailed Godwit

Ringed plover
Egret
Heron
Herring gull
Lesser black backed gull
Curlew
Shelduck
Brentgoose
Canada goose
Mute swan
Dunlin
White throat
Bull finch
Chaffinch
Blue tit
Great tit
Dunnock
Meadow pipit
Skylark
Blackbird
Song thrush
Nightingale
Cetti's warbler
Goldfinch
Blackcap

Swallow

Sand Martin

Swift

House Martin

Starling

House sparrow

Dunnock

Collared Dove
Kestrel
Wood pigeon
Crow
Jackdaw
Jay
Rook