LDWA – President’s Walk

Every year the Norfolk & Suffolk LDWA group have a lovely long walk and then a BBQ at the end, a joint social and walking event. The walk was 22 miles long and was expertly led by Cas, who was also able to reduce the distance a little when some of us were just too keen to get to the food.

The walk started at Thorpeness where the bus dropped us off, with the intention of walking back to near Brampton. The walk goes by Sizewell power station and onto the beach above, where fortunately this year we didn’t encounter any adders. There were just over twenty people on the walk and the pace was designed to be relatively brisk, ensuring that we didn’t have to wait too long for our sausages….

Just to the north of Dunwich is this colourful sight.

Jayne was really pleased when she discovered a Greggs wrapper on the verge, she was desperate for a vegan sausage roll. Well, that might be a lie, I was desperate for a chicken bake, but that’s sort of the same thing….. Unfortunately we didn’t go by a Greggs on the walk, but you can’t have everything. But, at the pace that Greggs are expanding, I’m hopeful that when we walk this route in the future that there will be a whole host of these artisan bakers to visit during the walk.

Walking towards our lunch stop. It was shortly after this photo was taken that the rain came pouring down, although not for an extended period. Not wanting to sound obsessed with food, but there were some rather nice blackberry bushes around this point.

Both the above photos were taken from the bridge near Walberswick, near to the start of the Flower of Suffolk walk.

St Margaret’s Church at Reydon was the lunch stop, just over half way through the walk. I didn’t spend much time investigating the church, but the current building is primarily from the fourteenth century with a modern – and quite recent – extension.

The group enjoying their lunches.

And this was what we spent all day walking for (as well as the joy of walking and the lovely views of course), the BBQ at the end. Endless sausages, burgers, salad and there were also some wonderful cakes made by Jayne as a dessert. As usual, Martin and Fran were excellent hosts and fears about the rain during the BBQ didn’t come to pass. There was also all sorts of gossip, but it wouldn’t be for me to post about that here on a public platform.

All told, it was a beautifully led walk along some of the most beautiful Suffolk coast, with some inland elements towards the end of the walk. It’s a similar route to the equivalent walk that I led last year, just without seeing any snakes this year which was a complete bonus.