11 July 2016 - Lakeside Fishing & Camping, Onehouse, near Stowmarket, Suffolk

We woke yesterday morning to rain, again, but enjoyed a relaxing Sunday morning pottering about, listening and watching the political commentary of the television on the week that was. After an early lunch we headed into Stowmarket, picked up Margie and her mobility scooter and headed off north east initially duplicating yesterday’s route through Ixworth, Thetford, but then north through delightful Norfolk landscapes of forest and farmland, through Swaffham, the western outskirts of Fakenham and on up to Wells-next-the-Sea, visited so briefly on one of our day excursions from Norwich many weeks back. As we passed through the rural areas inland, we spotted pig farms, geese farms and colourful crops of “flax” or linseed, their lovely blooms contrasting with the wild red poppies lining the roadside.

Wells waterfront

Even as we travelled these roads, some for the second time, today we saw them with fresh eyes, accompanied by commentary from a local whose earlier life had included the areas now rediscovered. These were the villages and farms, of her early courtship and married life, her deceased husband’s years before meeting her, her honeymoon memories and anniversary trips over the following fifty years. 

We parked on double lines smack bang in the middle of the waterfront street at Wells, able to do so because we had Margie’s disability pass displayed on the dashboard. Once her scooter was extracted from the boot and assembled on the footpath, we made our way along the foreshore, calling into a café for ice-creams and coffee, then up the main shopping street, as Margie recounted stories of having had this or that retail experience in various small stores.  As we sat surrounded by posters of Elvis Presley and Marilyn Monroe in the 1950/60s themed café, an Elvis hit came on, a special favourite of Margie and Dave’s, stirring much nostalgia, adding to the sense of the day's pilgrimage. Outside the rain had cleared away but the skies directly to the north over The Wash were looking dark and foreboding despite the bright warm sunshine.

Back on the road, we continued in an easterly fashion through the lovely villages and seaside towns of Blakeney, Sherringham and Cromer, all offering inspiration for the regaling of further memories, before turning south on the A140 to Norfolk, around the ring road, then again regaining the same highway and heading south until we crossed over the A14 near Needham Market. From there it was just a hop, step and a jump up the road to Stowmarket where we soon found ourselves seated for a well-earned dinner at the Willow Tree, the second time we have dined here since arriving in the UK in May. This time the experience was even better than the last, the restaurant a little less crowded and our first choices on the menu all still being available. 

We dropped Margie and her trusty mobility ship back at the Mews at about 8pm and returned to our lakeside camp to find all the weekend campers had headed home and we were back to a more acceptable eight parties.

Today was to be our last day before heading further afield to explore this wonderful country. We headed into Bury St Edmunds to attend to a few errands about the larger town, then found time left on our parking ticket to visit St Edmundsbury Cathedral. We had on a previous occasion visited the Abbey Gardens and made an attempt to explore the Cathedral, but had been turned away; a funeral had been underway, and tourists are hardly welcome guests at such events.

St Edmundsbury Cathedral

Today we were warmly welcomed by a cleric wearing his voluminous robes and several buxom women all sporting their names and position on name badges. They were all happy to chat and offer a quick overview of this temple of worship, but also cognoscente of the crowd of schoolchildren about to arrive. In fact we had only just moved away when these little munchkins arrived en force and filled the pews. We drifted about the massive cathedral, a structure commenced in 1503 and continued or renovated right up until the recent 2008. Unlike other cathedrals visited over the past few months, this is light and bright, the white paint in the interior having taken the building into modern times, as somewhere for everyday use rather than a historical monument. Speaking of which, I did not notice any effigies or tombs lying about. If I were of a religious nature, and of the Anglican faith, I think I would look forward to regularly attending services here. 

We popped down into the new treasury where a great collection of gold and silver plate is displayed along with other receptacles required for religious ritual, and most interesting to me, several wonderful very old illuminated manuscripts. Books are much more exciting than bling! 

River Gipping complete with head high nettles

We headed back to Stowmarket, refuelled in preparation for tomorrow’s journey and drove further down to Needham Market, and parked beside Needham Lake. We visited this spot a couple of times last year, when the weather was cold and wet; today there were showers as we sat in the car to eat our lunch before preparing ourselves for a walk along the river. This we had also done last year, but then headed upriver toward Stowmarket along the old tow path; today I wanted to head downstream toward Ipswich. 

Logic and the mud-map near the lake suggested the footpath would continue along the north bank of the river as that further upstream, however after walking for twenty minutes and finding ourselves entering a private farmyard, we realised that we were quite mistaken and retraced our steps, back through the fields of nettles, blackberries, willows and wildflowers, watched by shire horses, hawks, hundreds upon hundreds of brilliantly blue damsel flies and tweety birds who sat in the heights calling down to us, mocking our inability to identify them. 

Setting off once more, we soon discovered the correct path, along the south bank of the river, past Lake Alderson, another of the lakes created from old sand and gravel quarries. These lakes are private property, or at least their access is restricted to members of the GAPS, Gipping Valley Anglers Preservation Society. We followed the path, this time not faltering from the official walkway, although there was little evidence of heavy use.

We passed Creeting Lock, and continued down to Pipps Ford Lock which is currently undergoing restoration work by the River Gipping Trust. There we turned, because the weather which had remained clear during our walk, threatened to turn nasty. 

However it was not until we had been home for some time and John had stopped by for a cuppa and mail delivery, that the skies opened and it absolutely poured. He asked us if we were all ready to leave, to which I replied that we were not, insofar as being all packed up. However we expect to be able to head away without any hiccups well before midday and head westwards to Birmingham, the gateway to the Midlands and the history of the Industrial Revolution, or at least that is how we see it for now.