25 September 2016 - Onehouse Lakeview Camp, Stowmarket, Suffolk

The beautiful weather has continued despite the negative forecasts. The last two days have followed our plan of preparation and organisation, yesterday morning spent supping cups of coffee with Chris’s brother who offers much practical advice and mentoring, then a few hours at Ickworth, the fourth or fifth visit to this wonderful National Trust property. Like our previous two visits, this was all about the opportunity to exercise the limbs and breathe in the fresh air. The walk we chose to take was the 6.4 kilometres Rotunda Walk with the add-on through Lady Hervey’s wood which must have been at least an additional kilometre. It was so lovely to be out stretching the legs; a few days of no walking seizes the joints up when you get past a certain age. 

The park was very busy, the car parks already full and overflowing when we arrived and two hours later spilling beyond the overflow car parks. We were happy to escape the crowds concentrating on the heritage buildings and formal gardens, although our passage through the walled garden, still full of wild flowers ,as less so, and beyond, we came upon very few fellow walkers.

Blackberry eater

Instead we enjoyed the unkempt apple trees, the last of the blackberries, the bright red berries of the hawthorns and the holly, the first of acorns and browning leaves littering the ground. We came upon a wee mouse which might have been a wood mouse although neither of us are experts on rodent identification. Amazingly I did not scream and run as is my normal response to mice sightings but was instead quite entranced by the little creature as it concentrated on its feast of fallen blackberries.

The map had suggested the route would take us across more open grazing land than wooded area so we were duly delighted. Ickworth has over 600 acres of woodland, approximately one third of the entire estate. This represents the largest area of National Trust woodland in the east of England, making up 1% of the entire Trust’s woodland space.

Trees already nude of their leaves

This morning we set off late after tuning into the regular Sunday political commentary, particularly interesting today after the results of yesterday’s election result: Jeremy Corbett has been unsurprisingly re-elected to the leadership of the UK’s Labour party.

Our expedition today revolved around research of possible storage for our caravan. Given that ideas already on the table include the possibilities of mice with an appetite for upholstery and electric wiring, we thought more options should be considered. We drove into Bury St Edmunds and checked the exterior of an undercover facility then headed up toward Thetford Forest to check three farm based outdoor storage yards. Further north again we called into the Camping & Caravan Club site which has an off-site storage yard, and then further on again, we tracked down yet another farm up a long very narrow lane accessed by crossing a ford, dry today but suggesting more serious winter time flooding. Enquiries were made where we could and appropriate notes taken, and then we took stock of how far north we had come, now north of the Suffolk County border. 

We headed south out of Norfolk calling into Knettishall Heath, that four hundred acre reserve visited soon after we arrived earlier in the year. Today we set off on foot along a perimeter pathway, across stunted heather covered ground, through mixed wood, pausing by the Little Ouse to watch half a dozen dogs frolicking in a swimming hole, then proceeded upriver a little way before returning to the car. It was not a very long walk, but enough to stretch our legs. We returned with notes scribbled all over our lists of possible storage locations and an extra one hundred miles on the clock. 

Decisions and arrangement have been made in many travel matters, our rail tickets to London purchased but the important of storage is still to be settled.