Report and pictures from Simon.
“Those brown animals, are they cows or horses…?” We had a mixed group on our walk, some of whom had obviously spent less time in the great outdoors than others.
The plan was simple. Walk from Ipswich along the Fynn Valley to Woodbridge. The destination in Woodbridge was the Cherry Tree pub for their annual beer festival. Some of us chose to just do the walk. Some did the walk and then stayed on for the beer. Some just joined us in the pub for the afternoon/evening.
We met up near Ipswich Hospital and then headed towards Rushmere. From there it was a short stroll along the Fynn Valley – a lovely area and easily accessible from Ipswich – to Playford and Little Bealings. I was pleasantly surprised to learn that many of our group on that day had not walked it before, with a few saying “I had no idea this was here”.
We walked through wooded areas, we passed farmed fields and the weather gods were kind to us. There was no rain and it was warm enough to walk in t-shirts most of the way. It wasn’t long before we arrived at the Martlesham Red Lion. We had our first drink of the day and made use of the facilities. I was clock watching at this point as we had a deadline to keep – we had a table booked for lunch at the Cherry Tree at 2 o’clock. In true IOG style we discovered that the announcement “We are leaving in 10 minutes” actually means “Please go and hide somewhere”. After a few frantic minutes – a bit like herding cats – we were soon back on our way.
We arrived at Martlesham Creek to see that the water was reassuringly low. Good news, this meant we would have dry feet when we went round Kyson Point. From there it was a short walk into Woodbridge along the River Deben and we arrived at the Cherry Tree pub pretty much on time for lunch. The food was very good. One of our party was told that the two menu choices she wanted were small so she ordered both. When they arrived they were much larger than expected, so she had enough food to feed a horse (or is it a cow? Remember it is apparently sometimes hard to tell the difference…).
There then followed the more relaxed part of the day – sampling a variety of different beers. Some members of the group joined us later that afternoon. Many thanks to all who came along.