Lakenheath Station to Botany Bay and Stallode Wash
Walked by Sally and Richard, 14th January 2012
About 5.25 miles, making 3.75 miles progress on the Angles Way to Fen Rivers Way link (and, were we walking it, 5 miles along the Hereward Way)
Click here for all our photos from this walk.
It was less than a week since we'd walked the previous leg of our Angles Way to Fen Rivers Way link route, but the weather had turned much colder. It was minus 4 degrees C as I drove across the fen from Southery to Feltwell, watching the sun rise above the mist - a beautiful sight. I drove to the outskirts of Lakenheath, turned right on the road signposted to Sedge Fen and the Baptist Church and parked a couple of miles north-west of Lakenheath, at a 90 degree bend in the road. The road at this point is marked as Newmans Drove on the 1 :25000 Ordnance Survey Map and the grid reference of my parking spot is TF694837. The road is reasonably busy (presumably it is used as a short cut between Lakenheath and the A1101) but it still felt like the back of beyond.
Richard picked me up from here and we drove back to Lakenheath Station, but someone had parked a load of building materials where we parked last weekend - most inconsiderate! Fortunately there was space for Richard's little car to the north of the Little Ouse River, opposite the point at which we emerged onto the B1112 last week (TF724863). There is a continuation of the path to the north of the river here, but Richard reminded me that we would be stuck the wrong side of the river if we took it. Instead we crossed the river at Wilton Bridge, with a man just emerging from a houseboat beneath us, and took the path to the south of the river, heading (by way of many bends) to the west. It was just after 9am and a glorious frosty morning.
We skirted the RSPB Lakenheath reserve and there were many flooded areas, complete with swans and other wildfowl. We passed a couple of men on the RSPB reserve and two fishermen in a boat - and more swans. We passed a wooded area to the left, then mile after mile of undrained (or more likely reflooded!) fenland - first Joist Fen and then Norfolk Fen. It was very atmospheric, with reeds, water glinting in the sunlight and dead trees. We said hello to a man who was passing in a narrow boat.
We passed a pumping station and the path turned to the left, away from the river. Botany Bay (more reeds, dead trees and lots of birds) was on our right - we need to get to the other side of Botany Bay for the next leg of the walk and we passed an interesting looking path across the fen. However, for now we kept straight ahead.
After crossing the railway line, we were suddenly crossing drained agricultural land, although the names on the map (Shepherd's Fen to the left and Stallode Wash to the right) don't give much indication of this. However it was far from boring - in just over a mile we saw at least six separate groups of deer, with 2-6 animals in each group. We got back to the car around 11am so, as last week, we'd been walking for almost exactly two hours. Again my only criticism of today's walk was that it wasn't long enough. The temperature had reached the dizzy heights of zero degrees C.
