Thetford Rugby Club to Brandon and return

It was a glorious day for walking - frosty, misty then sunny, with lovely autumnal colours. Quite a contrast from when we last walked this way, on a very hot day at the end of May 2009. We parked at the Two Mile Bottom car park, which is on the A134 to the north-west of Thetford, close to Thetford Rugby Club, which is where we'd got to last weekend. We followed the route of the Hereward Way religiously on our outward walk to Brandon - as last week, there was no Hereward Way signposting on the ground, but much of the route is shared with the St Edmund Way, which was signposted. On the way back we followed the river to Santon Downham. This route is appropriately called the 'Little Ouse Path' - so it was a good day for named paths!

We left the car park about 9.30am. We thought we'd have to follow the busy road back to the Rubgy Club, but there was a track through the forest heading in the right direction, so we took that for some of the way. We then walked alonside the road to the entrance to the Rugby Club, which is opposite the entrance to Thetford's biomass power station - and back. Shortly after the sign to the Scout and Guide camp site, we turned left on a delightful track through the forest (following the St Edmund Way signposting). We needed to ring our daughter Helen around 10am and appropriately, at this time we were close to the site of St Helen's Church and St Helen's Well. The photograph on the right shows the spot.

The path continued across more open countryside, above the Little Ouse River and the railway, and then we turned left and crossed the railway by way of an underpass. This brought us to the tiny hamlet of Santon, which when we have been here before has been completely swamped by the busy 'St Helen's' car park and picnic area. Today we had the place essentially to ourselves and, gosh, what a difference. We went into the tiny octagonally-towered All Saints Church, redundant though still consecrated.

We crossed the river, and so into Suffolk, and turned right onto a track that took us to Santon Downham. The village is scattered around a large green, with the forest all around. We're within 30 minutes or so of home here, but it feels very foreign, probably because the landscape is so different from the fens. There is another Church here (St Mary the Virgin) and last time we were here they were serving tea.

Near Santon Downham village hall, we took a path back into the forest (still on St Edmund Way). We turned off St Edmund Way down a broad ride. Eventually we turned right and then left, back onto St Edmund Way and soon we were on Gashouse Drove, with houses (some very large) on the left-hand side and open land on the right-hand side. Gashouse Drove brought us to Brandon High Street. We stopped for a cup of tea at 'Flavours of Portugal'.

We crossed the river and turned right down Riverside Way, then onto a path which brought us to the river bank. The riverside route back to Santon Downham was rather overgrown and muddy, so progress was slow, but it was lovely. We passed a group of young walkers going the other way, then a woman who wanted to know the route to Brandon (basically, keep going) - she thought she was on St Edmund Way and we didn't like to put her right. We passed two swans on the river, and a boat came towards us, and on the other bank, nearly back at Santon Downham, there was a man with a bird of prey. Eventually we left the river bank, passed the Forestry Commission centre and walked back up to Santon Downham Church. We had a late lunch sitting on a bench by the Church, then retraced our steps to the car.

Following leg