Stoke-by-Nayland to Cattawade and Manningtree

Given the dreadful weather we have had so far this year, I am amazed and delighted to report that the sun shone all day and it was, if anything, too hot for walking. We had a lovely breakfast at Poplars Farmhouse (Paul cooks the breakfast and we chose omelette) and chatted to our fellow guests, two of whom had spent the weekend canoeing on the Stour - that sounds fun, especially since so much of the river can only be accessed by boat.

We left around 9.30am and walked back to Stoke-by-Nayland, passing the Old Guildhall and stopping to visit the inside of St Mary's Church. Then we meandered to the north of the River Stour, crossing the River Box, then following a green lane (labelled Snow Hill Lane on the map) down to the B1068. Across the road, the route follows another track (Langham Mill Lane) towards the River Stour, but there was a sign telling us of diversions because of the closure of the footbridge over the river. The path had been scheduled to reopen at the end of June but had it? We eventually decided to take the risk and walked down to the river, past a man in an Environment Agency land rover, doing a survey (who knew nothing about the closure of the bridge). When we got to the footbridge, there were temporary barriers designed to stop you crossing the bridge. However the barriers had been moved to one side, so we ignored them and crossed the bridge. I still don't know whether it was officially open or closed!

We followed a path through fields of crops, never far from the river and with Langham Hall on a hill to our right. Eventually we crossed the river again, into Stratford St Mary. We left the route of the Stour Valley Path and went in search of lunch, finding one pub closed for repairs, one pub with hot food available (which was not at all what we felt like), one small post office stores, with a rather small stock that didn't seem to include sandwiches (and there were no obvious members of staff to serve us in any case) and, back on the path, one pub (The Black Horse) obviously proud of its food, which is served lunchtime and evening, every day apart from Monday! We had a welcome pint of orange juice and lemonade at The Black Horse and continued on our way, under the A12 and along the bank of the River Stour towards Dedham.

We were definitely in Constable Country now and, from Dedham Bridge there were hordes of people, messing about in, on and by the river. The advantage of the touristy nature of this stretch of river was the tea shop at Flatford Mill, where we stopped for a cream tea in lieu of lunch! From here there is a riverside path to Manningtree, but we decided to continue to the official end of the Stour Valley Path at Cattawade Picnic Site, to the north of the river. To do this we followed a path across marshes, then took a rather muddy footpath to a road and turned right along the road to the picnic site, by a river inlet just before the A137 - the end of the Stour Valley Path!

We then climbed up to the A137 and crossed the river at 'White Bridge', with good views inland and over the Cattawade Barrage to the Stour's tidal estuary. The A137 brought us to Manningtree Station from whence the journey home should have been quite straightforward, via Ipswich and Ely, with a total journey time of 2 hours. Of the reality, perhaps the least said the better! We reached Manningtree Station at 4pm and got home something after 9pm, courtesy of a massive signal failure at Ely, several cancelled trains and much difficulty in obtaining accurate information. The final leg of the journey, joy of joys, was on a rail replacement bus.