Elveden to Barton Mills via B1106 near Barrows Corner and Temple Bridge

We'd completed the Angles Way last week, and also had a first foray into carrying our own stuff. This week's plan was to walk a reasonable stretch of the Icknield Way Path, again carrying our luggage. The weather had been very wet and windy over the weekend, and the weather forecast was for showers today. We did get the showers, but for most of the day it was dry and sunny - perfect walking weather.

Our first challenge was to get back to the Icknield Way Path at the point where we left it - on the B1106 near Barrow's Corner (south of Elveden). This isn't as difficult as it might seem - we walked to Downham Market Station and caught a train to Ely then another to Brandon, then we caught the number 193 bus from Brandon through very attractive forest to the junction of the A11 and the B1106 near Elveden. All in all, Elveden is remarkably easy to get to. However, if you want to follow our example and to join the Icknield Way Path by way of Elveden, there are two things to be aware of:

• We walked along the A11 (there is a pavement) to the village of Elveden, assuming that we could follow the track shown on the map to the south of the village to join up with the byway shown on the map. However, whilst the byway is clearly a public right of way, the short distance of track you need to follow to get to it is private - and quite aggressively signposted as such. So we had to return to the B1106 junction and walk along the road.

• The number 193 bus goes along the B1106. We didn't see any bus stops as we followed the road to the south of the A11, but it seems likely that you would be able to get off in this stretch. So this stretch of road walking is probably not necessary.

We'd got off the bus at 10.35 and it was about an hour later when we passed the monument (which commemorates the planting of 'Queen Mary's Avenue' of beech trees) and turned into the King's Forest. The 'King' here was George V and the planting of the forest started in 1935, the year of the King's silver jubilee. It's a very attractive forest (mixed woodland), and the walk along Queen Mary's Avenue was particularly attractive. After that we were following a sandy track - pleasant enough walking, but it went on for a bit! We didn't see anyone else in the forest, but there were occasional military aircraft overhead (a reminder of our closeness to Mildenhall). We ate our lunch sitting on a log.

Eventually the forest ended and the Icknield Way path turned right away from the path. However we wanted to visit the West Stow Anglo-Saxon Village, so we kept straight ahead to a road, then turned left for half a mile or so to the entrance. The Anglo-Saxon Village has been reconstructed on the site of an original settlement and the houses have been reconstructed in an attempt to match the evidence on the ground. This is experimental archaeology in action and there are also displays of artefact found at this site and nearby. It was definitely worth a visit, and our £7 entry fee entitles us to entry for a year, both here and at the Moyse's Hall Museum in Bury St Edmunds. We stayed at the West Stow village for about an hour and a half today (leaving around 3pm) then retraced our steps to the Icknield Way Path.

The next section of the path took us through agricultural land (nice sheep!) to the village of Icklingham. We'd learnt at West Stow that Icklingham was a town in Roman towns. It's a modest sized village now, with a long main street with a pub and a church at each end! The more attractive church building (All Saints, complete with thatch) is no longer consecrated and is in the hands of the Churches Conservation Trust.

We'd originally planned to stay overnight in Icklingham, but had difficulty booking accommodation and came up with the idea of walking on to the Travelodge at Barton Mills instead. To do this, we followed the Icknield Way Path to the River Lark at Temple Bridge, then followed the Lark Valley Path (which, in total, runs for 13 miles from Bury St Edmunds to Mildenhall) for just over 2 miles, almost to Barton Mills. We really enjoyed the Lark Valley Path - the Lark was reminiscent of the Wissey (one of our local rivers, and a favourite) and we saw swans, sheep, a fox and muntjac deer. There were spectacular storm clouds ahead, and eventually we walked into the rain. It was almost worth it just to see those skies - we put on all our waterproofs but sheltered under trees until the worst of the rain had passed. Unfortunately the undergrowth was then wet and I was wearing summer almost-worn-out walking boots, so I got wet feet.