4. Eye, Suffolk.

Details:- This was a social walk (as vs. a challenge walk), organised by the Long Distance Walkers' Association. Twelve two-leg and two four-leg members set out from Eye on a circular route, mainly along the The Mid Suffolk Footpath and The Angles Way. We passed through Brome, Oakley, Hoxne, Billingford, Diss, Palgrave and Yaxley. Distance;- 19 miles; 6 hours walking, and 30 minutes of rest breaks; avg. speed:- 2.92 mph; Going:- one or two muddy spots; map OS Explorer 230; Progress:- walked 47 - 453 to go. Photographs Hyperlink.

Some Norfolk & Suffolk Long Distance Walkers.

They may look like common or garden ramblers, but don't be deceived. Among those present are several veterans of the hundred mile walk. This is a challenge walk which has to be completed in forty eight hours, with rest breaks of no longer than two hours! Alex on rhs front is off to Wales in May to do his sixth hundred miler; another has done sixteen of them to date.

Brome Hall,

where I got faintly excited by these dilapidated farm buildings, which I thought might be 17th century, and of some status. Pevsner put me in my place though with a brief disinterested comment:- 'mostly late C19th'. So there.

Street Sign in Diss,

where the local authority are rumoured to be naming their next new street 'Letsbe Avenue' in honour of Delia Smith ( pun for Norwich City FC supporters).

Another Diss Pun,

and around the corner is the Able Taxi service, known locally as Diss Able Taxis. Across in Victoria Road is the New Diss Swimming Pool (geddit - nudist), so named after it was rebuilt a few years ago; & et cetera.

Diss Mere,

was formed at the end of the last ice-age i.e. about twelve thousand years ago. As the ice receded it created the collapse of underlying chalk bedrock in which water collected, forming the lake. It is up to 60 feet in depth with a further 40 foot of mud beneath that. During it's 12,000 year history it has provided the town with a water supply, a sewer and a wash place, probably all at once! Now it's a duck pond.

Thrandeston,

Here's another duck-pond; it's on the green at Thrandeston - one of the more scenic villages of the Waveney Valley.