Orwell country park circular

Back to the Ipswich area for this one.... and another one of my favourite places to go. Not so much for nostalgia this time (although we walked here a lot when I worked for Brainy Dogs), but more for the sheer beauty of the environment.

I've been here many times, but this walk took me further than usual which was nice for me to expand the horizons as some might say.

The walk starts at the Orwell country park car park (bit of tongue twister for you!), which can feel like you're on the road to nowhere for your first time, but I promise you it's there. Just go slowly and turn right IMMEDIATELY after the bridge going over the A14..... oh and don't have a tall vehicle... even my Ssangyong Rexton only just fits under the restriction barrier.

Ok..... so now on to the walk....

Once you leave the carpark turn right (again you can go left and do it in reverse). This was a first for me, as Id usually go left, but I obediently followed the little green line and turned right ;)

The path takes you along the A14, and I would suggest if your dog doesn't have the best recall or they are a bit wild first thing (as was Skyla), then you might want to keep them on the lead for the first bit).

Once you come away from the A14 you will come across your first 'fork'. (There are quite a few so lots of variations to the walk can be made). But if you want to follow this particular walk, then stick to the right one as I am so beautifully demonstrating here

You'll now be heading towards the bridge.

Continue along and it won't be long until you walk past a barn ( a bit derelict), go left past the barn and follow the fence towards the house. You should now be heading towards the river again.

But don't get too comfortable as you will soon need to turn right.

(If you did continue straight, you will head down to the river and it will be a quick walk.)

After you've turned right you will need to put your dog on lead as there is a house with lots of animals (cue jealousy from me here).

And whilst they are fenced in, it wouldn't take a lot for a dog to cause some trouble here, so please, LEADS ON.

I did try and get a nice picture of Skyla looking at the pigs but they were a bit too friendly for her liking and she had a few barks at them, so we moved along so not to upset them or overwhelm her..... but look how cute they are!!!!!!

As you leave the house, the dogs can go off lead again now and you're heading up to walk under the bridge. We always have to stop and appreciate how awesome this bridge is (and I never knew there was a little gap in it... did you?)

Now, you can turn left after the bridge to make it shorter and pick us back up later... ill mark the point with a *.

But we wanted to do the long walk so we continued on as directed.

Again there are lots of other little paths you can take but stick on the main path and walk along it for a while.

It will then turn to a road (its a quiet road called sandy hill lane). This is actually where my sister parks when she wants to walk here, so you could park here as an alternative and do the walk, or a variation.... as there are lots of options (perfect for dogs that think they know where they're going!!)

But, from the direction we've come you need to pretty much double back on yourself and head down through the green gate.... oops......hope you didn't do this on bike!!!

Keep going and not long after you'll come up to another fork in the grass. This ones not that obvious so be careful especially if the grass gets shorter.

(Skyla and Ruby demonstrating a lovely wait to show you the way you want to take). Having said that my sister assures me it doesn't matter if you take the other path..... but you may trust her more than I did?!

Nope, coming with me..... can't say I blame you!!!

Keep going along here for a short while and then it will open back up.

*NOW WE ARE BACK TO WHERE YOU COULD HAVE TURNED LEFT AND MADE A SHORTER WALK

(Kate and I are showing you where the gate is ..... yes we are both as immature as each other!!!)

You want to head down under the bridge and start walking back towards that beautiful river you came on the walk for.

Just keep following the path and the river should now be on your right.

(Can you spot any Suffolk punch horses on your walk here?)

As you walk closer to the river, be careful as there are some steep parts next to the path here. Great for the energetic dogs to run up and down..... not so great for us humans to fall down!

Once down on the river beach, the dogs can have a really great play in the river.

Depending on the tide, you may find you don't get as much beach as we did.

But no matter what- don't let your dogs go too far out as the muddy sand STINKS!!!

You can either choose to jump the stream..... or walk along the top of the pipes.

Continue along the beach and make sure you get an obligatory photo on the fallen tree that has been here years!!

such a shame someone set fire to it!

Now after here, you can take the path on your left and head back up to the car park (as did my niece and sister as we'd been walking for an hour and twenty minutes already). Or you can continue on and do an extra loop (as my mum and I did).

We did go wrong here a few times...... so..... if the tide is out, you can walk all the way along the beach until you reach the end.

Or you can come up at about half way at this tree (as indicated by my lovely mother)

But if you do decide to go up and walk through the trees, then go up where my sister went up (pretty soon after the fallen tree). But take the bottom path (if you take the path leading up to your left you will go back to the car park).

Follow the bottom path until you come across a little fork. Now the map really wasn't very clear here and we went wrong and unnecessarily went up a hill (Urgh). But you actually want to take the path on the right and stay along the bottom.

Keep going until you reach where a sign would have been (if you walked along the beach you will join here). You could now turn left and head back. But we continued straight as directed by the map.

Hopefully the little den will still be there and you want the path that Skyla is now heading down.

(I thought she might be tired at this point but she was still going strong!!)

You will now have a golf course on your right and a holiday park .... well static caravans.... but we think people live there... so there was lots of discussion about whether it was a holiday park or not!!

We soon stopped discussing though as I'm afraid there is now a fairly steep hill and we needed to keep our oxygen to get up it..... ok its not that steep..... but we are obviously not as fit as we thought!!

Once you reach the top, head straight and you will reach the carpark!! Don't go right like we did as you will meet a gate and either have to turn back or climb it ( any surprises that I chose to climb it!?!?!)

So now for my feedback......

I just love this walk. You get fantastic views (especially on a good day). You get a variety of terrain. Its good for dogs who aren't that friendly (but expect to meet some) as there's plenty of space for them and likely to have off lead time. And there are so many variations to make it longer or shorter (this walk took us nearly 2 hours but we stop to take photos and notes etc).

The only downside is there isn't a pub or restaurant nearby without having to drive there. And the dogs are also likely to need a bath after. So for this reason it gets 4 out 5 stars for me and I strongly recommend going, even if you don't do the full walk we did.

I hope you enjoy and I look forward to next months walk..... maybe it will be a Christmas walk?!?!?