5 mile circular walk from the village of Lavenham

5 mile circular walk from the village of Lavenham

Parking in the lay by near the beautiful Lavenham church, its free to park there then walking down to the magnificent Lavenham guildhall. The walk heads off out to the east of Lavenham into the countryside along the gentle hills, woods and ancient tracks.

Our walk today was chilly at the start as it was about 3 degs, and in places quite muddy, the walk was mainly countryside views and also at times following along a river for a short stretch.

Along the route you will come across one of the walks highlights in the beautiful village of Brent Eleigh, the historic medieval church St Mary which was built around 1250. Its old door with its ironwork latch is probably the original one provided by the village carpenter and blacksmith back then, and the sanctuary handle is still fixed to it. When you step inside one of the first things you spot is the unusual box pews they are from the Stuart period, and behind the alter are 3 medieval wall paintings dating from around 1275, which were only found when they were uncovered during renovation work in the early 1960's.

7km circular walk from Stoke-by-Nayland village,

7km circular walk from Stoke-by-Nayland village

Stoke-by-Nayland formerly a market town situated near the river Stour in Suffolk, and along this walk you will also pass through the village of Polstead as well. The walk took us about 2.5hrs with the stops to look around.

Along this walk there are plenty of things to see. As we walked past some of the beautiful old properties I do wonder what they used to be, then when you read the properties name they can sometimes give you the clue to it's past history. We also passed through wooded areas, passed some very large lakes, along the river and also visited several spectacular churches, one of which had a link to Anne Boleyn and Catherine Howard, and the snowdrops were out everywhere.

Roseau, Dominica Caribbean Cruise Feb 2025

Roseau, Dominica

Known as the island of waterfalls, 29 I believe, and unlike many of the neighbouring islands in the region which encourage lounging at the beach with a cocktail in hand, for us a full itinerary in Dominica did not include a beach day at all. The key value of visiting this unspoilt tropical paradise is the lush greenery of the rainforest which covers about two-thirds of the land, and it also has nine of the Caribbean's 16 active volcanoes located on it

We opted not to go trekking through the rainforest, we don't mind a nice trek but passed on that one this time, as on one of our last trips recently we were a tasty meal for the bugs and the bites hurt for ages afterwards. So we opted for a scenic rainforest drive, visiting the Emerald pool and then some river tubing along the Layou river.

St Kitts Caribbean Cruise Feb 2025

St Kitts

A lush and luxuriant exotic tropical island with rainforests that teem with gentle wildlife, mountains that scrape the sky and shores that defy convention some volcanic black, others caribbean gold.

Sounds fantastic.

Shamefully we didn't get to experience that, as we had chosen today to be our lazy day, even a 9am breakfast. We will just have to come back.

Instead we wandered around St Kitts for a few hours, then settled into a couple of rattan egg chairs, and continued our rehydration through cocktails.

The Three Churches Dalham, Moulton and Gazeley Walk

The Three Churches Walk Dalham, Moulton and Gazeley

If you’re up for a bit of a challenge, and this one was right on Ann's limit then the Three Churches Walk is a great way to spend a few hours exploring the area, we walked 14.5 Km and with a hot drink and snack stop and exploring inside the churches it took us just short of 4 hrs and the temperature was hovering around 4 Degs.

This route can be started at either the church in Dalham, Moulton or Gazeley, depending on your preference. We started at the Gazeley Church and then headed across to Moulton Church, and from there up to Dalham church. The route has a nice mix of terrain as it crosses fields, passes through wooded areas, follows the river for quite a bit and in some sections along quiet B roads.

Boxford Suffolk Walk

Boxford Suffolk

Chilly start to a 9k walk this morning but its warming up, now a toasty minus 1. Great walk with a smashing pub to finish The White Hart Inn in Boxford, one side of it is a pub and the other a very nice cafe.

#whitehartinnboxford

#robandann

Gdansk Poland Christmas Market December 2024

Gdansk Poland

3 Days in Gdansk I first heard of Gdansk in 2023 but unfortunately the flight prices were too expensive so it wasn't until 2024 that we visited this beautiful place for the Christmas markets.

After an entertaining start at Stansted with the parking, a little confusion as to if it had actually been booked at meet and greet unfortunately it turned out there was a booking issue so it had not, so it was a few drives around the Stansted airport roundabouts while we booked the mid stay and even saved a few pounds. Our flight was on-time and on landing it wasn't long before we were outside ready to book our transfer to the hotel. This time we used Bolt, it was half the price of Uber, and cost only 56 pln (£11) for a 27 minute journey to our hotel and we only waited 2 minutes to be picked up.

New Delhi Trident Hotel India Last part of our 10 day trip in India

New Delhi Trident Hotel India Last part of our 10 day trip in India

For our last 2 nights we stopped back in New Delhi at a hotel we found via google maps and its reviews, we booked this before we left the UK ourselves, the Trident Hotel  is the best hotel to date we have ever stayed in, and it was the perfect final place to chill out and revisit our first of hopefully many adventures to come in the following year.

We have used 3 different airlines, flown in and out of 3 different countries other than the UK and from 4 different airports, used multiple different taxi companies, and Uber and Google have both worked brilliantly in all the 3 countries.

Jaipur India Part 4 of our 10 day trip in India

Jaipur India Part 4 of our 10 day trip in India

Known also as the pink city, and again its traffic is as bonkers as New Delhi, at the city’s heart is the city palace and it is still home to the ruling family.

Today was a full day of multiple sightseeing with lots of walking in-between multiple car trips and also an added bonus we got to cross a 6 lane road full of continuous traffic where you just have to start to walk and the cars and motorbikes flow around you, we’re glad we had our guide with us for that one !

Our guide for today was Raj, very similar in age to us and for me the best guide of the tour so far, his knowledge of the area was immense and he was keen to tell us about and show us more than just the tourist sites. He also appeared to know everyone which meant we fast tracked entranced because of this, he never rushed us around things and after exploring an attraction he gave us free time, and Raj was with us all day.

Ranthambore National Park India Part 3 of our 10 day trip in India

Ranthambore National Park India Part 3 of our 10 day trip in India

This morning we set off to Ranthambore National Park for our tiger safari part which is a 6 hour car journey away, after about 1hr we stopped to visit Fatehpur Sikri a fortified ancient city and the rest of the journey was broken up with some stops along the way and also a lunch break.

Fatehpur Sikri was built by the Mughal Emperor Akbar and it was the short-lived capital of the Mughal empire between 1572 and 1585. It was intended to be the most beautiful city ever built, and for a while it was, until it was abandoned and the capital moved to Lahore in present day Pakistan.