We were drawn to Mildenhall with the lure of a fairly new Geocache which hinted at a promising place to explore. We decided however to make the most of being in the brecks and rather than heading into the forest as usual, found an area which we hadn’t yet explored. Oh yes, with the small added bonus that there was a geocaching trail in the area too. Coincidence? You decide.

Our adventure started with parking the car in completely the wrong place. Parking in the area proved to be a bit of a challenge but unbeknownst to us this was to be our saving grace of the day.

We set off on our walk and it soon became clear that today wasn’t going to be a day of geocaching joy (That story may follow.) but bad geocaching does not a bad adventure make.
Our walk took us past the disused Mildenhall railway station and along quiet country footpaths, we didn’t meet a single other person on our walk. Bliss!

With clear countryside views we were content watching birds of prey hunt, running through trees and using bulrushes as microphones. As you do. When I say we I of course mean everybody else whilst I snapped away gathering photographic evidence….Hmm Instagram maybe? 😉

We did manage to find a few caches and finished our trail by the River lark in the centre of town. I drive through the town and over the river regularly but have never actually stopped to explore. I was pleasantly surprised at how nice the area was, with plenty of footpaths to follow and explore.

A quick check on my map and only a smidgen of guesswork we figured that a certain path would lead us where we had rather haphazardly parked the car.

Whilst the riverside walk was nice enough, rounding the corner we discovered a rather lovely boardwalk leading to Barton Mills and exactly where the car was parked. I’m getting good at this! 😉

As the saying goes beauty really is in the eye of the beholder, having just discussed the walk with Mr Muddy his reaction was ‘That swampy old green bit!’ accompanied by a look of disbelief.
Well for the record I thought that swampy old green bit was really rather lovely. Photogenic, wild and nature doing what nature does. Those gnarly old trees that to me are so symbolic of the brecks and take a rather lovely photo….

or two…

Exploring over it was time to head to the geocache that had inspired the trip…Hmm, for that you are going to have to watch this space.