Text contributed by Julia C.
Thrice as nice! On Friday evening a merry bunch of IOG walkers, led by the wonderful Christina, re-acquainted or visited for the first time three beautiful parks in Ipswich: Holywells, Landseer and Orwell Country Park. After introducing ourselves we set off walking through a very leafy Holywells Park in full bloom, including some lovely yellow water irises. We stopped a while to admire the old conservatory of the former home of the notable Ipswich family the Cobbolds, whilst also reading the strategically placed information board. Next, we left Holywell Park via the far gate passing a sweet cottage with a large collection of garden ornaments varying from gnomes to meercats to elephants and everything in between!
After a brief stroll through suburban Ipswich, we walked through Landseer Park to a wonderful view point of the River Orwell estuary – at one point it was really quite steep and we were all glad we had brought adequate water as it was still rather warm – definitely T-shirt weather even at 8-9pm.
Afterwards a short amble to Orwell Country Park – always a favourite – and hard to believe we are in Ipswich. It was refreshing, on such a warm night, in the denser shade of the mixed wooded area, which was lush and green on account of earlier spring rain. After walking through the woods, we were rewarded with the most amazing sunset over the Orwell bridge. We stood a while partaking of some water whilst absorbing in the beautiful view. A few small boats were bobbing along on the river as the sun set over the bridge with the Suffolk Food Hall just hidden from view behind a classic mix of green trees.
Refreshed, we then walked back through the top end of Landseer Park to the Mary Catchpole pub. We found a good spot in the beer garden to have a drink, chat and watch the night fall on a pleasant, sociable evening stroll.