Something you will find out about me sooner or later is that I have no sense of direction. Sometimes I get lost when I’m in Norwich, which is rather tragic. That’s why I should never be allowed to go to the forest…
Anyway, let’s start at the beginning! Because the weather was glorious this weekend, it seemed a shame to be inside, so the Other Half suggested we visit High Lodge at Thetford Forest for a walk.
It’s only 30 minutes south of Norwich and straight forward to get to (head south on the A11 until you get to the roundabout for Brandon and turn right – from there it’s sign posted) so it seemed perfect.
We were a little startled to discover that parking was £1.90 an hour (with a maximum fee of £10), but if you have children it probably works out cheaper than going to a National Trust attraction.
Once we got parked, we got our bearings (or so we thought) and set off along one of the walks, heading for an ancient monument. There are a range of walks to choose from, but I would like to point out that you should very carefully look for the sign posts; we must have missed one and got terribly lost.
Going round in circles
We probably walked 10 miles all in all, but it was the perfect day for it. And luckily we’d had the forethought to take water with us, so we made the best of it.
One of the nicest things about being in the forest is the lack of noise. Even though there must have been hundreds of people in the forest, you couldn’t hear anyone, or any traffic – there was just the sound of birds. It was very relaxing.
We did eventually find the monument, which was not as exciting as I had hoped, but worth stopping by. I have struggled to find out much about it though, because the information had been destroyed and there’s very little online.
Once we found it, we headed back to High Lodge for an ice lolly – and I think we’d earned it!
If the weather’s nice for the next Bank Holiday, you should definitely have a walk around up there – just remember to follow the markers carefully!
Find out more about High Lodge here.
