Tuesday 23 March 2010

Gaywood Walk

I set out with no clear objective in mind, apart from wanting to walk.

After walking along South Quay, down to Tuesday Market place, around the Town Quay and past True's Yard I came out to the Loke Road junction, and remembered that there was a small waterway behind the houses, so I thought I'd go along the path beside that for a way. This waterway – about 3 feet across and 4 or 5 deep, with maybe a foot or so of flowing water - is one of the man made drainage ways that keep this part of the world from being marsh land, and I find from my map that this one is called Bawsey Drain.

I start off along the well made path here, with the backs of the houses on one side, and the backs of a commercial development on the other. This doesn't sound very promising, I know, and indeed there is evidence of some fly tipping in the stream – a supermarket trolley which is filled with water plants, a sofa with one end in the water. But even here, there are ducks swimming around, and grass growing on the banks, evidence that nature is not tamed. Every so often along the way there are foot bridges over the water, but I just carry on along the waterside, across roads, still with buildings on both sides.

Then as I cross one more road, the houses on the far side give way to allotments – and what a lot of them there are! Many with sheds and other structures. And in the distance, I hear the unmistakable sound of turkeys – evidence that it's not just veg that is being kept here. A bit further along, and there is another drainage channel running into the one I'm following. The land on the other side appears to be scrub land, with a newer building in the distance, and with the way the Drains run, it looks like it has a moat round it! The houses on my side of the river seem more spacious now too as the path takes me out of the centre and through North Lynn.

Soon I am coming towards the sports centre with the imaginative title of Lynn Sport, and an interesting area set up for competitive fishing! Here I have to cross over to the right bank of the water, and the path goes across between the playing fields, away from the stream. However, one can still walk alongside the water on the bank, and so I do this, as the Drain loops around the field. There is a screen of trees here, and the waterway is somewhat wider and deeper, and it feels almost like “real” countryside!

And then I come to an abrupt junction, where the Drain joins the Gaywood River, and I turn left along the appropriately named “Riverside”. And this is a simply wonderful little street – here on this side of the river there are a parade of small one story cottages facing the street, and then the grass bank of the river. On the other bank the houses have gardens coming down to the riverbank, and many of them are open with no fence, giving the appearance of a tiny countryside village.

But I can hear that I'm approaching a main road, and I soon emerge onto Wotton Road. Crossing over, I see that the river is boarded on both sides by private land, and though I walk a little way along to see if I can re-gain the riverbank, I eventually give this up, and retrace my steps back to the main road.

Rather than return the way I came, I decide to follow the Gaywood River, and this takes me on the other side of Lynn Sport. The houses on the other bank here have large gardens, and some have made a feature of the riverbank – one having built a deck with a seating area. Another appears to be in the process of building some sort of similar structure, and a third has a chicken coup!

After a while, the path I'm on becomes a road with houses on my side too, and then the river makes an abrupt turn to the right, and I follow it along an unmade road prettily called “Swan Lane”. This road also has small cottages along the road, and feels very rural, even though on the other bank I can see the back of the new super store which I know is on the busy Gaywood Road.

At the end of Swan Lane one of Lynn's many cycle paths cross the river, which I cross to continue following the river bank, but this is soon blocked by a fence, with what appears to be a farmers field the other side, so I go back and follow the path instead. This takes me across Gaywood Road, and then runs next to King Edward VII School, where the school-kids are out playing sports.

I'm familiar with this path – called the Railway Path – which runs next to the King's Lynn to London line, between mature trees. Then I'm across Tennyson Road and into the Walks, and nearly home. As I continue across the Walks, it occurs to me that the waterways here are probably the Gaywood river – I hadn't previously thought what this might be, but checking on the map later shows that indeed this is the case.

Overall an interesting and amusing walk – although I was always in one part of town or another, by following the waterways I saw a different, and more rural face to the area than anyone speeding past in a car will ever see.

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