Good afternoon! The majority of today's post comes from Katherine, our Warden who has the following important news about changes to the reserve paths:
"I do want to do a bit of forewarning to people who may want to come and visit in the next few weeks though, as we're soon to be making tweaks to the paths surrounding the visitor centre. These will be quite major tweaks, particularly if you come regularly and like to walk from the car park, straight up to the Washland viewpoint...
After numerous meetings and discussions, we've decided that we want to increase visitor flow through the visitor centre. Many visitors, new and returning, often don't come into the visitor centre, instead going straight up onto the Public Footpath and detouring round the visitor centre. Well, we're quite a friendly chatty bunch, and we like to meet and greet all of our visitors. We like to say what's around and what paths are good, and we like to find out what people have seen on their way round the reserve too!
So, how do we increase visitor flow? The only solution we could come up with is to direct all of our visitors straight to the visitor centre. To do this, we need to do a bit of path re-jigging. The plan is to remove the direct path that leads from the car park to the washland viewpoint, and create a new path that leads from the visitor centre, past the pond-dipping area and then up to the viewpoint from there. So you will still be able to access the washland viewpoint, just from a slightly different route via the visitor centre. Rest assured though, you will still be able to access the washland viewpoint when the visitor centre is closed and the reserve will remain open at all times.
This work is due to start in the next few weeks, so if you are planning to visit, please be aware that there may be a little bit of disruption around the car park area. All of the trails will remain open however, and we will ensure that any disruption will be kept to a minimum." Katherine, Warden
If you have any questions or comments about this, please do not hesitate to give the reserve office a ring on 01842 863400 or e-mail lakenheath@rspb.org.uk;
While I am on the subject of paths, please note that the riverbank Public Footpath between the Washland viewpoint and Joist Fen viewpoint is currently extremely muddy. Wellies are essential if you intend to walk along this stretch. All other reserve paths are currently passable with walking boots.
Of course, part of the reason why its so muddy is because of the amount of rain that we have had recently. I will leave you today with a picture of the washland yesterday:
Image credit: David White
We hope to see you soon!