Walk 2 - Tales from the River Bank

Darren had decided to use the Village Hall at Nayland as his starting point so we made our way to the beautiful village and found the hall, which is tucked away round the back of some other buildings. Everyone gradually arrived and after the formalities Darren spoke for a while about animals that we might see on the river and the different kinds of habitats that enabled the animals to survive. Everyone was itching to get walking and so after the presentation we headed out through the village to gather on the road bridge (Horkesley Road) above the river.

Darren then led us north along the river where we stopped at various points to look at and talk about a variety of flora and fauna. Being in the landscape with the knowledge Darren had armed us with at the beginning enabled us to connect more with it and gave us the possibility of identifying the difference between a water vole and a brown rat, should we see some. The circular route took a slight detour up across a bridge supporting the A134 so that we could look underneath the carriageway to see the problems that face otters as they move along the river and valley and how the Environment Agency are building ramps to help them travel beneath them. The circular walk finished near to where we started and also upon a bridge where someone with keen eyes spotted a large pike in the river below us. All in all it was a fascinating walk where we learned a lot of useful knowledge that will help us in our walks in the future.

List of things you may see along the River Stour banks and in the water:
mink
otters
water voles
brown rat
pole cats
​doormouse
chub
pike
roach
breem
crayfish
dragonflies
damsel flies
kingfisher