title	Tales From The Floods, Bury St. Edmunds and Walsham Le Willows, Suffolk - 20th October 2023
intro	Isobel wants to visit Rachel, who's now been moved to West Suffolk Hospital in Bury St. Edmunds - a location Grandad did a few stints at back in the day. It seems like a reasonable idea, despite the rain, however it turns out that "the rain" is somewhat biblical and leads to flooding across Suffolk that's not been seen for at least a generation, if ever. Getting to Bury wasn't too bad, with just a few areas of flooding across the A143 to deal with, but by the time we'd wandered around a few shops, done lunch at Wagamama and visited Rachel at the hospital, the return home was a very different beast. Firstly, Compeigne Way outside Bury was closed, so we had to head east up the A14, then, thanks to roadworks, we come off at Thurston, but that's a bit hosed as we head towards Pakenham and then Walsham Le Willows, which was properly stuffed as there was an actual river where the road to Finningham used to be. Backtracking, we end up at Gislingham, but three of the main exits we try are impassable - Thornham, Mellis and Burgate, and we're actually considering bunking down at the band hut on Mill Street for the night. However, we get a tip-off from a local that Back Street is relatively clear to Rickinghall, which we successfully do and rejoin the A143 for a slow but at least functional drive back home, although the 35-minute drive home has now taken 2.5 hours. The next day, there's a brief trip down to Billingford to see what's left of the flooded River Waveney.
imgp7831	Flooding on the A143 near Wortham
imgp7848	There's more water near Wattisfield
imgp7852	The A143 is a river in places
imgp7882	There's a dude swimming in the A143 at Wattisfield
imgp7897	Water surges past houses in Wattisfield
imgp7906	The A143 becomes a lake near Stanton
imgp7914	Compeigne Way in Bury, just before it was closed
imgp7917	Debenhams at The Arc is becomming a Primark
imgp7918	The Apex on a rainy day
imgp7921	There are still remains of Topshop
imgp7923	Superdry seems to have shut up shop as well
imgp7924	There's not much call for outdoor seating
imgp7925	Isobel pays the Wagamama bill with her phone
imgp7927	There are a load of ambulances at West Suffolk
imgp7928	The exit off the A14 at Thurston is carnage
imgp7933	A car is surrounded on the Ixworth/Finningham road
imgp7935	The road to Finningham is actually a river
imgp7936	Another view of the road to Walsham Le Willows
imgp7939	The A143 as we near the Thrandeston exit
imgp7940	The kittens swirl around on the kitchen table
imgp7944	The bridge at Billingford
imgp7950	The river has disappeared
imgp7951	A Mini driver decides not to try it on
imgp7952	A view over the sluice gates, where the river was
imgp7957	Looking east from the bridge
imgp7958	The Waveney has definitely burst its banks
imgp7965	Grass and weeds line up where the floods flowed
imgp7967	The flood plains of the Waveney Valley
imgp7972	A view of the bridge from down the road
imgp7976	Silt and gravel on the road from the floods