Albana Walk, Ickworth Park, Suffolk

10am 8.2 miles in 1 hour 6 mins 17 secs

Year to date mileage 993

Month to date 43 miles

Average miles per month 107

Average weekly rate 24.7

Weather: A beautiful autumn day very mild and perfect for running. Only problem is I have a 'cricked' neck from shifting furniture.

Course: Set of towards Horringer over fields towards Lord Hervey's wood and Great Horringer Hall. Along Westley Lane and into Horringer Village. At the Church turn right into Ickworth Park, down to Ickworth House and then do a circuit of Albana Wood before returning on the same route.

Usually once I am into Ickworth Park I see little traffic but today was different as there was a Wood Fair taking place. A sale of wood and carvings which seems to attract a lot of interest.

The woods of the Albana are a great place for seeing deer and today was no different I saw 2 muntjac but didn't manage to capture them on camera. When I saw the first deer I came to a halt and the deer kept so still that I wasn't sure if it was a wood carving until I moved to take a picture and it shot of into the woods.

The Muntjac deer are the oldest of all known deer. There are several species of muntjac the one we are likely to see in large parts of England is the Reeves Muntjac and it is our smallest deer. It is believed that the Duke of Bedford had a collection of muntjac deer in the 19th century at Woburn Park. There were several escapees but the biggest escape apparently happened in the 1920's from Whipsnade Zoo.