Tag: Norfolk Coast Path

Monday, 24th October, 2011

The final day was our earliest start yet. We had to pack the car up and drive to Cromer at the end of the walk in time to get parked, buy lunch and catch the first bus back to Blakeney.

The path took us straight back out onto the sea defences through the marshes, which followed in a big loop to Cley next the Sea. This is a lovely, little village with the windmill at which we’d orginally hoped to stay.

It was then back across the marshes to get to a very long shingley beach. We walked for 4 miles along here straight into a constantly strong headwind. The going was hard enough on the shingles without having to battle against the wind as well. The beach felt like it went on forever; it stretched out as far as we could see in both directions. Apart from a few fishermen we had it all to ourselves.

A very long beach

At Weybourne the beach reached a grassy area that soon climbed up to become high sea cliffs (well, high for Norfolk). We followed the path along the top of these cliffs until it dropped down into Sheringham. Our first view of Sheringham was of a vast ugly caravan park. I’m not a fan of these parks at the best of times, but at least the one where we were staying in Wells had lots of trees and so the caravans didn’t stand out so much. This one had nothing. Really ugly.

We walked through Sheringham looking for a nice place to get coffee. Everywhere seemed to be plastic tablecloth, egg and chips type places and nowhere appealed. Eventually we settled on old fashioned tea shop with a carpet from the 1970s. The coffee was good and the staff were friendly, so despite the carpet it was ok.

The final stretch took us up over Beeston Hill and then inland through fields and woods, past farms and caravan parks, to arrive at the back end of Comer. We then walked down through the town to the pier and the end of walk.

For such a lovely walk the start and finish leave a lot to be desired.  Hunstanton and Cromer are both shabby seaside towns long past their heyday. And, disappointingly, neither end has a nice sign to mark the start or finish of the walk.

Sunday, 23rd October, 2011

Another early start. As the buses don’t start running till later on a Sunday morning, we decided to drive to Burnham Overy Staithe and leave the car there. Then we could get a bus back in the evening to pick it up.

We were walking before 9am and headed back out to the marshes. We saw a group of birdwatchers with their telescopes all set up and stopped to chat. They were from Switzerland and watching a spoonbill which isn’t particularly common. Also it was awake and apparently they’re usually asleep. They offered to let us have a look, but it flew away before we could get to the telescopes.

We walked for a long time over the sea banks. As Norfolk is so low it needs these sea defences to prevent flooding. It reminded me a lot of walking in the Netherlands. We saw lots of joggers and lots more birdwatchers. It’s a lovely place to run and the marsh atracts lots of birds, particularly now that we’re going into migration season.

After a few miles we were walking on beach again. We walked for quite a way along the tree lined beach before turning inwards to have a look at a bird hide in the woods. We then walked through the woods which were lovely with several pools and more marsh. The actual path followed the path further along the beach before turning into the woods, but we were ready for something different.

Finally the path led to the beach at Wells and we walked the long straight road back into the town. This was my first chance to look around Wells and it is a really nice little town. There’s one main street which is narrow and pedestrianised. We sat outside a small cafe for lunch before heading out of Wells back on the path again.

Although we were walking at the edge of the ‘land’ the sea was far away in the distance. Between us was a vast expanse of marshland. We bypassed Stiffkey (pronounced ‘Stewkey’) and came to a stop at Morston. This is a National Trust place with toilets (yay!) and a place to get drinks. It was a lovely day again and I was really in need of a long, cold drink by this time, so it was a very welcome stop. It’s also possible to do boat tours from here out to Blakeney Point to see the seals. They have their pups with them at the moment so now is a really good time to go out there. There were crowds of people waiting for the boats so no doubt it’s something that has to be booked in advance. We had no time anyway as we were on such a tight schedule with the walk.

From Morston we followed the path through the marshes to Blakeney. We were about hour early for the bus, but didn’t think we could risk going further as the path loops far from the road and if we didn’t make it back to the road in time we would miss the last bus. We wandered round Blakeney – more boat trips to the point – and then sat in the courtyard of the Blakeney Hotel having coffee. It was very posh, but quite reasonable prices.

Once we picked the car up we drove back to Wells for dinner. There’s a lovely area with houses and a couple of pubs set around a green. We had a drink in one of the pubs and then went for food in the other one. It was nice, but I preferred the pea soup we’d had the night before. We couldn’t go back to the boat though, as there was a private party on. After dinner it was nice to be able to drive back to the caravan instead of having to walk along the long dark road.

Saturday, 22nd October, 2011

We were up early to make sandwiches and walk the half mile to the main road in Wells to catch the 8.15 bus to Hunstanton. It was a lovely sunny morning with just a slight nip in the air. The early light was so lovely over the harbour. It had been pitch black last night when we arrived at the caravan so I hadn’t seen any of it.

Early morning light over Wells harbour

The boat where we later ate pea soup

The bus arrived and we bought 3 day passes for £15 each. This means we can hop on and off the coasthopper buses as much as we like. The journey took us through some lovely villages and it seemed a shame that because of having to do the walk in 3 days instead of four, I wouldn’t get time to explore them. Ah well, just have to come back then.


We got off the bus at the lighthouse in old Hunstanton, then realised we should have been in the main part of Hunstanton about a mile up the road. We walked along the road to it and hunted for the sign to mark the beginning of the walk. The best we could find was a rusty old way marker. It was so inauspicious we really weren’t sure we were at the start and so walked further back along the coast to make sure we’d definitely included the start.


Soon after the leaving the town we had the chance to walk along the beach below some dramatic stripey cliffs. The stripes are white limestone, red limestone and carstone. We chose to do this even though the route took us along the tops. We walked for ages along the beach, all the time being aware of the saltmarsh that kept threatening to cut us off from the mainland and the path. We kept seeing paths through and so didn’t worry too much until it was too late and we could get no further. We either had to cross a fairly deep channel to continue on the beach or pick our way through the marsh to get back to the path. We opted for the marsh and pulled off our boots and socks so we could wade through it barefoot. Each way we tried the mud got too deep and gooey to continue. We ended up having to backtrack even though the path was so close. Frustrating, but we’d had fun doing our ‘barfuss’ walking in the marsh.

By this time we were ready for lunch and so perched on a sewage drainage thingy at the edge of the car park to eat our sandwiches. Not the nicest of places to sit on a nice walk, but there was a distinct lack of places to sit down and this was the best we could do.

The path then took us inland through Thornham and across the busy A149. It climbed (yes, I know this is Norfolk, but it really did climb) up away from the coast and we walked inland for quite a way before dropping back down into Brancaster. We wended our way along narrow lanes and paths through farmers’ fields and got some quite good views of the coast and the wind farm out at sea.

Narrow boardwalks through the marsh

From Brancaster we were back to walking along the coast, through saltmarshes on a boardwalk. It took quite a bit of concentration as the boardwalk was narrow, generally only two planks wide, and had some drops of at least a foot on either side straight into the bog. It was strange to see boats stuck in what looked like fields, but what we knew was really marsh and would get flooded at high tides.

At Burnham Deepdale we came back to the road and stopped for a coffee at the White Horse pub. This doesn’t look much from the road but was lovely inside. At the back was a verandah with a half-height glass wall. We sat here with a really good cup of coffee, looking over the small harbour and feeling completely sheltered.

After our coffee break we were on our last stretch of the day. The path wound over sea banks in a big loop away from the road. We felt like we were on this stretch for ages, though it was probably only felt like this because it was the end of a long day and we were getting tired. We could see the windmill which was on the road just before Burnham Overy Staithe and knew we were heading for it. For a long time it never seemed to get any closer. Finally, with fading light, we made it and walked alongside the road into Burnham Overy Staithe to catch our bus back to Wells.

As we knew that once we got back to the caravan we wouldn’t want to come out again, we stopped for dinner whilst we were in Wells. There’s an old sailing boat in the harbour which has been converted into a pub. It’s owned by a Dutch guy and has a large pancake menu, and Dutch pea soup on offer. It was getting a bit chilly to sit on deck so we went down the very steep steps to sit inside. It’s very basic with a tiny bar with 3 small beer barrels sitting on it. There are a few tables and benchs and the walls are papered with old maps.

We spent a really nice couple of hours here eating the best pea soup ever and of course we had to have a pancake. I didn’t think much of the Norfolk beer though. Maybe it’s something to do with the water which is really horrible. If I’d known I’d have brough a car load of Manchester water down with me.

Finally we walked the last half mile back to the caravan in complete darkness. Luckily I had my head torch in my pack. My body felt like it had seized into postion which I blamed on all the flat walking. It might seem easier than hills, but it’s a whole different impact on the body to just keep doing what is essentially the same step over and over for a whole day. A hot shower and bed helped to sort me out though and I felt fine the next morning.

Finally. We’ve ended up having to settle for a caravan at a caravan park near the halfway point of the walk. There seem to be fairly regular buses along the coast so we’ll take a car and do a mix of leaving the car at one end of the walk and getting buses each day. A bit of a faff, but at least we don’t have to carry all our gear.

We had planned to do the walk over four days and have accommodation on Saturday, Sunday and Monday nights. However, at this caravan park we can only have the caravan Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights. Getting there on the Friday night isn’t a big deal and it means we can get an early start on the Saturday morning. But it does mean that unless we can find alternative accommodation for Monday night we’ll have to complete the walk in three days instead of four. As we’ll be restricted by the bus times and by the diminishing daylight this may not be feasible. But at least we’re going.

I really don’t know why everything has been so difficult and expensive. I find it hard to believe that demand is so high they can be like this and not see it as an issue. But equally I can’t understand why they seem to be actively trying to discourage tourists.

Some of the problems we’ve had, besides everywhere seemingly being full, are:

• Very expensive campsites – cheaper to stay in a hotel!
• Campsites that state you have to stay a minimum of 2 nights – it’s a long-distance walking trail; walkers will stay one night and walk on!
• Very expensive guesthouses and B&Bs – again, there are hotels that are cheaper (just not where we need them unfortunately) 
• The caravan park we are staying at saying we can’t leave the car there on the day we checkout. We have to have it moved out of the park by 10am!

It almost makes me want to do the walk just so I can say “Hah! Beat you. I did it despite all your obstacles!”

After speaking to my friend in Norfolk again, we decided to walk the Norfolk Coast Path instead of the Peddar’s Way. We like the idea of being beside the sea. Her husband will drop us at the start on the Saturday morning and pick us up at the end four days later. For the three nights on the path we thought about camping, but Valinda doesn’t have a tent. We’ve looked at accommodation and got quite excited by the choices. The first night would be in a hostel and the second in a caravan. Neither of which is particularly exciting, but on our third night we would stay in a windmill. This would be our last night and so would be a nice treat.

Valinda has tried to book everything only to find everywhere is all booked up. Yes, we know it’s half term, but it’s the end of October in Norfolk for goodness sake. What’s going on? The one campsite she tried had a minimum stay of two nights, which seems quite bizarre for a campsite on a walking trail.

We still want to do the walk, but may end up borrowing a tent for Valinda and wild camping. At least we still have plenty of time to sort something out.