Day 124 – King’s Lynn to Hunstanton: 16.7m: 5.8h

John arrives in Hunstanton on Sunday 11 August, having spent two days walking the 35 miles necessary for him to complete the Peddars Way. Gary joins him in the evening at the Marine Hotel and Bar – our planned overnight stop for the Monday. The principal reason for this is, of course, friendship and sociability, but the prospect of being able to leave rucksacks at the Marine during our walk is also somewhat attractive. In fact, in a cab journey during his Peddars Way perambulations, John has arranged with the driver Kevin (not Colin) not only to take us to King’s Lynn on the Monday morning but also, following rendezvous there with Ben and Mike, to take their rucksacks back to the Marine so that they can also have a relatively unencumbered walk to Hunstanton.

After breakfast at the Marine, John and Gary spend the first part of Monday morning trying to identify somewhere in Hunstanton which might be open for breakfast tomorrow earlier than 8 o’clock which is the Marine’s start time and which seems unlikely to be capable of being brought forward for us. Nothing is found apart from a Costa Coffee outlet but, during the journey to King’s Lynn, Kevin recommends the Thornham Deli as being the best place for breakfast on this stretch of the Norfolk coast. Thornham is nearly 6 miles from Hunstanton, but a 7 o’clock start tomorrow would get us there (with very healthy appetites) around 9. In the meantime, we arrive at King’s Lynn station in good time for the scheduled arrival of Ben and Mike at 10:30, but their train from King’s Cross/Ely is delayed by around 15 minutes. Kevin waits to collect their rucksacks and, with comfortably light bags on our backs and in pleasantly warm weather, we set off through the town to reach our start point at St Ann’s Church. John stops in a shopping precinct en route to buy some fruit but, despite this – and an unsurprisingly brief and inconclusive conversation about the price of nectarines – we still get to the church at 11 o’clock. The first part of our walk takes us along some streets and then through the dock gates to reach the Great Ouse, but we only stay alongside the river for half an hour or so. Before it reaches the Wash, we have to turn inland and, for the next couple of hours, our route takes us along a series of paths through a number of fields and marsh areas. Several of these have signs announcing that it’s private property (generally that of a local shooting club) but the OS maps show the paths to be public rights of way and, according to his blog, Charles had no difficulty using them during his walk around GB last year. Similarly, we encounter no problems but, shortly after passing Wolferton (not closely enough to see the Royal Station there) we find our planned route back to the Wash blocked by some utility works. Instead, we have to continue along the inland paths to an RSPB site near Snettisham where we cross a couple of small lakes and eventually reach the coast shortly after 2:30. We now get some beach and dune action towards Snettisham Sailing Club and, beyond that, to Heacham but, by the time we reach the approach to Hunstanton, we’re up on a promenade. And a real seaside resort prom it proves to be – passing alongside a leisure park with the customary rides, arcades and other entertainment before reaching the centre of town, where we finish close to the extremely popular Waterside Bar just after 4:45. On our way to the hotel, we call in at a fish restaurant on the green to see if it would be an acceptable alternative to eating at the Marine. It would, but after a couple of pints in the Marine’s bar and having been told by the staff that they should be less busy than they were last night, the prospect of staying there seems more enticing. On returning to the bar after showers (Ben’s and Mike’s rucksacks having arrived safely with Kevin) things are, in fact, pretty busy, but a table soon becomes available without us having to exert too much pressure on its occupants. As usual, plates of fish and chips are ordered – and very good they are too. A couple of bottles of wine, and we’re back to our rooms at 9:30.