Before
opening the pub, the landlord has to open his Holt fish shop, so breakfast won’t
be available until 8:15 earliest. This is slightly later than our customary
breakfast window, but there should still be more than sufficient time to reach
Cromer well before our scheduled train departure at 3:57. After brekker and
check-out, we get back to Cley’s main street at 9:20 and set off through the
town, around the windmill and then north along the eastern side of the Cley
Channel to regain the coast. There now begins what proves to be a long walk
along a shingle beach. The Norfolk Coast Path Guide describes this as an
“enervating” 4 miles, but the adjective which springs more readily to mind,
despite the very occasional relief of short sand/grass sections in the dunes,
is “knackering”. If Batten had been with us today, his trainers wouldn’t have
survived. Just before 11 o’clock John, Ben and Gary are tempted to cast purity
aside and divert onto a path on the landward side of the dunes which seemingly
goes around a military installation at Muckleburgh, but it soon transpires that
the path simply goes inland, and it is decided to retrace steps and follow Mike
who has continued along the shingle. Fortunately this soon, and at long last, gives
way to some relatively low cliffs at Weyboune Hope and we’re reunited around
11:30 at the top of the first climb up from the shingle where Mike is waiting.
Buoyed by comfortable underfoot conditions, we have a couple of short
ascents/descents before arriving alongside Sheringham Golf Course where it
looks as though it’s ladies’ day. A gentle climb brings us to a point next to
the ninth tee from where there are glorious views both along the coast and
across the course. Out at sea there’s a kite surfer who, to four inexpert pairs
of eyes, is exercising incredible strength and balance by keeping his kite
under control and staying on his board. And on the far side of the course
there’s the North Norfolk Railway and a steam train wending its way towards
Weybourne and Holt. We actually spend a little bit of time taking in the views (although
this does coincide with the day’s hour 3 loggage) before continuing downhill,
with the golf club house away to our right, and arriving on the promenade in
Sheringham itself. Gazing beyond the town, it seems that the route to Cromer is
going to involve at least one more quite steep climb to the top of Beeston
Hill. However, towards the end of the promenade, it looks as though we’ve
struck lucky with the tides again and that we’ll be able to stay on the beach
for most, if not all, of our final three miles or so. And indeed we are. Firm
sand on a warm early afternoon at the bottom of the cliffs past West and East
Runton, all the way to the pier at Cromer. A cracking way to end the day and
our 2019 walks. In fact we finish a little way beyond the pier at the Lifeboat
Café. The sign outside proclaims that it serves “the best hand cut Cromer crab
sandwiches” and it would be churlish not to try them. Of course we have nothing
against which to compare them, but they are very good. There’s still a good
hour before our train leaves, but The White Horse pub on the way to the station
is an agreeable place to while away the time. John and Ben both have a bit of a
snooze on the train from Cromer which arrives on schedule at Norwich, from
where Mike catches a connection to Nottingham and the other three of us one to
London.
Day 126 – Burnham Overy Staithe to Cley next the Sea: 17.0m: 5.6h
Ben and Gary
leave from King’s Cross (for what will be the last time on the walk)
accompanied by John who has caught an early train to London. Mike joins at Ely
and we arrive on time at King’s Lynn where we’re collected by the newly married
Kevin. Rather unusually, the drive to BOS is through light rain but, less
unusually, this stops as soon as we get out of the cab at The Hero. We’re met
there by Charlie Batten who has been in Norfolk over the weekend and is joining
us for almost all of today’s walk. He seems rather surprised that we’re not
popping into The Hero for a sharpener before setting off. We leave the pub car
park at 12:25 heading north alongside Overy Marshes before reaching Holkham
Beach. Batten, shod in trainers, doesn’t seem too keen on walking along the
softish sand and, for the most part, we stay reasonably close to the dunes –
increasingly so as we approach Holkham Gap where the route leaves the beach and
continues along a path through an attractive avenue of trees which leads back
to the beach at a boating lake and camping park. We stop briefly for ice cream
for some (it is getting quite warm) and an indoor comfort break for others, and
Mike seeks to ascertain from a group of bird watchers who are gazing out to sea
through binoculars and zoom-equipped cameras what they are looking for. The
cursory nature of the response (“birds”) seems to be reflected in the generally
uncommunicative attitude of other twitchers we pass on the next section of the
path which gradually heads inland alongside a creek to Wells-next-the-Sea. The
town sits on an estuary of mudflats and saltmarsh but is connected to the open
water from an inlet harbour and, apparently, is the only functioning port on
this stretch of coast. We continue along the waterfront, past the old granary,
and then onto a grassy embankment which, for the next few miles, passes between
fields on the one side and saltmarsh on the other, edging past Warham before
broadening out and giving glimpses of the sea in the distance. It’s certainly
more interesting than the embankment route through South Lincolnshire.
Eventually, having passed Stiffkey and skirted Morston, we go along a sea wall
and follow a succession of creeks for a couple of miles before arriving in
Blakeney around 5:15. This is where Batten has parked his car and so it marks
the end his participation in the walk, but he intends to drive to Cley and join
us for a drink at our overnight stop there, The Three Swallows, before heading
home. We place our drinks order with him before continuing on our way. The
distance by road from Blakeney to Cley is not much more than a mile, but the
coast path follows a loop of a couple of miles which curves north towards
Blakeney Eye before bending south again and aiming back inland towards the
windmill at Cley. Approaching the top of the loop, the thought of Batten
sitting in a pub whilst we’re walking away from it causes two of our party to
question (albeit quietly and briefly) the need for coastal purity, but we
eventually arrive on Cley’s main street just after 6 o’clock having completed
exactly 17 miles. We’re now left with another 600 yards or so along the Holt
road to reach the Three Swallows where we find Batten at the bar, drink in hand
and placing our order. We manage a second round before he leaves and the rest
of us go to freshen up (we’ve booked out the four rooms available which are in
a converted barn to the side of the pub). Supper is ok, but slightly
disappointing bearing in mind that the cod has been sourced from our host’s own
fish shop 4 miles away in Holt. But the two bottles of wine go down well, as do
the couple of stickies which we manage to take on board before bed.
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