Day 129 – Sea Palling to Great Yarmouth: 15.3m: 5.4h

Everybody has spent a comfortable night but, during a waking moment, John has ascertained that there is a route around the docks at Great Yarmouth which hasn’t been included in our mileage calculations. It’s a circular route but, under the team’s rules, it has to be completed (a bit like an urban Spurn Point) and will add about another 4 miles to the walk. The impact which this might have on our plans for the next couple of walks will depend on how far (if at all) we’re able to get around the docks today. The news from Liverpool is that they beat West Ham 3-2 (having been 1-2 down midway through the second half) thanks in no small measure to Mr Fabianski making a real horlicks of trying to save a weak shot from Mr Salah. So it’s now 12 points needed from 11 games. Will they have won the title by the time we reconvene in four weeks? More immediate news is that breakfast is served promptly and so we’re back outside Reefs at 8 o’clock. Despite a note of caution about high tide being sounded by a woman walking a dog, the advice about the sea wall path proves to be correct – although we need to stay on the top step of the path to avoid any dampage from the waves. It’s only just after high tide, but we do get a bit of beach action before having to go up into the dunes around Waxham. About 3 miles further on at Horsey Gap, we take a beach access road to see whether the outgoing tide enables us to get back on the sand – and what an amazing sight awaits us. Quite a bit of the beach is visible, but much more of it is covered by a colony of seals. We were already aware from our coast path guide book that we might come across this, and a sign on the beach access road has instructed us to keep at least 10 metres away from the seals – and not to get between them and the sea – but the size of the colony is just extraordinary. It stretches far into the distance and it takes a good 20 minutes to walk past it. We reckon that there are well over 1,000 seals – perhaps as many as 2,000 – split between those who don’t seem too bothered by our presence and those who reckon that the water is a better place to be than the sand. As we continue towards Great Yarmouth on terrain which is a mixture of beach, dunes and sea wall paths, it becomes more and more likely that we won’t arrive in time to make any progress around the docks. This is not because of our uncharacteristic nature watch stop, but rather because the mileage covered yesterday seems to be affecting our pace today. We pass by/through Winterton and Hemsby, and reach Caister. We’re still over 4 miles from the centre of Great Yarmouth but, almost immediately after the Caister lifeboat station, the northern edges of the town come into view. Initially, these are rather picturesque comprising views over the Caister & Yarmouth Golf Club and, beyond that, Great Yarmouth Racecourse – the first racecourse we’ve seen since Chester over 5 years ago. However, we then come to a tarmac road adjacent to the entrance of a huge holiday village and massed ranks of static caravans. We follow the road for nearly 2 miles, tracking alongside the beach, until we get to the town promenade. After passing some water gardens and the Britannia Pier, we decide to call it a day and leave the docks until next time. It’s approaching 1:30, our train is due to leave in about 45 minutes and it’ll take us 20 minutes to reach the station. We get there in good time for comfort breaks and changes of footwear, and also for Mike to acquire four cans of beer from the neighbouring Asda, there being a marked lack of retail outlets at the station itself. These are consumed on the train to Norwich during the course of which it is calculated that, on our next two days in March, we’ll only get as far as Southwold. This does not cause a huge degree of consternation and, indeed, a debate ensues on how long we need to allow ourselves in Southwold on the second afternoon so as to appreciate fully the delights of Adnams in general and, perhaps, the Lord Nelson pub in particular. It could be that the very prospect will result in a slightly higher day 2 pace than we’ve achieved today. For now, our train arrives on time in Norwich where Mike catches his connection to Nottingham and the other three of us have the time to buy some sandwiches on the station concourse before returning to Liverpool Street.