TraceysTrek

Best bits: seeing an owl in flight, taking my shoe off at the end of the day

Worst bits: walking 3 miles on shingle

Distance:19.6 miles

It was very breezy today with the wind dropping the ambient temperature considerably. I made sure I had plenty of sun cream on before I left.

Having walked along the promenade, at Sheringham I was a little surprised when it stopped abruptly and ended in a pebble beach. I checked the map and there was no obvious way to go, it was either walk back to where I’d come from, walk along the pebble beach for a long way or look for a path up the cliff. Fortunately there was a small path not particularly well defined, but I decided to take that.

It was only a relatively short climb but I was conscious of the lack of grip on my trainers but then I was soon back out onto the cliff tops by the side of a golf course. The coastal path was well defined from there on.

There were a couple of small fishing boats out on the sea surrounded by gulls. A reminder of the local fishing industry. 

The cliff tops were full of beautiful little purple flowers which Lynn identified as Sea Thrift.

There were many examples of coastal erosion today. The cliffs here are not very high or spectacular, but they are cliffs nonetheless.

The beach in this area comprised small pebbles or shingle, which makes it quite hard on the legs. I passed another MOD firing range this time with some sort of guns pointing out to sea.

A small herd of cows with calves were paddling in a muddy pool obviously trying to keep cool on this very warm day.

I spotted Lynn and Harb‘s van in the distance which always fills me with joy that it’s time for a cup of tea. Lynn was busy chatting to people as they passed by, some of whom made donations.

After a tea break and a couple of caramel wafers I set off again. The beach was heavy going on the legs as it was large shingles which went on for about 3 miles. I met quite a few people who were also suffering from the terrain. There were also lots of areas of beach roped off for nesting birds.

Kate and Chris from Norwich were walking in the opposite direction. Kate was a trustee of a breast cancer charity and we had a long chat about my walk, cancer charities and the beach.

Lunch break was planned for the village of Blakeney, but first I had to pass through Cley next to sea. The windmill there is quite spectacular. The terrain on the seashore caused my foot to become really painful and I limped the last 3 miles to my lunch stop.

When my foot is hurting I feel pretty weary and today was also quite hot and humid which didn’t help. I was pretty exhausted by the time I arrived in Blakeney. I had to resort to 2 ibuprofen. Unfortunately, the what three words that Harb had sent me to locate them didn’t work as I didn’t have a phone signal. Fortunately I did find them and we had lunch together.

After lunch, the path was reasonably well maintained and I made good time. I tried speedwalking in the hope that I would finish earlier. My foot was a little bit better.

Walking was now around the extensive salt marshes, the sea was a long way in the distance. I came across a really muddy area of marshland and I was wondering just how I was going to get to the other side when fortunately a couple came along in the opposite direction. They clearly knew the path and walked around the mud and a small tributary so I followed them.

Shortly after this, I came across Florian and Andrew who were a couple of days into walking the Norfolk coastal path. Poor Andrew was already suffering with his winter boots. We exchanged our experiences of walking before before going our separate ways.

Finally, it was time to turn off at Stiffkey where I met Lynn and Harb for another cup of tea. Lynn decided to walk the final 3 miles with me on the proviso that the path was flat.

Indeed, it was and we made good progress and saw quite a lot of wildlife, including a monk Jack deer, rabbits, oyster catcher and a barn owl in flight. The owl did several flights near us but we never managed to capture a good photograph. It was however, beautifully graceful.

We finally made it to Wells-next-2-sea. It was a busy little place with people crabbing from the Harbour wall, others were walking through the mud, and others were getting ready to paddleboard. As it was towards the end of the day, other people were eating fish and chips or ice creams.

Harb drove us back to our campsite where we had dinner and watched the England ladies football match against Portugal. The lionesses won six nil.