QC Blogging Day

Times Quick Cryptic No 1429 by Tracy

Another neat QC from Tracy for our delectation today. Not too easy with plenty to make you think, but nothing too obscure, I reckon. Some lovely smooth surfaces and witty wordplay, with several worthy of the 15x15. I did enjoy the luvvy at 12A, the father-of-the-bride speech at 18A and the rubbish clue at 21A, for example - not to mention several of the Down clues too. 6:50 for me, which is somewhat over target. Thanks, Tracy. How did you all get on? I don't expect anyone complaining, as we had the other day, that it was too easy! All comments and queries welcome.

( Read all about it... )

Norfolk Coast Path - Day 3 Blakeney to Cromer

Our third and final day of the Norfolk Coast Path after Day 1, Old Hunstanton to Burnham Over Staithes (15 1/4 miles) and Day 2, Burnham Over Staithes to Blakeney (15 1/2 miles), took us from Blakeney to Cromer (16 miles)

This was our route...

And what a cracking one it was too, with much more walking close to the shore and some lovely ups and downs and views. It was pleasantly fresh to start with and, although warm and sunny all day, it didn't get quite as hot as the previous 2 days.

So much to see, it was hard to pick a selection from all the photos I took, so here are just a few of today's leg starting where we left off yesterday in Blakeney.
 

We still had a last bit of saltmarsh to navigate along the top of the seabank before we got to the seashore. This isolated house out in the marsh looked odd. I'm not sure I would fancy living there.

After the remains of Blakeney chapel we turned back inland to the delightful village of Cley next the Sea, with its distinctive windmill. The route here has been moved to allow for the realignment of the course of the River Glaven.

In Cley we stopped at the Picnic Fayre deli, full of delights. I had one of the pork pies as an early elevenses.

It was Cley Harbour day today, but festivities weren't due to start until 4pm. Too late for us, alas.

They were busy setting up the stage and seating for the performances of  Pirate Joe, the Wild Rovers and Steve Sausage.

We left Cley with a fine view of the pretty windmill behind us.

Today's beach walk was a bit different. Shingle instead of sand. And 4 miles of it!

We were able to walk for a while on some sandier bits at the water edge.

Here is the view looking back towards Cley and Blakeney over Salthouse marshes.

Joyce left a little memento of our visit on the shingle.

Let's have a group photo. Um. What are they pointing at?

Eventually we got to the end of the shingle stretch..

...and stopped for lunch by The Quag.

Another windmill came into view. This one is at Weybourne.

Now, for a stretch we were on familiar territory from our  Sheringham Park walk in June, which gave us the idea of doing the whole coast walk.

We had a little climb to get to the Sheringham Old Coastguard Lookout on Skelding Hill, home of Sheringham Coastwatch.

From here we had a great view of this steam train on the North Norfolk Railway.

Coming down the other side we had a great view of Sheringham, where I had stayed last night (at the Youth Hostel).

There were lots more people here.

We took a diversion into the town to get more drinks. Yes it was a hot day again! There was an area cordoned off in the main street where the Sheringham Sinkhole had been. They are having a street party this weekend to celebrate "We survived the sinkhole". On the right here you can see where I bought my fish&chips for my evening meal yesterday. It was yummy.

We carried on the path out of Sheringham and up Beeston Bump. Here's the view looking back at the town.

And look. There in the distance is Cromer Pier. Our walk's end was in sight.

After a diversion inland avoiding private beachfront at East Runton, we went down to the beach for the last stretch instead of walking along the road into town.

This was where the Coast Walk used to end, but it now has a new extension for another 18 miles to Sea Palling. Maybe we will have to come back and do that bit some time.

But here are the 5 of us with the pier behind us.



What a great 3 days of walking. Thank-you Joyce for suggesting it, organising it and leading it. And thanks too to my other walking companions. So where shall we go next? So many paths to walk!

You can see loads more of my photos from today here on Flickr and more details of our route today  here on MapMyWalk.

You can read about the rest of the walk here...  Day 1 and Day 2,

Norfolk Coast Path - Day 2 Burnham Overy Staithe to Blakeney

Day 2 of our walk along the Norfolk Coast Path. Yesterday we got as far as Burnham Overy Staithe. This was the plan for today...

Wednesday Aug 28th. Enjoy your breakfast those that are choosing to stay in the area. I'll be parking in Tower Road, Burnham Overy Staithe and we will meet at the Hero Pub, Burnham Overy Staithe, where we finished the day before. Shall we meet at 9.30am again? 

Timing was a bit tight for me as breakfast at The Gin Trap Inn didn't start until 8:30 and I had to wait 10 minutes for my breakfast to be cooked (but it was worth the wait). We were all there for 9:30 and able to start on time. No Peter today and a different Jane, but otherwise the cast remained the same. The promise was of a cooler day than yesterday and so it was... but only to start with.

This was our route....

Here are a few of my photos...

Our meeting point. You can see it has been raining, but the freshness was beginning to evaporate already.

Back onto the path we left yesterday.

We came across this lady harvesting leaves. "Sea beet", she said, "is even better for you than spinach".

After being inland for almost all of our walk yesterday, today we got to go on the beach of Holkham Nature Reserve. From Gun Hill behind us to Holkham Gap was about 2 1/2 miles walk along the sand.

"What films have been filmed here?", someone asked. Hmm. What do I know about films? Not a lot. But maybe you would like to try and make your own list before looking at the answer here.

Meanwhile, as we neared Holkham Gap, the beach grew busier with people and horses.

We went inland and walked along the path behind the pine trees to Abraham's Bosom lake. Here we took a brief diversion onto the beach again to see the huts.

From the lookout station we followed the bank into Wells next the Sea. As you can see, the tide was out.

I just had to include this eponymous namesake.

But no rock for us. Ice-creams instead. I got a blood-orange sorbet. Nice colour!

Then it was onward out of Wells towards Stiffkey along the edge of the saltmarsh.

Here we met with Paul again who had been walking on his own for a while.

We had much better views of the wind farms today. It was too hazy for us to see them yesterday.

Garborough Creek touches the route for a while.

We liked this boat out in the marsh.

As the creek left us we could see the dunes of Blakeney Point.

Beyond the boats at Morston, we could see the twin towers of Blakeney Church.

We had need of the refreshments available at Morston Quay.

I climbed the watchtower to see the view... and get some shade. It was nearly as hot as yesterday.

Not far from here to Blakeney.

As well as creeks which are navigable when the tide is in, the marsh also has numerous rivulets.

We reached Blakeney....

...and decided this would be a good place to end our walk for today, leaving the stretch to Cley next the Sea till tomorrow. We headed for the bus-stop passing the Kings Arms along the way. This is where Roland ended up staying the night. very nice.

There is no longer a single coast long bus service - the route is now split between two companies, so we had to get this bus to Wells next the Sea.

We had a little time to spare before catching the other bus to explore Wells a bit more...

...and for me to quench my thirst with a lager shandy here.

Another great day's walking of about 15 1/2 miles, leaving us just a bit more than that to get to Cromer tomorrow.

You can see lots more of my photos here on Flickr and more details of our route today here on MapMyWalk.