"We will meet at the RNLI, Sea Lane, Old Hunstanton on Tuesday Aug 27th ready for a 9.30am start. I'll be parking in a side street (Hamilton Road) for the day. There are public toilets near the RNLI. You shouldn't miss the sea, the car park and the RNLI plus the NNCP 'acorn' finger posts. We will have regular 'short stops' and a sit down for lunch (on the grass!) so bring water and food for the whole day. There should be a tea hut at Brancaster but don't rely on it. Check the forecast and bring sun cream, hats as the sea breeze can be deceptive."
...said the instructions from Joyce. I managed to find a spot on Hamilton Rd and walked down to the RNLI station. I had 1/2 hour to spare so had time for a mug of tea at the beach cafe. There were 6 of us in total and we set off just after 9:30.
I had my official trail guide with me on the trip but forgot to put it in my backpack today although I did have my OS maps.. Never mind. Joyce had her book to keep us on track and informed. This was our route for today of about 15 1/4 miles...
Here are just a few of my photos...
We met by the RNLI Hunstanton Lifeboat station.
Here we are at the start of our walk. Not the official start of the Coast Walk, which is in Hunstanton itself, but not far off and I think I have walked that first stretch before on a family day out to Sunny Hunny.
The path goes alongside Hunstanton Golf Club. Now there's a hobby I haven't had time for, for many years... since I became a Dad.
Looking inland towards Holme next the Sea and St. Mary's Church.
This boat looked like it was floating in the sky.
Not far from here was passed the site of Seahenge. Nothing to see of it here now as the timbers have been removed to the Lynn museum.
It was still a bit hazy. I stopped to photograph my fellow walkers on the path ahead.
Broad Water is part of the Holme Dunes Nature Reserve. No time to stop and spot the birds... we have a walk to do.
We weren't the only people on the path, but we didn't meet many today.
For once, I got ahead of the group so I could photograph them from the front.
By now it was getting pretty hot. We stopped for a drinks break in the porch of All Saints Church, Thornham, glad of the shade. Inside the church we found lots of plastic sheeting dotted with specs of black. It was bat-poo! There was a poster explaining that bats roosted in the church and that a survey in 2015 counted 247 resident bats of 4 different species.
From Thornham there is no coastal path (yet) so the path goes inland along a road and up hill. It was now over 30deg C and there wasn't a breath of wind. Peter, in particular, was beginning to feel it. I think a walk in the Scottish Highlands suits him better.
There were bales in the fields. Harvesting is over here. We had a hazy view back to the church.
We stopped in Brancaster for another break before the path headed back to the coast. Here we left Peter to get the bus back to Old Hunstanton. It really was too hot and he was struggling to keep going. Sorry you couldn't do the rest of it with us, Peter.
We carried on past the site of Branodnum Roman Fort, which just looked like any other field, and continued on towards Brancaster Staithe.
These boats aren't going anywhere until the tide comes in.
We stopped for lunch here at Brancaster Staithe Quay....
...and sought additional liquid refreshments from the Crab Hut. Poor Paul had to go twice. In protecting his sandwich from a passing dog, he knocked over his ginger beer and had to get a second. We certainly needed all the liquid we could get today.
We headed on past Deepdale Marsh. Is this Marsh Marigold by the path?
The 5-storey Overy windmill looks very impressive.
Soon we came to Overy Creek, leading us to Burnham Over Staithe.
We walked up past the windmill...
..into the village and our endpoint of the day's walk, The Hero pub....
... which was conveniently just by the bus stop for our bus back to Old Hunstanton. And we even had time for a quick drink before the bus arrived. Mine was a lager shandy.
And here is our bus!
More tomorrow. But meanwhile, this is where I stayed the night, the Gin Trap Inn in Ringstead.
Very nice, although the bedroom was too hot sleep under the duvet. And, of course, I had to have a gin before my meal... I went for a Norfolk Bullards, of course.
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A lovely day's walk, even though it was rather hot. At least we got a bit of breeze in the afternoon... too late for Peter, unfortunately.
You can see loads more of my photos here on Flickr and more details of our route here on MapMyWalk.
And tomorrow it's Day 2!
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