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,
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