This was the listing on the website...
It was a bit of an early start for nearly 50 miles away at 9am, but I had a very traffic-free drive to our starting point in the Car Park at Sandringham Visitor Centre. I was slightly apprehensive that the pace might be a bit high - some of those challenge walkers were way faster than me, but I needn't have worried; the pace was just right for me. There were just 6 of us on the walk including 3 walkers who were members of the Kings Lynn ramblers group, so this was a local walk for them and they were able to chip in with information about where we were walking. This was our route.
It took us north out of Sandringham Country Park, past Dersingham and through Snettisham, over Ken Hill, down and along the sea front and around the RSPB Snettisham Nature Reserve, where we lunched in the Rotary hide before returning via Dersingham and through Sandringham Country Park.
It was nice and sunny at the start but soon clouded over and there was a nice stiff breeze when we got towards the coast.
Here are a few of my photos.
Dersingham Church
We saw these in a Car Park nearby.
A first view of the sea .
We stopped for a drink and snack break at the 14th Century Snettisham Church, called by Pevsner "perhaps the most exciting decorated church in Norfolk". People were arriving for the 11am service as we snacked. It has a very impressive 52m-high spire, visible from some distance around.
Along the road we passed the sign to Norton Hill Light Railway, which was open today... but no train ride for us.
We went through the woods over the top of Ken Hill and got a nice view as we came out the other side.
With low tide at about 10:30, the sea was still pretty much out.
Looking north towards Heacham and Hunstanton,
Looking back at Ken Hill.
Shepherd's Port
The mud flats of the Wash.
In the distance, we could see Lincolnshire, about 15 miles away.
Our lunch stop.
The sun came out for a while.
Setting out again for the rest of our walk.
We rounded the southern end of the Nature Reserve.
We found a whole row of plum trees...
There was plenty of windfall, but still lots of low-hanging fruit.
"Don't eat too many, you'll get a sore tummy", warned Cas. "Yes, mummy" , was the reply.
This used to be Dershingham station.
After about 15 miles, having had a couple of light sprinkles, the skies started to get darker. It was only 2:30pm and the forecast had said to expect heavy showers at around 4pm, but it looked like the rain was coming sooner. Michael asked us whether to take the direct route back or to do the extra mile or so loop through Dersingham bog. We decided on the shorter route, which was just as well as only a few minutes later it started raining quite hard. I'm glad I hadn't decided to do without my waterproofs! But it didn't dampen our enjoyment of the walk .In the end we did only 18 miles rather than the planned 19, but no-one was disappointed at that.
So it was back into Sandringham Country Park.
The golden jubilee gates.
It was raining quite hard by now, but we were nearly back.
The welcome site of the Visitor Centre tea-room.
The end of our walk.. and it stopped raining, although there was still a raindrop on my camera lens.
A lovely walk! Thank-you Michael for showing us round and to the others for their company - even though I didn't know any of them beforehand I found we had several walking friends in common.
You can see more of my photos here on Flickr and more details of our route here on MapMyWalk
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