I walked this, the very first stage of my Grand Norfolk Hike, on 17 December 2011.
I caught the train from Ely and supped a coffee while watching the Fens pass by. I took my camera out for an inspection only to find the damn thing wasn’t working, pah!
I arrived at King’s Lynn station at 9.30am and began the walk north out of town. It was raining a little but nothing problematic. On the way out of town I saw a Sparrow Hawk with another bird tightly held in it’s talons, the hawk glanced at me before flying off.
I had wanted to walk up the Great Ouse to the Wash itself but there is no right of away along the coastline until Snettisham. This meant I’d have to walk across land as far as Derslingham before taking a left turn (north) down to the sea front.
The walk to Derslingham wasn’t particularly interesting apart from Castle Rising where I stopped to look at the castle and a enjoyed a good chat with the guy in the tourist info office.
It would be great to come back one day and take a proper look around the castle, it’s pretty impressive
I passed through the woods of Sandringham and finally arrived at Derslingham at about 1.30pm where I quickly ate my wonderful Cornish Pastie purchased the day before from an excellent local butcher in Ely.
I eventually found the track down to the coast and 50 mintues later arrived at Snettisham Bird Reserve and the Wash.
It was beautiful. The sun was slowly sinking into the west, I gulped down the good sea air and felt incredibly happy just to be there, on the beach.
By this time I was feeling pretty knackered but I needed to walk a further 2 and half miles to get to Heacham before the sun set. Luckily the beautiful surroundings lightened my spirit and was able to walk briskly to my destination, arriving in Heacham in near darkness.
I found the bus stop back to King’s Lynn, the next one was in 45 minutes which gave me ample time to visit the Fox and Hounds pub. The Fox is a friendly, unspoilt pub which runs its very own micro-brewery.
I enjoyed a pint of ‘Red Knicker’ and a half of ‘LJB’, both excellent bitters.
I caught the bus back to Lynn, the train back to Ely, a cab back to my home and sank into a very hot bath.
A great start to my grand Norfolk hike.
The next stage is Heacham to Thornham.
(the excellent photo at top of the page of Heacham at sunset is used with the kind permission of Pamela Kelly)