Cley-next-the-sea to Reydon

It seems this blog was somehow made into its own page so i have re-posted it on the blog page. It’s only one post out of sync so not too bad.

It was quite a rainy night from midnight onwards but luckily it has stopped when I set off along the beach. There was supposed to be a path but it was sporadic at best until I got to a car park, from where the path was submerged most of the time. Beyond Weybourne, the rain came back and got heavier so I put on the waterproofs which obviously meant it stopped moments later. It was cliff top walking there and there were actually slight hills again with a steep climb next to a golf course before Sheringham. I walked the front then dropped onto a nice beach over to Cromer where I had to go up a slope to get up and into town. When I got up on the cliff top there was a big Morrison’s ‘M’ right there but it was just a petrol station. There was a little shop attached though so I was able to get some lunch still. Walking through town it was actually now sunny and I couldn’t resist the pull of an ice cream kiosk (vanilla fudge brownie). By the kiosk were the steps down to the lower promenade which I made my way down to walk the promenade for a bit before moving back to the beach once more.

The beach took me to Overstrand but just beyond there I came up onto roads for a bit through little villages until Mundesley. I was able to get back on the beach from there to Bacton but the tide was coming in so I had to go over the other side of the wooden sea defence that stretched along the whole beach. Before I got to Bacton the sea and sea defence finally blocked me off so I had to climb up a slope to the top and take a road for the last stretch to the town. At the first opportunity though, I came back down to the promenade, which took me all the way to Walcott. When I arrived there I had to come up onto the road where I saw a weird guy a few times before ending up walking behind him on an empty road, thankfully though he went into a house before I came off onto the cliff top path to Happisburgh. I was hoping for a good camp spot on that path but they don’t seem to believe in hedges around there so I was surrounded by open farmland. Not completely open though. There were 2 very weird buildings halfway along with no wall on the seaward side. When I investigated one of them it had a stairway heading down into the ground beneath and, being the wuss that I am, I let my imagination scare me into not camping around there. I got to Happisburgh and was pleased to find myself walking through a campsite. The reception was closed but I rang the number and they said to just set up and someone would be around in the morning.

I got cold during the night for the first time in quite a while and had to add another layer to warm up. I made myself a hot chocolate in the morning as I packed down, leaving the tent until last because it was wet with dew and I was hoping to it might dry. So I packed up my wet tent and went to go down steps to the beach but the tide was right in so continued along the top to the next little town. The cliffs dropped along the way and I got onto the beach where I had to walk a plank over a flooded area rather than go back on myself. There was a slipway that I walked under and then was onto the sea wall. Along the sea wall I got too hot so I stopped to change into a T-shirt and I realised I had left my phone where I had stopped briefly earlier. I left my bag and went back to find it. After walking half an hour and not finding it I gave in to the fact that someone had picked it up and taken it. I returned to my bag and used the last of the battery on my spare phone to get my brother to cancel my sim, I also rang my phone unsuccessfully.

I carried on along the beach for a long time and where a guy decided to walk with me for a while for no real reason. He told me how he goes down there whenever he can to see the seal colony living in the area and sometimes swim with them. Apparently you can smell when you are near them. He was a nice bloke and I felt bad when he stopped to wait having not seen any seals yet and I then came across them all on the beach 5 or 10 minutes later. Hopefully a few of them ventured down further towards where he was soon after. I came in to the dunes to join a path over to Winterton which had a shop with a very limited stock. Going back out of Winterton the other side I was behind the dunes again to the next town where I got onto the front. The walk on the front was brief becoming a tack through loads of beach house, chalet places through the dunes. The chalets stopped and I was on beach again with the occasional path turning up all the way to the start of Great Yarmouth where I came in onto road and walked down through the town. I headed straight to the phone shop to buy a replacement and despite looking my trampiest they were really helpful. I bought a cheap phone and the guy sorted out a replacement sim card on the same contract and number which I had no idea I could do. On the way to the accommodation I had booked, I got myself maps for the next stage then once I had booked in I went and got myself fish and chips for tea.

The nob next door was leaving at 4something in the morning and seemed to be being loud on purpose and there was the noise of water going for ages as well. They were annoyingly loud in the evening as well. When I went down for breakfast the owner apologised to me about it, apparently she hadn’t given them a discount so they had decided to go somewhere else but first they left the room in a state, leaving on every appliance and the water running. It turns out that just because I had discovered there were more nice people around than I had thought, doesn’t mean there isn’t just as many idiots. I should add that the hotel would be hard pressed to get any cheaper than it already was anyway. After breakfast I went out into a really misty and murky day, heading to the front first then looping down and round to the river and up to the bridge. The road took me down the other side into Gorleston where I stopped to buy some food before continuing on to the sea front. The promenade took me most of the way through but then there was supposed to be a cliff top path but I guess it had been lost to the sea at some point. I walked the beach instead until it looked like the tide was going to block me off but thankfully a path had appeared up top so I was able to move onto that for a bit. That got me as far as Corton but when I got there the only option was road walking for a bit. There were some steps down to the beach but the gate to them was locked so I had to get out of the town before there was a path through the trees to finally get onto it. Walking along there a dog with a black eye patch came and said hello to me and I guessed it was Tim’s, who is a guy who got in contact with me. Moments later I met up with Tim and he walked with me through Lowestoft on a sea wall where we passed the most Easterly point of mainland England (possibly Britain) which was in the middle of an industrial area but marked with a big compass on the ground. The other side of the river was much nicer and we stopped for a cup of tea before carrying on out of Lowestoft on the beach with the weather still horrible. When we got past Kessing the beach started to disappear but there was a path into a nature reserve which used to be something to do with the war. Tim headed back from there and I carried on along the paths until I had to come in on roads because of marshland. It was very quiet and a bit eerie walking along those roads and tracks as I was now moving in the right direction again. When I got to a busy road I was still about an hour from Walberswick, where I was hoping to stop, so I went down there for a short while until I found a decent spot to stop in a grassy field with a hedge blocking off the road from sight. I didn’t fancy walking a busy, pathless country road in the dark.

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