Walking the Norfolk Coastal Path ~ Hunstanton to Brancaster Staithe

Well our Alice would have been very pleased with how todays walk started!!  Leaving Hunstanton in lovely sunshine heading towards Brancaster it was only a few minutes before the Coastal Path offered the beach walk option for some five miles, passing through some picture postcard seaside villages notably Holme Next The Sea and Thornham.  

The North Sea with the wind blowing, it’s rainy and the tide is out can be very grey and dismal, fast forward to when its sunny and the tide is in what a beautiful sight and wonderful to see so many people on the beach. There was sun bathers, dog walkers and even a few fellow coastal walkers for the first time in three days walking this part of the coast!

There’s a lot of work going on along this coast with sea defences, there being some threat from that global warming thingy we hear so much about and you do realise how very flat the land is up here, a high tide could and does cause serious damage. 

Having said that a lot of the coast is already marshland which after the first few miles caused quite a diversion to avoid that ‘sinking in the mud’ feeling. 

Tried crossing one small stream, getting feet drenched in the process although this part saved probably a couple of miles only to find a little later that it was impossible (and bonkers) to try and cut across the several miles of salt marsh which forms the coast just after Thornham.  So those clever people that organise these paths have made a diversion inland which I’m all in favour of other than it’s a huge three / four mile inland loop meaning for the best part of an hour there’s no sight of the sea!  Anyways walking across fields is good and there are some wonderful wild flower displays, probably better than my garden!

Today’s walk though finished very brightly with the last part towards Brancaster Staithe (wharf or quay, I checked wikipedia) being on a raised wooden walkway through the marshland, spectacular wildlife and flowers before entering aforementioned Staithe where a well earned sandwich and cuppa awaited following a near 13 miles walk in almost four hours with not a break in sight!  Oh happy days…..

PS Just in case you missed it, when we first mentioned to Alice a couple of years back that we were walking the Coastal Path there was a thought it may have been ‘just a stroll along the beach’ ha ha….