We are ready today, the weather is fine, and we are eager to get out there after our rest day.
Today we walked 8 miles, more than half of that on a beach covered with large polished stones, maybe 1" average diameter. This is hard walking, like on loose sand, but it was glorious; great visibility, birds, windmills, nature, WWII relics, and each other. We had a fine time even if our feet were a little sore.
She Said:
No Walk on
Wednesday, 5.17.17. We happily watched
it rain on and off (mostly on) from our cozy rooms in our B+B. Read, took naps; I poked around in the local
shops. Perfectly relaxing day. Vacation, after all.
Today we
walked from Blakeney to Weybourne.
Excavations of Blakeney Chapel unearthed Roamn artifacts from the
500s.
More long,
marsh and beach views. Wonderful, sunny
day.
At
Cley-Next-The-Sea, we detoured and took picture of the working windmill (the
outbuildings and grounds are now a posh country Inn). Charming and picturesque.
Quite a lot
of debauchery going on right out in the open along the Path – Lady Bugs mating
like crazy on the plants alongside the path.
Hover Flies following suit.
Just as I
mentioned that I thought there would be more WWll defenses (seeing as we were
on the coast) – up pops an Allan-Williams Turret, a pre-fabricated iron defense
structure designed to rotate to all round of fire. 199 were built. The ever-present reminder that England was
the front line.
The Path
along the beach turned very, very rocky; 1”-3” rocks (the Brits call it shingle
beach) and it was quite a slog for about 4.5 miles. I was starving, there was no place to sit, so
we ate our delicious First Lunch standing up gazing up and down the long, long
beach, just off the little village of Salthouse. Maybe 5-8 other people, for miles and
miles. We mistakenly took Salthouse for
Weybourne, headed in to what we thought was the end of our day’s walk, and promptly
had to head back out for a bit more of a slog along the shingle beach.
Sigh.
No
matter. Still great sights to see. Another WWll Pillbox and Transmitting
Station. And, a lovely visit with a
couple from Scotland who had just moved to the Norfolk Cast. He is in the RAF and she is a Mid-wife. We talked history and immigration and Trump
and Brexit and circled back to history, a much more interesting subject than
immigration, Trump or Brexit. The guy
gave us some pointers on the Peak District, as that’s where he grew up and
that’s where we’re headed in a couple of days.
Nice, nice people.
We finally
made it to Weybourne, our ultimate day’s destination. Another pretty coastal town. Weybourne is the site of Neolithic and Iron
Age settlements, perfect because of the flint galore that early man used for
early tools.
Weybourne was
always an armed camp, too, when needed – during the Spanish Armada (botched)
invasion, the Napoleonic Wars and both WWl and WWll.
We checked
out the church while we were waiting for our driver to bring us back to
Blakeney. Even though the churches in the
English countryside seem to blur into each other after a while, there does seem
to be at least one thing about each church that sets it apart from the
rest.
This
church’s interesting fact:
A faded
photo tucked in a corner wall of a brother and his 6 sisters. The sisters remained spinsters throughout
their lives. They also became known as
expert wood turners and wood carvers and, in about 1900, they carved all the
“poppyhead pews” in the Weybourne church.
Poppyhead Pews are church pews with intricate, carved finials on the
tops of each end of each pew. It was evident
that the poppyheads had been carved by different people instead of one carver
as each was distinctive in its subject and style.
Our driver
picked us up at The Ship Inn and drove us back to the Blakeney House. Showered and happy with our Happy Hour
drinks, we lolled around for a bit too long and missed the dinner service
downstairs. Luckily, Ben (our host for the
evening) suggested we enjoy our last night at Blakeney House with a couple more
drinks and a mighty dessert each. What a
good idea. R with his Vanilla, Lime and
Blueberry Cheesecake and me with my Warm Salted Caramel Brownie with Honeycomb
Ice Cream.
Once again,
fat and happy in our lovely room.
Miles: 8.1
Labrador
Retrievers sighted: 4 (must be just a north
Norfolk Coast Path thing – many, many little dogs today)
Photos:
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