Walk 14/2007 – Brancaster to Wells

Sunday 1st July 2007

Our 12.4 mile linear walk started in Brancaster village and concluded in Wells–next–the–sea. We took a series of coastal paths which included flood embankment walls that passed over large stretches of sea marsh land. These areas attracted considerable bird life and we spotted the rare Little Egret, as well as Oyster Catchers and lots of Black Headed Gulls. The walk passed through both Brancaster Staithe and the picturesque Burnham Overy Staithe where many pretty boats were moored, and where local fresh fish and the famous Cromer Crab were on sale. The tide was out and amusingly a lady was stuck in the boggy mud but was very resistant to our onlooking. We decided she needed lessons on how to chill out !! particularly as her dilemma was only momentary, and help was at hand.

After a relaxing lunch in the sand dunes we then progressed across the delightful expanse of golden sands to Holkham Beach. We had tea and a home-made ice cream stop at Holkham before passing through a lush evergreen pinewood forest. The final homeward straight to Wells ran parallel to the Estuary and provided a wide section of wild flowers and butterflies in the hedgerows. Again we were also able to witness some very striking shots of the old fishing wharves and fishing trawlers moored in Wells harbour. This area encompasses one of the prettiest sections of the Norfolk coast and was quoted as such in this months ‘living’ magazine.

We had an atypical start to our walk as on arrival we then had to catch the 10:06 shuttle bus, we had free time of half an hour which was put to good use as we enjoyed a delicious cup of tea in preparation for our exercise (Ed – Cathy you seem to forgotten the bit about a certain person whose name begins with C A T causing panic by telling us we had missed the bus. Only for us to discover that they could not read a bus timetable?).

As I write this report a past suggestion of not being too flossy comes to mind. However this was extremely difficult to achieve with this particular walk, as it was attended by 5 ladies and thus contained much girlie chat! Alan the only man in today’s group was most chivalrous but was also provided with quite a challenge (Ed – just for information here, I would like to let everyone know that I have volunteered to be the “Club Strap Adjuster”. I now have unequalled experience in this, having met the challenge of adjusting Cathy’s straps, pointing her very literally in the right direction and having survived to tell the tale).

Several references were made to the need for ‘lippie’ but Alan preferred to keep his lips “bald” as well as not taking up the offer of an emery board (Ed – I think something got lost in the translation here. What I think I said was “I prefer bald lips”. Possibly only male readers will understand what I meant!). Oh dear poor Alan (Ed – what do you mean I haven’t had so much fun for ages!), however it is recognised that the group dynamics are forever changing. My initiation walk included an in depth education on football and fishing; at that time I was the only female amongst 6 healthy male trekkers – so what comes round also goes round!

This fantastic coastal walk provided us with some substantial brisk exercise, delightful scenery; a rich supply of varied wildlife, we all had a great day and unanimously decided the walk required an ‘excellent’ vote.

Cathy (and quite a lot of Ed)

Walk rating – Excellent

There are some interesting properties as we leave Brancaster.	Who's for a girlie trip out then? We’ll all wear sunglasses so we can’t be recognised.
Boats are a feature of the landscape.	View across the saltmarsh........
......... and more saltmarsh.	Much of the walk was along flood embankments like this.
A view over the marshes.	Boats at Burnham Overy Staithe.
Flat, open estuary scenery.	The beach babes pose for another picture – hang on a minute I haven’t got me lippie on!   (I don’t think they have quite grasped the concept of a naturist beach however.)
We walk along the wide open spaces of Holkham beach.	The windswept beach goes on forever.
The route takes in some pine woods near the end.	The path back into Wells–next–the–Sea.
A close up study of a poppy on route, courtesy of Angela.