Peddars Way

7: Anmer to Holme-next-the-Sea

18 September 2011

Well, it's nearly a year since my previous walk on the Peddars Way, but today it was time to come and finish the job, with the final 17 kilometres or so to the coast at Holme-next-the-Sea where the Peddars Way joins up with the Norfolk Coast Path.

Lucy dropped me with Ellie and Hetty on the B1153 near Anmer for the afternoon's walk.

The first section of the walk was shared with a couple and their dog, but Hetty, Ellie and myself rapidly pulled away. The surface appears to be grass but has a plastic membrane underneath to help cope with the cars and motorbikes that use what is legally a road.

The scenery for the walk was largely flat and arable with small wooded areas to offer a little relief.

A couple of cars disappear into the distance after we'd made a hurried departure to the verge. Some motorbikes and quadbikes preceded them.

After about 5½ km, I left Ellie and Hetty with Lucy and collected George. The vehicles that had passed made me doubly glad that I hadn't taken all three dogs as it is hard to control all three in a hurry when they're off lead and enjoying themselves.

George crosses a little bridge

Crossing the route of the old Great Eastern railway which used to run from the west Norfolk coast at Heacham up to Wells

We're making progress. After a fair bit of road-walking through Ringstead we return to the fields with only 1¼ miles to Holme

Mill Farm

Looking ahead to the sea: journey's end in sight

The final stone of the Norfolk Songline

And I being here have been part of all this
Caught & thrown like sun on water
Have entered into all around me

Another sign that the end is nigh

A road walk through Holme-next-the-Sea brought George and I to the car park where Lucy, Ellie and Hetty joined us for the final few hundred metres, across this golf course...

...and to the Norfolk Coast Path where the Peddars Way ends, 46 miles from Knettishall Heath

I started this journey with George, Ellie and Henry. What Hetty lacks in show potential compared to our departed Henry, she attempts to make up for with character.

On top of the dunes looking to the sea

Enjoyed it, George? He's walked the whole Peddars Way apart from those first 5½ kilometres today.

Total along the Peddars Way 16.9 km in 3 hours 46 mins.

And so my straightest walk ends. Looking at a map, the straightness is an obvious feature of the route, but it's not particularly obvious on the ground as there are enough small wiggles that it doesn't feel straight. It is pretty uneventful, though, with not a lot in the way of landmarks. Pleasant enough countryside but very little that is exceptional. If I ever walk the Norfolk Coast Path part of the National Trail, it will have to be with the aid of the Coasthopper bus service and/or a bike as it's too far from home to make it practical otherwise - and that means dogless walking. So I think somewhere else will be next. Lucy says I have to finish another route first before I start any more, so it may be the Gipping Valley Path or the Mid-Suffolk Footpath next...