Just Coasting

Day 33 – Overstrand to Sea Palling 17.5 miles

Wednesday 18th March 2020

Today we were walking from the hotel. After breakfast we set off at about 9.00 along minor roads in Overstrand. The beach is too narrow to be walkable near Beacon Hill so we followed the way-marked path which was mostly along the cliff edge. Being on the cliff top provided a different perspective on the beach but also allowed us to to see the cliff tops and surrounding countryside. It is surprising how much you can miss when walking on the beach.

When we came to Mundesley it was raining and definitely time for coffee. Following the latest guidelines, the proprietor sat us at one of the tables, took our order and payment so we hardly touched anything and were kept well away from all the other customers. I asked the proprietor about the path alongside Bacton Gas Terminal. Being a regular dog walker along that area she assured me that there was no longer a path along the cliff top next to the terminal and she said that with the tide nearly fully in it was unwise to try walking the beach. There was nothing for it but to take a diversion inland through the village of Paston, along the side of the gas terminal with its tight security and to the village of Bacton where we reached the promenade. We were mildly disappointed when we then discovered an information board which said how the beach beside the gas terminal had been “sand-scaped” to provide a sea defence for the Bacton Gas Terminal. In August last summer millions of cubic metres of sand were pumped from the seabed and used to raised the level of the beach several metres along several miles of the coast and thereby providing a high tide walkable alternative. So we had no need to have made our diversion inland. The Bacton Gas Terminal brings in a substantial proportion of the country’s North Sea gas. Without the sand-scaping work, the gas terminal was in danger of gradually being eroded into the sea.

The diversion was not without interest for we passed through the village of Paston and “discovered” the Paston Letters. This is a collection of a about 1000 documents chronicling the domestic life of three generations of the 15th century Paston family. The documents have now been digitised by the British Library http://www.bl.uk/manuscripts/FullDisplay.aspx?ref=Add_MS_43488

A short distance form Bacton is the village of Walcott which Jill vaguely remembered from a fairly awful family holiday when she was small. Well Walcott remains fairly awful. It looked terrible in the persistent drizzle. It is little more than a line of sea-front bungalows which are derived from the interwar shacks that were common along the beaches and cliff tops of the East Coast. We pressed on.

Jill (left ) with brother Andy on the sea defences Walcott 1962

Just after Walcott we saw a female walker approaching. She was clearly a serious walker since she was carrying a map case with an OS map and compass within. We paused to say hello and each of us realised the other was not just a social walker. She was called Johanna and is also walking the British coast. Her plan of approach was rather different from ours. She started at Brighton and has been doing sections in both directions and she was hoping to get to Cromer today in her anticlockwise walking and has got to Teignmouth going clockwise. I think I would find going in both directions very confusing. I find it difficult enough remembering what we have done walking it in strict sequence.

After Walcott we took to the beach; we could see the beach stretching away into the distance even with the tide almost full. We made good time.

The day which had been overcast was dominated by a soaking drizzle. We would have stopped for lunch but the beach was bounded by mud cliffs and there was little shelter. As we approached Happisburgh, the sea was coming in beyond the old groynes and eventually we could progress no further because the waves were washing up to the cliff face. Jill was in favour of timing the waves and making a dash around the the three cliff spurs that were being washed by the waves. I suggested we should stop for lunch and in the half hour or so the tide may have retreated enough to walk through. We did stop for lunch but realised the tide had not yet turned and so we did time the waves and dash round the cliff spurs.

Just past those spurs was the ramp up to the cliff top at Happisburgh. From there, there was a cliff top walk to Eccles on Sea which is just a collection of holiday cottages. Then we followed the tracks along the backs of the seaside holiday shacks, all along the dunes. That took us into Sea Palling where I had arranged for a cab to meet us and take us back to Overstrand.

Day 32 – Cley next the Sea to Overstrand. 15.2miles

Tuesday 17th March 2020

This morning we were planning to get a bus back to Cley and then walk through to our hotel at Overstrand. This involved a CH2 bus at 9:03 to Cromer arriving 9:10 and then the CH1 from Cromer at 9.20 to Cley. Since we had plenty of time, we had a cooked breakfast in the hotel and then walked up to the bus stop. As we approached we could see Road Closed signs up but I was reassured by the “Advanced notice” signs which said the work was starting tomorrow. By 9.05 there was no sign of the bus and workmen began putting barriers across the road. I rang the bus company and was assured that the 9.03 was imminent and would be the last bus through. The bus duly appeared but the road was blocked. The driver leaped out of the bus and remonstrated with the workmen who gradually relented and grudgingly opened the barriers at one end of the road block. The bus driver drove through but the other barriers had not been removed. Not to be deterred, the driver hopped out and started removing the barriers himself. We got to Cromer with just a few minutes to spare. However, as we looked around the bus-stand for the next bus, the driver told us that his bus became a CH1 for just this first service and so we need not have worried about missing our connection.

One of the pleasures of our modus operandi on these walks is that by getting a bus to collect the car or indeed to avoid using the car, is that the buses, though slow, wend their way through town centres and divert from main roads into little villages and give one a much better sense of what an area is really like. Sometimes on long walks along the beach with nothing but sea and cliffs to see, we are aware we may be missing interesting views inland.

We arrived at Cley next the Sea at 10:00 but we only had just over 14 miles to do. On the path again we passed the windmill before heading out along the dyke to the beach at Cley eye. En route we saw avocets, curlew, oystercatchers and even a pair of marsh harriers.

The route then went between the marshland and lagoons of Cley Marsh Bird Reserve and the sea, along a shelving shingle bank. Walking along the top of the shingle bank was almost impossible and not worth the effort just to look over the bird reserve. So we opted to walk along the water’s edge wary of the fact that the tide would be rising for another one and half hours. At least along the water’s edge the mixture of sand and shingle was slightly firmer but it was still hard work and we had about three miles of this.

**The long shingle beach from Cley to Weybourne**

Near Weybourne we got off the beach on to a grassy path which followed the edge of the cliff; this was quite a relief after all the shingle. Just before Sheringham there is a look-out station operated by Coastwatch, a voluntary organisation which has various look-out stations to operate visual and radio surveillance of the coast.

We descended into Sheringham where there were lobster boats preparing to go out to sea. Just by the slipway where there was a drain there were several turnstones drinking the fresh water and flitting around we even saw a turnstone being chased by a gull probably because the turnstone appeared to have a lump of bread in its beak.

From Sheringham we climbed up Beeston Bump and had lunch sitting on a bench on the top. We descended from the bump through a caravan park where a steep set of steps took us back down on to the beach. The tide had now turned and so we could walk along the the edge of the sea with no worries and continued thus until we reached Cromer.

Bases of the groynes sculpted by the sea.

Cromer is an attractive seaside town with a very large parish church. We called in to panic buy a block of cheese for our forthcoming lunches and a postcard.

Cromer was still alive and so we found a café and had a pot of tea and some cake. We then walked back to the shore to walk along to Overstrand. There was a steep drop in the level of the sand after each groyne which meant that, though we could stride along the damp sand between them, we had to walk well up the beach at each groyne to step over. It was not long before the last two miles had been completed and we climbed the steep track up from the sea front to the cliff top and our hotel.

Now for a credit to our hotel the White Horse at Overstrand. When we booked we thought that we were booking a room in a village pub with rooms. When we arrived we went in through the bar and checked in. We were then shown up to our room which was so much more than we had expected. It was a large, well-furnished room with a king-sized bed and all the usual facilities and also a large bathroom with a good bath that filled rapidly. Jill and I looked at each other with the same thought – when we booked we thought it said £48 per night for the room which had set our level of expectation. Obviously it was £48 per person per night. Never mind, we were happy with that and it was the only hotel there anyway. After our first night, social distancing was announced. Without delay, the hotel spaced its dining tables (each with a vase of fresh spring flowers) for the very few residents and similarly the tables in the bar asking for only one person at a time at the bar. They started selling take-out meals immediately and take-out beer at four pints for £12.00. We very much hope that the new young managers/owners make a success of it and survive the corona crisis. And would you believe it? When we paid our bill it was just £48 per night for the room and our breakfasts.

Day 31 – Burnham Overy to Cley Next the Sea 17.5 miles

Monday 16th March 2020

We checked out of The Wash & Tope at about 8.00 and drove to Burnham Overy and parked the car quite close to bus stop. Our route took us down the side of Burnham Harbour where boats were mainly resting on the mud because high tide was not until about 12:30.

The day was quite still. We soon reached the sandy beach and had the treat of about two miles of walking on damp sand.

The walk along the beach from Burnham-Overy-Staithes to Holkham Gap

Forever cautious, I was keeping an eye out for the tide because the beach is so flat that it is easy for the tide to come in up a shallow creek behind you and leave you needing to paddle. Indeed at Holkham Gap there is a creek slightly deeper than we really wanted to walk through and so we came right up to the top of the shore to get around it.

Once past the creek we were back on to dunes and sandy beach until we reached the beach for Wells-next-the-Sea. Being a sunny day, there were lots of people enjoying the beach even if it was a Monday and coronavirus was dominating the news.

We stopped for a coffee at the beach café, sitting at an outside table in the sun. Then we walked down the bank and into the little town but did not pause to explore.

We walked through a pine wood behind the beach huts

From Wells we followed the path along the edge of the salt marsh, bending in and out following the seaward side of any sea defences. We stopped for our picnic lunch and watched the birds.

The vast area of salt marsh was alive with birds and so much more interesting than when we were walking the straight dykes of Lincolnshire and the Wash when birds were less frequent. After several miles we came to Blakeney.

We knew there was an hourly bus we could catch from Cley next the Sea at 16:03 back to the car at Burnham Overy. We had 5.5 miles to go and less than two hours. Jill suggested that I go ahead to make sure I got the bus and then come back to collect her. She would follow on as fast as she could and might just make the bus.

So I started to stride out but there were interesting to things to see along the way and when I paused to use my binoculars or take a photo, Jill would almost catch up with me.

At Blakeney the path turned seawards once more and made a final loop out on dykes around Fresh Marshes before turning inland to finish the day at Cley next the Sea.

When Jill realised she might also make the bus, she picked up her pace again along the final stretch of the dyke path – but couldn’t resist pausing to take a photo of the labrador standing in the water waiting for its owner. As it turned out, Jill arrived at the bus stop with five minutes to spare.

I noticed with interest the pattern of the cloth on the Norfolk Coast Hopper bus; I wondered if the Norfolk bus company had bought second-hand buses from Wessex.

About 45 minutes later, we were back at the car, cleaning off our boots and ready to drive to our accommodation at The White Horse at Overstrand.

Monday was also the day that the government announced the severe clamp down on social interaction. This prompted strident messages from Joe and Emily that we should abandon our walk. However, we were enjoying our walk and really have come into contact with almost no-one, just a cheery “Hello ” or “Good morning”. The hotel is big enough for the guests to be well separated and so we don’t feel at risk, nor do we feel we are putting anyone else at risk. For the time being we continue our walk as planned.

Day 30 – Hunstanton to Burnham Overy 15.2 miles

Sunday 15th March 2020

We had a slightly more relaxed departure this morning. We ate our breakfast in our room and departed at about 9.00. It was bright but very breezy. We followed the promenade until it ends abruptly at the striped cliffs of Hunstanton. The three layers are white chalk, red chalk and carstone at the bottom and they are very rich in fossils. There was a short, cliff-top walk past the former lighthouse, now missing its lamp room, to the beach at Old Hunstanton. There we were able to follow the damp sand on the beach until we needed to take to the dunes to avoid being caught the wrong side of a tidal lagoon.

Around the headland we passed the bird reserve at Holme and looked out to sea to where we would have seen Seahenge if the tide was out. Being a Sunday, dog walkers were in abundance but also a good number of bird-watchers.

At Thornham the path turns inland past a little harbour and the official coast path deviates well inland. We decided to stick as close to the coast as possible by taking a walk across the marsh to the other side of Thornham and then along the A149 which has a perfectly adequate footpath. It is not a particularly busy road especially on a Sunday. Thornham is quite a pretty village with interesting brick and stonework cottages characteristic of the area.

At Brancaster we left the road and followed the board-walk around the salt marsh as far as Burnham Deepdale. There was plenty of opportunity to see birds; oystercatchers, curlew, egrets, and avocets again. There were smaller birds as well but we didn’t stop to look at them all because we knew the weather was closing in, with rain forecast throughout the afternoon and so we were keen to keep on the move.

From Burnham Deepdale we moved out on to the dyke the runs out towards the sea before turning back inland at Burnham Overy Staithes. As we started out, the rain commenced and continued pretty steadily all the way. There is a bus that we could catch back to Hunstanton but it only goes every two hours . Once Jill realised we could catch the 13:48 bus she went into overdrive mode and we got to Burnham Overy Staithes with ten minutes to spare.

We were quite surprised how busy the bus was for a Sunday. Five of us got on at Burnham Overy Staithes and several others boarded at the various stops along the way. May be it was just the rain making people curtail their walks or perhaps most of its custom comes from weekend walkers.

Back at Hunstanton it was up to the Norfolk Deli once more for more tea and cake. Supper that night was less successful because nearly everywhere was closed. We ended up at the Mariner’s Bar where Jill’s lamb stew narrowly missed transgressing trade description when she found a single piece of meat in it. I did better with the local Brancaster mussels.

Day 29 – King’s Lynn to Hunstanton 16.3 miles

Saturday 14th March 2020

Yesterday afternoon we drove from home to Hunstanton to be ready for the start of the next leg of our walk. We were staying at The Wash and Tope and, by using the local buses, this would be our base for three nights.

This morning we had a quick bowl of granola in our room since breakfasts are not available until 8.00 and then set off to catch the 7:50 bus to King’s Lynn. The bus journey was quite interesting, winding its way through the local villages and, to be honest, it was a lot prettier than Lincolnshire.

King’s Lynn was looking dull in a steady drizzle. We nipped into Sainsbury to buy sandwiches for lunch and put rain covers on our rucksacks and were delighted to come out and find that the rain had stopped. We wove our way out of the centre of King’s Lynn to the harbour and crossed the bridge to the banks of the River Gt. Ouse. There was a definite sense of deja vu as we could see the path on the other side of the river that we had walked along into King’s Lynn three weeks ago. The river was no prettier and I was steeling myself for a day predominantly of dykes and sea walls and the tedium we had endured in Lincolnshire.

The track was firm and comprised crushed sea shells. At the harbour I had seen a conveyor tipping sea shells into a lorry and I now realised that shells are probably destined for use on the farm and estate tracks in the area.

After the first mile or so of sea wall we would be leaving public rights of way and taking our chances on private land. This has never troubled us before and never troubled the owners of the land over which we have walked (since they never knew). However, this time we would possibly be going over land belonging to HM QEII, being part of the Sandringham Estate. More significantly, when I had been previewing the route, I had looked on Google satellite imagery and discovered that, where we needed to get across the River Ingol near Wolferton, the whole area was fenced off and some civil engineering project was underway. This threatened the need for an inland diversion. Further research and a few phone calls had brought reassurance from the Anglian Rivers Authority that the work had been completed; they claimed we would have unimpeded passage past the new Wolferton Pumping Station but I was not totally confident since new works might mean new (and locked) gates.

Satellite view of the work on the R Ingol

We had a very long, straight dyke to walk along with a curious selection of wild-fowlers’ shooting bothies, variously on stilts or floating on the marsh.

Wolverton Pumping Station was visible from 2-3 miles away but it was not until we were right up to it that we could see that there was a clear way through two gates and along the dyke and into the Snettisham RSPB Reserve.

At this reserve there is a chain of lagoons separated from the sea by a mere 100m or so of dunes. We saw a good selection of birds but most exciting of all was a flock of avocets. We did see a solitary seal which we assume got itself marooned on the mud flats. We hoped it would swim out to sea with the next high tide.

From the bird reserve we could either walk along the beach or on the sea wall. Initially we opted for the sea wall and soon stopped for lunch on a convenient bench outside Snettisham Sailing Club.

After lunch we took to the beach. The tide was out and so there was a narrow way between the shelving shingle and the claggy mud flats, where stone and sand made a firm and level path. We followed this to within a mile or two of Hunstanton and were thus blissfully shielded from the collections of caravans and shacks sheltering below the sea wall on the landward side.

As we approached Hunstanton, our beach walking was curtailed by a long series breakwaters or groynes which punctuated the good walking on the beach. We took to the promenade and very soon we were in Hunstanton where we headed to the Norfolk Deli to reward ourselves with a pot of tea and some Bakewell tart.

Day 28 – Sutton Bridge to King’s Lynn 16.2 miles

Saturday 22nd February 2020

This was the final day of this stage and because we had a long drive back home at the end of the walk, we wanted to be off promptly. Our taxi driver was man on a mission and so we were walking by 8.20.

First we crossed the Sutton Bridge. This swing bridge dates from 1897 and originally had a span for the road and another span for the railway. When the railway was dismantled that span was used for traffic so two-way traffic was possible.

We walked back down the River Nene to the Peter Scott Lighthouse. Today it stands in the midst of agricultural land but when he moved here in the 1930s it stood out on the saltmarsh. Apparently during the war half a mile or so of land was reclaimed for agriculture and so the lighthouse became an inland feature. Those who have read the book or seen the film “The Snowgoose” will recall the reclusive disabled man living in a lighthouse out in the marshes; well it was based on this location when it was a truly wild and lonely place though Gallico took the liberty of moving the lighthouse down to Essex to make the Dunkirk story line possible. Paul Gallico was a friend of Peter Scott.

Today’s walk would pose few problems in terms of navigation or obstacles for it was “The Peter Scott Walk”. Essentially it was another day following the dyke down the River Nene, out on to the sea wall, then along the Wash until it turned up along the banks of the Great Ouse.

Out on the salt marshes there were the birds with which we have become so familiar, whilst inland it was huge fields. We were treated to a very good view of a barn owl which preceded us along the dykes for a mile and a half before it finally decided to cross a field to another dyke. Interesting as it traversed the field it was mobbed by a pair of seagulls. Barn owls had become a common companion for us on this walk, indeed the only owls have seen. They are happy hunting by day along the dykes and the banks of the canals, though possibly this was due to the wet weather prohibiting their night-time activity. The vegetation is cut back regularly to prevent the canals blocking and so the owls have extensive areas where small mammals are relatively exposed. Though we saw no small mammals, we did see a very large hare racing across the fields and we also saw deer both out on the salt marsh and in the fields. By contrast H. Sapiens were much rarer.

The island in the wash I noted yesterday was much closer today. On the map the island appears like a perfect circle about 250m in diameter and is labelled The Outer Trial Bank. It seems that in the 1970s, someone came up with idea of trying make a huge reservoir out of the Wash. The Trial banks were feasibility projects. However, it seems that the planners had not thought of the difficulty of preventing a freshwater reservoir from becoming contaminated with seawater when building a reservoir at sea level on salt impregnated mud. The Outer Test Bank and a smaller one closer to land were abandoned but the Outer Test Bank is home for 3000 pairs of breeding seabirds. The Inner Test Bank can be reached across the salt marsh so long as the RAF are not using the range at the time.

The main feature of today’s walk was the very strong wind. Earlier in the week we had got off quite lightly as Storm Dennis had lost much of its strength and rain by the time it reached the east coast. However, today we really struggled. When there was a crosswind we struggled to keep our line on the tracks on the dykes and when the wind was behind us it capriciously bunted us in either direction. The persistent noise of the wind and the inability to hold any sort of conversation added to the frustrations of today’s walk. However, once we started to walk up the Gt Ouse we found shelter from the wind and it was much easier going. King’s Lynn has a passenger ferry across the Gt. Ouse and I decided we should take this and then walk up the opposite bank back to the hotel where we had left the car. The ferry is a simple “tin” boat powered by an outboard motor. To our surprise the boatman did not even tie up to allow us to disembark he merely kept the throttle open to hold the ferry against the landing stage. We walked through old King’s Lynn and could easily spend a day looking round the town. The quayside houses and businesses are all protected by floodgates but on the bridge where there was a marker to the high tide of 2013 and that tide must have almost topped the floodgates.

Back at the car we got ourselves organised for the long drive home.

It has been interesting to walk around an area I have never visited before. Lincolnshire is extremely flat and mile after mile of dykes and sea walls can become a little monotonous. I am really looking forward to our next leg when we will be tackling the mountains of Norfolk.

Day 27 – Fosdyke Bridge to Sutton Bridge 18.7m

Friday 21st February 2020

Today we drove to Fosdyke Bridge and left the car on the verge of a side lane and set off by about 08:30. Having put in the extra three miles yesterday were going to press on to Sutton Bridge today thus walking a large arch and bringing us back to the A17.

For today’s walk you could cut and past the previous day’s walk but remove any interesting bits. We walked down the River Welland along the sea wall and then gradually turned right to be alongside the extensive mud flats of the Wash. This is all designated a danger area, not so much because of the risk getting lost and drowned on the mud flats but because it is an RAF bombing practise site.

As we approached I could see a red flag flying but when we actually arrived, the flags had been taken down. We benefitted in speed because the RAF have laid a tarmac track alongside the dyke though it contributed to the dullness. But walking four feet below the top of the dyke albeit on the windward side did reduce the strength of the wind. We were grateful to be able to sit in the lee of one of their observation posts to have our lunch which might otherwise have been blown away. At some point the wind was clearly getting to Jill’s brain and she marched onto the helipad and did her impersonation of a “Helicopter Mother”

There were birds to watch, though fewer than we had seen on previous days but to the landward side all there was were huge fields as far as the eye can see. The dykes themselves were so uniform and straight that even a slight change in direction was welcome.

Ahead of us we could see the highest bit of land for miles around. There appeared to be an island just off shore in the wash. It was clearly man-made from the even gradient on each side. I was unaware of any islands in the Wash – more on this later.

As we approached the mouth of the River Nene we could see the twin lighthouses marking the channel of the river. These are Victorian in origin and were apparently never lit but were a daytime land mark for shipping up the channel. Originally the lighthouse would have been on the edge of the sea but successive land reclamation projects means that the lighthouses are probably 1.5 miles from where they would be any use. The one on the far (west bank) is known as the Peter Scott Light House because this is where he lived for some time before WW2.

The walk up the Nene showed neither interest nor danger until we reached the Port of Sutton Bridge. This is a pretentious little place that, to my mind, does not deserve the term harbour let alone port. Quay is more than adequate to describe the facilities here. There was single small ship being unloaded with aggregate. I walked on past up the marked walkway. Jill wandered across intent on photographing the brightly-coloured ship with artwork in mind. This attracted the attention of a worker who drove across at top speed on his fork-lift to warn Jill of the dangers of wandering where you were not welcome in a port. Another worker then emerged from a building beside the walkway and questioned her taking photographs explaining that nowadays you could not take risks with security at docks. Perhaps they thought Jill was fomenting an ISIS plot to steal a coaster, pack it with explosives and sail it up the Thames and bomb London. Who knows?

At Sutton Bridge we called a taxi that took us back to Fosdyke Bridge from where we drove to the Premiere Inn at King’s Lynn. Having had enough of Brewer’s Fayre we found a pleasant restaurant called Grants in King’s Lynn for dinner.

Day 26 – Sea Lane Butterwick to Fosdyke Bridge. 20.7miles

Thursday 20th February 2020

We had a taxi booked for 8.00 to take us back to Sea Lane and so we were walking by 08:20. At least the weather was dry though it was quite windy. We started along the sea wall once more. We had only about 1.5 miles to go before we would turn inland and follow up the Haven to Boston. Unlike most other round-Britain walkers we stuck to the outer sea wall right to the mouth of the haven rather than take the right of way which apparently goes through the prison at Sea Camp (we had doubts about this).

Our walk was quite simple following the sea wall and then the banks of the Haven. We were interested in a stone memorial to the first builders of this particular sea wall who were the staff and boys of the Sea Camp young offenders institution who started building the sea wall manually back in the 1930s.

Further up the haven there is another memorial to the first attempt by the Pilgrim Fathers to leave England for America. They initially attempted to depart from Boston.

The walk up the Haven was like the walk up any canalised river – rather tedious being straight with mud banks each side and occasional navigation lights. Despite Boston being one of the biggest shell-fishing ports, we saw no boats until Boston itself where there were one or two in port.

We had researched and found a cafe just off our route, The Black Sluice Cafe, so we headed there and had a rather slowly-produced jacket potato and coffee to set us up for the rest of the day.

Just after we had left the cafe a torrential downpour and squall hit. Umbrellas were inverted, mums ran to put covers over their prams and we shelterEd by a wall wondering what had hit us. A few minutes later it settled down to steady rain. Initially our path eluded us because the footpath diversion signs had been blown over. Once we established that we were on a diversion, we wound or way around industrial Boston until we rejoined our path which was now also path of the MacMillan Coast to Coast path.

The path down the Haven was as dull as the path had been on the other side but was blissfully a little shorter and we saw some egrets and a barn owl as we were following the sea wall along the edge of Frampton Marsh. Fortunately being on a named walking route we had fewer anxieties that the there might unforeseen obstacles to our progress. Originally we were going to stop at Kirton Marsh but in order to make pickups and drop-offs easier we headed on an extra three miles to Fosdyke Bridge. This involved walking up another river, the River Welland and it was about as interesting as the last river we walked up.

Day 25 – Skegness to Sea Lane, Butterwick 19.7miles

Wednesday 19th February 2020

We checked out of the hotel and I headed for the beach and walked to the clock tower whilst Jill took the car and parked on the beach road.

Then we headed together to the road to Gibraltar Point. Shortly before reaching the nature reserve we turned in to an old toll road. It had a “Private: No Entry” sign but we decided to ignore it.

It was a good, tarmac road and after crossing Cow Bank Drain ended where an industrial steel gate guarded the entrance to an agribusiness. Fortunately another grassy dyke continued in our direction only guarded by a simple horizontal barrier. The dyke was unusual in being tree-lined which we though might help preserve and strengthen dykes though we have not seen tree planting on dykes anywhere else.

We emerged on to a road; the gate we circumvented bore another Private sign. We had considered trying to cross the Steeping River at Clough Farm, but it was also marked as private and we were unsure whether what we could see on the map was a genuine path crossing as opposed to another sluice gate. Since we had to cross both the river and the relief channel, we decided not to chance it and continue to Wainfleet Staunch where there was just the river to cross.

The road took us to the sluice with a bridge over the Steeping River on to another private road. We had another three or four miles long private farm tracks until we reached an old sea wall with a public right of way. The roads we followed were all on raised dykes which gave us some views over the surrounding fields. The fields were uniformly dull. Most were just ploughed fields awaiting planting whilst others had the remains of last year’s crops: kale, cauliflower, cabbage and leeks.

We reached the dyke where the right of way started and gratifyingly footpath signs started. There are three sea walls running roughly parallel with each other which presumably represented successive episodes of reclaiming land from the sea. We stuck with the inner and apparently oldest dyke because it was marginally shorter and was also a right of way; we really didn’t want to find our day extended by any more detours. We passed a huge block of stock inscribed to the memory of John & Dulcie Saul who it would seem built up a huge farm in the area.

We found a sheltered place on the side of a dyke for coffee. Later we found another sheltered patch near The Horseshoe which is where the three dykes meet and sat near the base of the dyke so we could watch a huge flock of Brent geese and had our lunch.

As we finished lunch the rain started. We spent the afternoon walking the sea wall with very little view but fortunately some birds to entertain us. We saw swans, egrets, herons, lapwings, oyster catchers, curlew and a few LBJs we could not identify. I had originally planned to stop near Glebe Farm and walk to the road end and call a taxi but since that involved an extra half mile or more off-route today and the same back again tomorrow, we decided to walk on to the next road-head near Butterwick so we would not need to leave our route. We eventually reached Sea Lane (Butterwick) by which time we were very wet on the outside. We called a taxi to take us back to Skegness to collect the car and drive to Boston to stay in a Premiere Inn for two nights.

Day 24 – Mablethorpe to Skegness 17/18 miles

Tuesday 18th February 2020

Today was to be an easier day. We had a more leisurely start by catching a bus at 08:17 from Skegness to Mablethorpe. It took 1hr 15 and so we didn’t start our walk until about 9:30. We picked up a paper on the short walk to the beach and set off. It was a bright, clear morning and the tide was well out but on its way in.

We set off striding along the damp sand and made good progress and that was the story of the morning. We did leave the beach for a short while where Anderby Creek enters the sea and so a small inland diversion is required but otherwise we were mainly on the seawall or promenade according to the state of the sand. Though there is still plenty of sand at high tide, it tended to be soft and the beach shelved make it uneasy walking. We might have stopped at Anderby to visit the Drainage Museum but too much excitement for one day might not be a good thing – and anyway it was closed.

At Chapel Point we stopped at the North Sea Observatory. This is a new building on the sea wall which combines a coast guard lookout with a wildlife observatory, with educational facilities and a cafe. We were there for the cafe and so were stacks of others. Given that people were waiting for tables in February, I hate to think what it must be like in the summer; the place is not big enough for the number of people who which to eat, nor for the size of them.

After lunch we passed vast, static caravan sites with various euphemistic names and caravans as far as the eye could see. We passed the gigantic Butlins which has blocks and blocks of smart holiday apartments which look almost like a residential housing development. Clearly business was good for the half term break because all the parking areas were completely full. As we approached Skegness, we were on the beach again.

Before we got to Skegness we were pleased to note that Joe’s beach was being kept clean.

Fitting in with our plans I stopped at the hotel and Jill continued to the clock tower. At the hotel I collected the car and drove to the clock tower and sussed out the parking for the next morning when I would walk the mile from the hotel and Jill would drive down to park the car close to the station for our anticipated return by train tomorrow. Jill joined me and we drove to Gibraltar Point to recce a canal crossing. On OS maps and satellite pictures we could see that there was a footbridge but though one previous blogger had managed to cross the bridge, a later one had been told it was locked. Rather than deal with a late diversion, we were keen to establish the current status – the current status being that the end of the bridge has been included into a secure area for the adjacent sluice and is entirely surrounded by steel palings. (None of this is yet included in Google or Bing satellite imagery). I did manage to sneak round the edge of the canal and on a to the approach to the bridge but I found the steel gate to be securely padlocked with no way around it. The Government “Access to Countryside” website confirms that this is to be the route of the England Coast Path and the relevant owners are in agreement to make access over the bridge a right of way but the work has not been started yet.

Back at the hotel I planned an alternative route which involved walking further inland but having a similar total distance.