Weavers’ Way Day 4 – Acle to Great Yarmouth

In which Sid and Doris consider some mud necessary to complete the walk in style and discomfort, despite the temptation of catching a train.

The first few hundred yards back to the way, the truth and the light was up the A47. It’s OK(ish) on Sunday morning, and Doris has now deleted the picture of roadkill spotted along the way.

Today’s walking was mostly across flat, swamped uninhabited fields, with opportunities to spot skeins of geese, generations of swans, and a pushmi-pullu.

This is St Peter and St Paul at Tunstall. It fell out of use at the time of the Reformation until one end was rebuilt in 1705 by Elizabeth, the relict of Miles Jenkinson, as a mausoleum for the family. You can just about make out the plaque. Spelling was not a local skill, or indeed, writing s’s the right way round.

Flat. Not sure we need add to the pictures here. It was flat.

And it was muddy or wet or wet and muddy

  

The Norwich to Great Yarmouth train is obliged to stop on request at this wayside halt by the original contract to build the line across Barney land. Sid and Doris used the seats for the tea break and Sid idly wondered how long we would have to sit there before a train stopped. A bit of clicky clicky by Doris and the somewhat surprising answer was: seven minutes.

The Berney Arms mill is an ancient monument, but even for avid mill fans S&D this is now ‘just another mill’.

The tide is going out on the River Bure and Braydon Water. The mud flats gave the birdies their rations as Sid and Doris sat one last time with the sausage roll.

Fans of the Danube dykes will enjoy the return of many, many miles along the top of the sea/lake/whatever wall.

And just near the end we find a peculiar train graveyard, with carriages from many different places…

…including unexplained Caledonian Sleeper* carriages and a very sweet shunting engine

 

Time to find the triumphant arrival post…

… and then to try making a picture out of the T.A.F. which looks, frankly, a bit more T.  [We tried lots of ways of getting one of us in front of the Footpath Closed sign in the double selfie but it just didn’t work – sorry – D.]

Limping stiffly back to the Furzedown and Young Hermann, GY has some unexpected treats including An Hospital for Decayed Fishermen.

 

and a running track/football and athletics stadium of a quality that BS should aspire to:

Satisfyingly, on the way home in the car, a Blue Train opportunity as the A47 parallels one of the train tracks that we have crossed.

So, in summary: 64 miles walked, approx 640m of ascent ascended and descended, many gallons of mud waded through at the end, lots of interesting stuff nearer the beginning.  Would we do it again, and crucially, has it inspired us to do an Epic Journey on foot?  Answer: no and not really.  Where did we put our bicycles?  But we are glad we did it, and we had fabulous weather walking in England in the middle of January.

*The Caledonian Sleeper runs from Euston to many bits of Scotland every night.  Doris has used it to go to Edinburgh, Glasgow and Crainlarich, for work and for rallying, possibly in the carriages you see rusting here, and it also runs up to Aberdeen and Inverness.  And now there are new shiny carriages.  Doris says you really, really should give it a go.