Stalham to Potter Heigham

However we did get out walking on the Thursday. This leg of the Weavers' Way was in some ways rather disappointing; too much road walking, too many reeds (which made it difficult to see Hickling Broad) and a diversion away from the River Thurne at the end. However it was our first proper encounter with the broads. The broadland landscape appears natural, and for a long time it was thought to be so. However it is now believed that the broads were caused by the flooding of peat works as sea levels rose. Most of the broads lie close to rivers – the River Yare and its tributaries the Bure (with its own tributaries the Thurne and Ant) , Chet, Waveney and Wensum. There is a total of 120 miles of navigable waterway, and 63 broads (13 of them navigable). The Norfolk Wherries once used the broads as a trading route; it first became a recreational area at the end of the 19th Century.

We were always planning to finish the walk in Potter Heigham, but parking there is ridiculously expensive so we decided to use the (free) car park at Womack Water in Ludham. We drove there by way of the A47 (Norwich by-pass) to Acle, which was again a fast route, so we had plenty of time to explore Womack Staithe and the pretty village of Ludham and to find the bus stop (non-trivial since the various information sources all put it in a slightly different place, and if Richard hadn't checked beforehand, I would have assumed that our route was towards Potter Heigham Bridge rather than away from it). We eventually caught the 10.15 Sanders Number 6 (again!) from just in front of the garage, adjacent to the King's Arms. This took a distinctly circuitous route, by way of Catfield, then across the main road to Catfield Common, left to Hickling and left onto Stalham Road, which was only just wide enough for the bus. Approaching Stalham we took another left hand turning down to Sutton before - eventually - driving down Stalham High Street.

We got off the bus just before Stalham Church and visited the toilets (discovered last visit, down the side of the Town Hall) before retracing the bus's route past the police station and the school to Stalham Green where we took a minor road to the left, by the village sign and the pond. This leg of the Weavers' Way has too much road walking (more than half of it was on roads) but to Hickling and then down to Hickling Staithe, the roads were minor and we were very soon back in attractive countryside, usually (as in earlier stages) with at least three churches in view - and now there was usually at least one windmill (or the remains thereof) in view too. We followed a footpath for the short distance to Sutton Corn Mill and underneath a path linking different parts of the property there. There was no sign of the museum marked on the map, but rather a nice house and a selection of holiday cottages.

We meandered our way along minor roads to Hickling and just as we were emerging onto the more major road there, the number 6 bus appeared on its return journey. We followed another minor road down to Hickling Staithe where we stopped for lunch on a conveniently placed bench. The minor road back to Hickling Heath was OK, but there then followed a couple of kilometres past Catfield Heath on a road that was rather busy and had no pavement.

It was a relief to turn left down Back Lane and then again past Decoy Farm and attractive and attractively-named cottages and then eventually to leave the roads behind us completely when we turned right onto a footpath. We almost immediately saw two muntjac deer. The path took us through reeds, with oak woodland to our right and Hickling Broad to our left. We were eventually so close to the broad that we could hear boats on it, and people in the boats talking, but the height of the reeds meant that glimpses of the broad were all too rare. We could see sailing boats on the River Thurne ahead of us and began to think that we might soon see them properly, but this was not to be today! We were diverted off the path because of works on the bank of the River Thurne onto a rather boring track along 'Middle Wall'. However, to be fair, this did take us past attractive cattle, donkeys and swans.

We crossed the main A149 and emerged at the old Potter Heigham Bridge, with some rather tacky shops and hordes of people. If Wroxham is the Blackpool of the broads (as I decided last week), Potter Heigham isn't far behind. However we enjoyed watching boats going under the very low bridge. The sailing boats had their masts lowered and one was being propelled by punt! We had a cup of tea in Lathams Department Store then caught the 3.20pm Number 6 bus back to Ludham, and drove home.

Following leg of path