Norfolk

The Norfolk Coast Path used to only run from Hunstanton to Cromer, though it was considered a single route with the Peddars Way,  which stretches in an almost straight line from Knettishall Heath (on the Norfolk/Suffolk border) to Holme next the Sea, a relatively short distance to the east of Hunstanton. We've walked the original route of the Norfolk Coast Path a couple of times, and parts of it many times (the photograph was taken in one such section, between Blakeney and Wells-next-the-Sea). 

There have been some changes and there will be more, with the introduction of the England Coast Path (if they EVER finish it) so we started again, with a walk from Hunstanton to Holme, completed on Christmas Day 2020 when the Covid Pandemic prevented us from travelling further or having visitors. However, the England Coast Path in Norfolk is  not yet complete, so for now (2024), the descriptions I have given  here are for a combination of legs walked previously, and new sections. I've attempted to put it together in a clockwise direction, because that is the way we've walked most of the Norfolk Coast. This is in contrast to most of the rest of the England Coastal Path, which I have described in an anti-clockwise direction.

From the  county border with Lincolnshire,  somewhere in the middle of nowhere to the east of the River Nene's outfall into the Wash, the  Peter Scott Walk (now incorporated into the England Coast Path) leads around to River Great Ouse and down to West Lynn, from where a ferry brings you to King's Lynn.  The England Coast Path from King's Lynn to Hunstanton opened in Spring 2024. It's too far for me to walk in one day and intermediate access is tricky, so we had to come a fair way from the path to reach somewhere on a bus route. However, we completed this section, one of our most local, in two walks in summer 2024, first of all walking from King's Lynn to RSPB Snettisham and on to Dersingham and a few weeks later walking from Dersingham to RSPB Snettisham and then heading north to  Hunstanton. (Before this section was created, we'd created a pleasant two-day walk by way of the Sandringham Estate, walking first from King's Lynn to Dersingham then from Dersingham to Hunstanton ).

Although we walked from Hunstanton to Holme in 2020 (as mentioned above) and continued to Thornham as part of a circular walk in 2021, to the east of Thornham,  the "Norfolk Coast Path", still (in August 2024) goes significantly inland and there is no clear indication of when the promised section of the England Coast Path will be started, let alone finished. So, for now, please follow our walk along the Norfolk Coast Path between Hunstanton and Cromer as it was in 2012, completed in four legs: Hunstanton to Burnham Deepdale; Burnham Deepdale to Wells-next-the-Sea; Wells-next-the-Sea to Weybourne and Weybourne to Cromer.

It was December 2021, almost 10 years after that walk in 2012, when we returned to our adventure east of Cromer. On each leg between Cromer and Caister, we either walked there and back, or walked a circuit which included the coastal section , so progress was relatively slow, but steady. Between December 2021 and April 2022 we progressed from Cromer to Trimingham, then from Trimingham to Bacton Green, from Bacton Green to Eccles-on-Sea, from Eccles-on-Sea to Horsey Gap, from Horsey Gap to Winterton-on-Sea, and from Winterton-on-Sea to Caister-on-Sea.

Our final leg to date of the Norfolk Section of the England Coast Path, from Caister-on-Sea to Gorleston-on-Sea, took us right through Great Yarmouth, and we didn't really want to do this in both directions on one day, so when we walked this leg in January 2023, we took two cars and left one at each end. However, we enjoyed the walk. There is no obvious parking close to the Norfolk/Suffolk boarder, so the final mile or so of the Norfolk Section will have to wait until we can combine it with the first section to the south of the Norfolk/Suffolk border - and that's not open yet!