Dersingham and RSPB Snettisham to Hunstanton

After our walk along the previous leg of the England Coast Path, we'd decided that this leg could wait for the winter, partly because the route from Dersingham to RSPB Snettisham offers very little shade, partly because it is relatively local, so accessible to us all year, partly because the buses needed to return to our start point from the end run all year, but mostly because I rather like seaside resorts out of season, but don't usually like them much in the middle of the school summer holidays. However, it was the best option we could think of for today, when we wanted to get out walking but also wanted to start the walk early in the day so as to finish it before the forecast hot weather arrived. The walk fulfilled that aim admirably (we were drinking our celebratory cup of tea in Hunstanton while most people were still having lunch), though it actually proved a little unnecessary as the hot weather didn't materialise until the following day. Because of this, the lack of shade issue wasn't a problem, and the seaside resort in summer wasn't a concern because for much of the walk it felt as if we were in the middle of nowhere, and when we reached Hunstanton (which was busy), it was actually quite good fun. Back in 2006, when we completed the Offa's Dyke Path in Prestatyn, we had been warned of (and experienced) the culture shock that you get when reaching a holiday resort after days of walking on a remote long distance path. Today, we had a similar experience all in one day!

We left home soon after 7.30am, as planned, and had a good drive up to Dersingham, with the early start meaning that we also avoided congestion on the road around King's Lynn, such as we'd experienced when going up to Castle Rising Castle with our grandson and his parents last weekend. Parking was a bit more of a problem; we eventually found a good spot on Woodside Avenue, just round the corner from Thaxters Garden Centre, close to where we hoped the bus would drop us after the walk. Then, just as we were leaving the car,  I realised we hadn't brought the paper map. It didn't really matter, as I have the OS Maps App on my phone (with the advantage that it shows this new bit of the King Charles III England Coast Path), and from our last walk we expected the signposting to be good - and it was! First of all we had to get back to the coast, so we set off back the way we'd come last time we were here, across the by-pass and on towards the coast,  noting that there are now hay bales in the fields. There has been seemingly endless harvesting at home in the past week or so; it is probably the same here. 

As we walked along the track, we soon spotted a man in front of us, walking just slightly slower than we were. We passed a couple of runners and then a female walker, all coming towards us, then we caught up with the man we'd been following and fell into conversation with him. He's a local who regularly walks in this direction, and he explained the route we should take (just as well because I'd remembered it wrongly, and on this the OS map on my phone wasn't terribly helpful). We crossed over "The Ingol" , then we turned left and the man turned right.  We knew that he was walking around the lagoons of RSPB Snettisham, so we expected to meet him again later. However, we realised that we weren't actually on exactly the same route as we'd followed previously. This didn't matter at all, it added variety. Today's route took us closer to the lagoons and we could hear the birds and see those coming in to land, but we couldn't see the birds on the water so we popped into the new "Knot's Landing" hide to take a look. 

We got to the southern end of the lagoons and rejoined the England Coast Path here, turning right so as to head in a generally northwards direction.  There was initially some scrubby land between us and the coast, but we were within sight of the sea - at last! - and getting closer (though we were initially mostly looking at mud not sea). Sections of the land between us and the shore were cordoned off for ground-nesting birds and there were quite a lot of birdwatchers about. At one point there was a definite twitcher gathering; 10 or so men (and they did all appear to be men) were standing with tripods firmly on the footpath and telephoto lenses focused on something. We've nothing against birdwatchers, but as we've experienced before, there is a subset to whom it doesn't seem to occur that they should maybe leave a way through for others, or at least apologise for being in the way.

We were walking towards Snettisham Sailing Club, which was clearly visible from some distance off because of the marquee surrounded by boats. There was also a proliferation of sailing-related variety available for us to watch. Not that many years ago we'd probably just have been watching dinghy sailing, and there were dinghies sailing offshore today, but there was also windsurfing and after a while we noticed that there was also what we now know is called "wingsurfing "(or "winging"), or perhaps it was "wingfoiling".  Just in case anyone is as confused as we were, in windsurfing, the sail is attached to the board but in wingsurfing etc. it isn't attached; you control it separately.  The differencce between wingsurfing and wingfoiling is apparently that wingsurfing uses a plain board, whereas wingfoiling uses a board with a hydrofoil attached underneath.

Further on, there were also there were also people on surf boards or foils powered by motor, plus also jetskis, some of which were towing rafts with people on. Not my idea of fun, but those on the raft seemed to be enjoying it.  If those options aren't enough for you, sailing is also possible on the northernmost lagoon, near the settlement of Shepherd's Port. There are also quite a lot of houses here, ranging from caravans  and mobile homes to rather grander constructions, though I suspect many are holiday homes. We passed the man we'd met previously who was now walking in the opposite direction.  The path continued on the seaward side of the Snettisham Beach car park. It was an attractive and peaceful section of path, though we were mostly walking on a gravel surface; the gravel was quite compacted but it was still quite tiring to walk on. 

Eventually, about a mile to the north of Shepherd's Port, we headed away from the coast onto a flood defence barrier which meandered its way across the marshes a quarter or half a mile from the coast on a route shared with the new Elizabeth Way (one of the new trails opened to celebrate Queen Elizabeth II's platinum jubilee). Richard pointed out that when we had walked from Dersingham to Hunstanton previously, we'd come down to the coast from our more inland route at precisely the point we headed away from the coast today. I'm not sure if you can still walk all the way along the coast here, but I liked the route we were on; it provided a change of landscape and walking surface, but there were good views to a collection of bell tents and houses on the coast. 

We reached the road down to the Heacham South Beach car park and followed it, crossing the River Heacham. There is a toilet in the car park, which was useful, but the whole place was quite touristy and not very attractive. I was looking for somewhere to change my socks; we could have retraced our steps back along the road, where we'd noticed a bench, but we didn't, and we couldn't find anywhere else suitable to sit. The onward route was along the beach for half a mile. It was just after high tide and by heading down close to the water, I found a better surface to walk along, then just before we left the beach to continue our walk along the promenade, some large rocks provided a good sock-changing location. 

Entertainment was provided by a 4x4 towing a trailer, which went further than seemed sensible into the sea in order to bring a jetski ashore. They seemed blissfully unaware until the water activated the car alarm...There was a brief quieter section of coast, then it got busier again in the approach to Hunstanton. There was what looked like a wingsurfing lesson in progress and a tractor launching power boats. We sat on the steps of the sea wall in order to eat our lunch, then continued past the Sealife Centre and Oasis, and, on the beach, one of Hunstanton's amphibious vehicles was preparing to leave on a sightseeing trip. 

We threaded our way amongst the crowds and just about managed to get a photograph of the famous red, white and brown cliffs without someone stepping out in front of me and into the centre of the picture. We photographed each other by the Hunstanton sign near Cliff Parade then went in search of a cup of tea. Becca's Cafe did us proud, then we caught the number 35 bus back to Dersingham and our waiting car. 

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