Fen Rivers Way to Norfolk Coast Path link

To complete our circuit of Norfolk, we needed to walk from the end (or beginning) of the Fen Rivers Way in King's Lynn to the beginning (or end) of the Norfolk Coast Path in Hunstanton. It's about 16 miles by road, but walking 16 miles along a main road is not my idea of fun. It is also about 16 miles if you take a route that follows the sea wall across Wootton Marsh until you reach the Wash to the south of Snettisham Scalp. However there are two problems with that route: firstly, the route along the sea wall is not a public right of way; secondly, it looks extremely boring.

So we had no real hesitation in taking a slightly more inland route by way of North Wootton, Castle Rising, Sandringham, Dersingham and Snettisham, before cutting across to the coast. The total distance this way is about 20 miles and we could probably have walked it in one day. However, by having an overnight stop in Dersingham (at a lovely B&B, Ashdene House) we were able to take our time, exploring places en route, and we thoroughly enjoyed the walk. We had superb weather, in a record-breaking dry and warm spell in March 2012.

Given that we have lived in West Norfolk for more than 20 years and have brought up two children here, I suppose it shouldn't be too much of a surprise that we had visited the towns and many of the villages we passed through previously. When the children were small, we used to enjoy trips to the 12th Century Castle Rising Castle, and we visited Hunstanton for toddler group outings and, for a number of years, as our family's alternative way of spending Christmas Day (including one occasion when Richard and I both fell asleep at the same time as the children in the evening, so ended up with bread and cheese as our Christmas Dinner). We still visit the coast quite regularly and, when Helen and Tom were living in landlocked Kenilworth, a new family tradition developed for their visits to us - a walk along the coast (usually with a paddle) followed by fish and chips in Wells or Hunstanton. We also still visit Sandringham quite regularly for short walks on the estate, lunch or tea in the restaurant in the visitor centre and to buy apple juice from the shop, and we attended a royal garden party at Sandringham as part of the Queen's Golden Jubilee celebrations in 2002.