Shouldham Warren to Castle Acre

The weather forecast was OK, so we decided to walk a leg of the Nar Valley Way (more than 3 years after walking the previous leg!). By 10.40am Richard had done the shopping and prepared a picnic lunch and we'd left my car by the castle at Castle Acre and driven back to Shouldham Warren in Richard's car and parked it there. We followed the 'red trail' through the woods, then crossed farmland before following a rather overgrown path through reeds to the river.

The flies were a bit troublesome in this section, but the walking alongside the river was easy. We passed a ruined priory on the opposite (northern) bank and there were views to Marham and Marham Hill (the home of RAF Marham) to our right. The river was initially rather straight and boring, but after the Marham 'gauging station' it became more interesting. All the way along we had butterflies, dragonflies, swans, ducks and geese for company and as we approached Narborough we passed the wheel remaining from a water mill.

The river had been cleared in places for fishermen, with fishing rights owned by the Nar Valley Fisheries. We passed a duck with an amazingly large number of ducklings; and shorly afterwards there was a swan with no fewer than five cygnets! The river splits just before Narborough; we passed a former mill (now containing various workshops and with large numbers of geese on the lawn) then went through a small housing estate to emerge onto the road in the old part of Narborough. We crossed the river and stopped for lunch at a bench just by the Narborough village sign, which takes the shape of a water wheel. Then we crossed the road and took a footpath to resume our walk alongside the river.

We soon reached the A47 and were pleased to see that there was a path alongside the river as it went under the road bridge; however in using the path we discovered it was designed for midgets - I resorted to crawling in the end. We emerged into an attractive wooded area. The signposting in this section wasn't brilliant, but basically you turn right, pass a house in a clearing and then keep relatively close to the river (with views of Narford Lake in the distance) until the path (now signposted) turns left away from the river. After some more meandering through the woods, we emerged onto a minor road and turned left and then right onto a track. The track climbed and we passed an archaeological dig (there's an open day here next weekend) and as we descended to West Acre there were various people walking towards us, presumably to help at the dig.

We passed West Acre Church and the archway that leads to the remains of West Acre Priory; then, by the pub, we turned right onto the track towards Castle Acre. We passed one ford by means of a raised footpath then took a slight detour to another ford. We were now on a very familiar route, part of a 6.3 mile circular route from Castle Acre that we walk regularly (see map below the main one); this took us past the Mill House, through an attractive wood and across water meadows (the footpath here floods at some times of year, but not today). Then we passed Castle Acre Priory and reached Willow Cottage tea room and B&B (also known as Church Gate), next to the Church, just in time for a cup of tea and to watch the the end of a wedding at the Church. It rained heavily on the way home, so we really had been very lucky with the weather. Note from 2017: Willow Cottage tea room is now closed, but Barnfields Cafe, on the opposite side of the road from the Church and slightly further from the Church is another lovely tea room.

Following leg of path