Cley next the Sea to Kelling beach and return

Cley-next-the-Sea is a picture postcard village, complete with converted windmill (now a B&B), delicatessen, smokehouse and various craft and antique shops. It's hard to imagine that it was once an important port (apparently wool from Norfolk sheep was exported from here); the silting up of the creeks and marsh reclamation mean that the village is now a mile or so inland. We let the SatNav find the route down into Cley for us; it tried to send us across an unbridged ford at Glandford, but other than that it was a most attractive route, and we approached the village from the landward side, via the pretty Cley Green - this had the added advantage that we didn't have to do battle with the A149, which takes a rather tortuous route through the village. We parked at the village hall; a good car park, and free!

We followed the coast path behind the houses on Cley's main road, past the windmill, and down to Cley Eye. You join the shingle beach here (the extension of the spit that leads to Blakeney Point); it's got a certain attractiveness but shingle is not the easiest of surfaces to walk along. We tried walking on the track behind the shingle bank, but that wasn't much better, so at the first opportunity we retreated inland on a path across the marshes.

We then took an alternative route that the coastal path had followed whilst the embankment was being renewed a few years ago. The inland path is most attractive, over the scrubland of the Walsey Hills with excellent views over the marshland and the coast. We then followed a path through a field of oilseed rape and down to Salthouse. After a short stretch of walking close to the road (though on a path) we followed a track back towards the coast at Kelling. We walked along the shingle beach until the cliffs began; these provided shelter for lunch.