Holkham to Wells-next-the-Sea
Walked several times, photographs taken Saturday 3rd January 2009
3 miles along the Norfolk Coast Path
Back in 1986, when Michael was just learning to walk, we spent a holiday close to the North Norfolk coast, and he enjoyed playing in the sand on Wells Beach. Later, Michael and Helen used to enjoy Holkham Beach (I'd park the car in Lady Ann's Road), and we've walked through the pinewoods and dunes between Holkham and Wells on several occasions.
There are actually three distinct routes between Holkham Beach and Wells Beach: the official Norfolk Coast Path route on a track behind the trees; a meandering route through the dunes and the trees, and the beach itself. So, when we went to take photographs of this section of path on 3rd January 2009, we were able to follow a circular route, parking at Wells Beach (in winter cheaper than Lady Ann's Road) and following the track to Lady Ann's Drive, then walking back along the beach.
The walking along the path behind the pinewoods was easy, so we reached Holkham Beach quite quickly. There were quite a lot of people about, especially at Holkham (perhaps because it was the last weekend of the Christmas holiday) and as we walked down towards the sea we crossed an area that I didn't remember from when I came here when the children were small - it appears that new salt marsh is forming between one set of dunes (with the pinewoods) and some more dunes closer to the sea.
We passed a lot of twitchers (I'm not sure what they were looking at!) and, after passing the second line of dunes, we walked along the beach closer to the sea. When we reached Wells we had the bonus of watching seals swimming in the sea. Then we crossed the beach to the attractive beach huts and climbed steps back to the car park.
We ate our lunch in the car then walked along the long straight harbour wall to Wells-next-the-Sea. The path runs along the top of the bank, with excellent views back to the lifeboat station, forward to Wells and across the channel to the next section of salt marsh. On the other side of the bank runs Beach Road and a narrow-gauge railway, which in the summer links the caravan park behind the beach to the town centre. I used to rather turn up my nose at the touristy nature of Wells, but now I like the place, especially in winter. We had a cup of tea at a cafe on the harbour front and a potter around the bustling town. Then we retraced our steps along the harbour wall to the car.