Reedham to Great Yarmouth

On another day, I'd be waxing lyrical about the peacefulness and closeness to nature of today's walk. However, for whatever reason, today it felt rather boring and Great Yarmouth, where the Wherryman's Way ends, isn't the most salubrious of places. I'm probably being rather unfair on both points, and it is undoubtedly the case that both the walk and Great Yarmouth had some much more interesting parts.

We started off by driving to Great Yarmouth in two cars. We left home early, so we weren't troubled by queues through the roadworks which had reduced the road to a single lane in each direction on the Norwich by-pass. We parked one car at the Fullers Hill car park at TG523081 on the outskirts of Great Yarmouth; easy to find, the cheapest parking place on a Sunday (£3 for the day) and very close to the end of the Wherryman's Way near the River Bure, though we planned to continue on to the seafront. We then drove together in the other car, across the Halvergate marshes and through Halvergate and Freethorpe to Reedham Staithe (TG422017), where we'd parked at the end of the previous leg.

Reedham Staithe is an interesting little place, usually with lots of activity to watch on and by the River Yare, though this morning we (and the ducks) had it just about to ourselves. Reedham was made even better by the discovery of a nice clean public toilet, open though it was only just after 9am on a Sunday morning. We briefly turned away from the river, passing a school, then crossed the railway just above the railway bridge across the river. Shortly later we were able to photograph a train trundling its way across the bridge.

We turned onto a path along a bank which followed the river, though not always closely, across the marshes. There were views across the marshes to Reedham Church, which is set back from the river, and a fair number of old drainage mills, in all directions. Closer at hand, we disturbed sheep which had been dozing and grazing on the river bank, then we had to move off the bank to allow a farmer in a 4 x 4 to come past, apparently to check his sheep.

A sail in the distance transpired to be a boat coming towards us on the river, very slowly because it was having to tack repeatedly to make progress into the wind. It wasn;t a wherry, but it was nice to see a slightly old-fashioned sailing boat; most of the boats on the River Yare seem to be motor cruisers. We passed Seven Mile House (presumably seven miles from Great Yarmouth) and two old drainage mills, though only one is named on the map. I think it is the one that still has sails that is Polkey's Mill.

After another couple of miles of walking on the bank we passed Raven Hall on the other side of the river and Ashtree Farm on our side, then we reached the Berney Arms Mill and here our route joined with that of the Weavers' Way. We were last here on 2nd October 2010. Sadly, the Berney Arms pub, which I think was open last time we were here, is now closed and really rather tatty. I think there were also more boats on the water last time we were here, which is a bit surprising given that it is (despite the rather unseasonal weather) late Spring - maybe it was the time of day or the state of the tide, falling today. Whatever, we watched a boat turning from the River Yare into the River Waveney, reminding us of the complex and glorious interconnection of the waterways in this area.

As we continued to walk downstream, the now combined waterway formed by the rivers Yare and Waveney opened up to form Brayden Water. The navigation channel was initially close to the bank along which we were walking, though no boats came past, then it moved to the opposite side of the expanse of water. As we were walking this section, it felt as if there wasn't much of interest, but as I write this I realise that's not true: We passed a man (a birdwatcher?) while still quite close to the Berney Arms, then close to the "Brayden Pump" (interesting in itself) we passed two female walkers who were going in the opposite direction, rather slowly. We walked close to the railway line for a while then stopped for lunch, sitting on the bank, just past Lockgate Drainage Mill and close to some cattle. We stopped for a chat with a single female (and rather speedier) walker who was, again, heading in the opposite direction; she had left a car in Acle then caught the train to Great Yarmouth and was walking back (the opposite of what we did back in 2010).

All the while we were getting closer to the eastern end of Brayden Water, and we could see the distinctive lifting Brayden Bridge in the distance, with the skyline of Great Yarmouth behind. We came close to the railway line again, now close to Brayden Junction where the two lines across the marshes diverge. A train was approaching and, to our surprise, it came along the southernmost line, close to where we were walking. Although high tide had passed earlier this morning, it was only as we followed around the eastern edge of Brayden Water, close to both railway and road, that we began to walk next to mud rather than water. Eventually, our route crossed an area of rough ground and then passed under Brayden Bridge.

We'd realised that, although we hadn't noticed any boats as we walked beside Brayden Water, there were boats, indeed quite a lot of them, on the navigation channel, which we were now getting closer to again. Now, underneath the Bridge, one of these boats turned left onto the River Bure (which is the route to the rest of the Norfolk Broads, further to the north. So this is how the rivers Yare, Waveney and Yare, and their associated broads, are connected. Meanwhile, we walked around the edge of the Asda car park and around the railway, eventually reaching a sign at which the Weavers' Way and Wherryman's Way meet the Angles Way.

We crossed the Vauxhall Bridge (only open to pedestrians) and walked on through Great Yarmouth towards the sea front, using our phones to check the route. For most of the time it wasn't really attractive at all, and some parts were distinctly down at heel, but the area to the south of the Minster was quite attractive. We emerged at the coast, very close to the Britannia Pier, and suddenly there were people everywhere (or maybe this is just how it seemed after 14 months of hardly seeing anyone). We sat down on the edge of the promenade, to the north of the Pier and close to where a large extended family were playing on the sand. The views across the sandy beach were to dunes, and - in the distance - the sea and the Sroby Sands Offshore Wind Farm. I wanted an ice cream, but the queues were stupidly long, and all the people made me uneasy (Covid hasn't gone away...) so we retreated to the car where we ate apples instead, feeling suitably virtuous.