The Wolf Inn didn't do breakfast but the Wherry across the road did, and from 7:00 am.
My original plan was to walk 12.5miles to North of Belton and get a taxi to Great Yarmouth where I was booked into Weatherspoons then get a taxi back next morning to walk the last bit to the finish st Great Yarmouth.. I mulled this over in bed and reckoned if I could get sn early start I could do the whole 17 mile distance in one hit.
So I was marching off briskly at 7:20 am. The morning light on the Broads with cloudless blue sky is special and reminiscent of Cornwall and my walk down the east coast from Lowestoft.
Again I had varied walking With shortish sections which maintains interest. I was anticipating possible refreshment at Somerleyton marina but it proved to be a bit run down but there were boats in use moored there and I happened on a couple, the gent sat by his cruiser fishing and wife watching on. I asked if there was a café. "No" she said "but I'll make you a cup of tea if you want." So I spent a pleasant quarter of an hour with my tea and comparing notes with Mrs. about our respective knee replacement surgeries - hers hadn't gone well. At least my reputation for getting refreshment handouts and the like has been shakily restored with only the one on this trip, but I have hardly seen any body during the whole six days walking.
I marched on through Belton and then had high hopes for another marina north of Belton. There was a bar and I asked for a pot of tea but they could only do cups. My cup of tea was more or less thrown at me with floating tea bag and two of those awful little plastic tubs of something the producers have the audacity to call milk, and all that for £2. I have taken to drinking tea neat on this trip if those revolting milks are the only option.
Just north of here was the junction where Plan A would have had me ordering a taxi and there was a signpost stating Gt. Yarmouth 4.5 miles. That seemed to pass quickly as I now followed the good path along the edge of the now very wide Breydon Water. At the halfway mark I noticed, amongst other occasional litter a Costa coffee cup. Now I'be no idea how far it would be to the nearest outlet go buy that, but the only way you could get to that location is by walking at least two miles. I have had several disasters with lids coming off or the cardboard getting squashed just getting from the counter to a table or out to my car, but to think of carrying one for two miles is mind boggling ( to me st least.)
Including stops for taking photos and twenty minutes for munchies it took me nine hours to do that 17 miles but I have saved a day having completed the Angles Way in six days walking. I am now booked in at Weatherspoons, but the snag is I bought fixed time split rail tickets for the journey home tomorrow and I csn't leave until 14:17 tomorrow. It has been a grand walk and it would be ideal to introduce somebody to long distance walking.
Early light
Costa coffe cup
Weatherspoons couple interrupted
Well done.
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure your brother will appreciate that relentless dash to the finish. But he knows you well enough.
There's not a lot to occupy you in Great Yarmouth except probably a Costa Coffee shop or two.
Have a good journey home.
The blue sky evident in every day's photos suggests you couldn't have picked a better week for it (even though you organised everything well in advance of any forecasts being available).
ReplyDeleteI confess I was worrying about the damage you were doing to your unsolicited-tea reputation with this walk, but pleased to see you redeemed yourself on the final day ;-)
Well done, Conrad. It sounds as if you chose a most suitable route. Pleased to hear you enjoyed it. Next?
ReplyDeleteBC - I caught the 10:00 am bus from Gt Yarmouth to Oreo has thus avoiding the risky seven minute transfer at Norwich, and Norwich was a much better place to spend some time
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Gayle - as good a weather spell as I e could wish for I thought my reputation was going pear shaped but the old technique of asking about a café came to the rescue.
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Phreerunner - I have some ideas for next but nothing firm yet.
Really nice post but expect it to be written in a more simple way as it becomes easier for us to understand. Anyway, Good work!
ReplyDeleteA rather trivial comment - but I have been puzzling whether Oreo is a typo (and for what/where) or whether it is an actual place from which Mondelez stole the name for their sugar-filled chocolate sandwich biscuit and which has a vital role as an East Anglian transport hub . . .
ReplyDeleteIn the same trivial vein, I am confused by what seem to be floating captions to images which have not appeared - they don't seem to be related to the actual subject matter of the images I see.
I fear you may never scale heights again after this 'flatlining' - it is always very hard it is to steeply upwards go when all has been dead level for days: prove us wrong - maybe that's what you are planning so secretly.
gimmer - I cannot see where you have found the word Oreo. I even did "search this blog" with no result.
ReplyDeleteThe floating captions:
I compose each post in the back room of Blogger: Blogger Dashboard. When I was on the hoof once I had typed the space of the typing box I couldn't scroll back to correct typos. I Googled this problem and found it was familiar to many other bloggers, but with no solution, so I had to leave everything I had typed as was.
Sometimes I make notes of things I want to say in a post and save them until I get round to actually writing the post. The floating phrases you see are some such and have no relation to the photos and should be ignored, suffice to say I couldn't scroll to delete them before posting the post. Captions were another failing of Blogger on the hoof - I just couldn't make them work.
I do hanker after some more uphill and have a couple of projects in mind as well as another joint project with BC which will certainly involve serious hills near its completion.
I am just on the point of putting up a link to Dropbox for a full slideshow with captions - that has been a laborious task but worthwhile I think.
Well that is a mystery indeed - made more so by the complete disappearance of the paragraph in which the beastly biscuit made its unexpected and inexplicable appearance:
ReplyDeleteyou were describing taking the bus (to Norwich) to avoid the potentially hazardous 7 minute train change on your return - and had had the chance to look round Norwich a little. The missing phrase described your arrival at Oreo . . . .
I am not hallucinating (I think) because I logged on to your blog a few times after first reading this oddity - to see if either of the items I mention had been explained or completed (eg the images related to the floating captions): they (and it) were still there yesterday.
Years ago, Randolph Churchill was always complaining about the electronic censors at the Times which mysteriously (well, not really mysterious at all - words from the proprietor, nudged by No 10 or Tel Aviv, I think) reformed his sentences to remove crucial phrases or words - turning them either into nonsense or the opposite of what he meant; naturally I thought this must have happened to you, knowing how closely your views on world affairs are tracked by . . . certain bodies in a foreign capital - about which we know - far too much !
I have just realised it was in your replies to a comment - I'll go and have a rest . . . or a cup of tea and a biscuit (but not, heaven forbid, an Oreo)
ReplyDeletegimmer - whilst I can edit blog posts afterwards at home and correct missed typos I couldn't whilst on the hoof, BUT I cannot edit comments ever - my only recourse would be to delete completely then re-write, but for the odd error that is hardly worth the bother, unless something is totally incomprehensible or with an altered meaning.
ReplyDeleteif the appearance of Oreo is not totally incomprehensible, what is - hidden in the mists of Norfolk mornings, clearly -
ReplyDeleteand taught to 3 yr olds at Riddlesworth Hall ?
gimmer - despite extensive research I can't find "Oreo" although I do see an inexplicable (predictive text) aberration in the last reply to comments on Day 4 - 9th September, where predictive text has suggested Phreerunner should become "Ogre runner." how it came up with that I have no idea. Gayle's reply on the slideshow throws a bit more light on Riddlesworth Hall School.
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