Norfolk Day 3

 

The disco did go on until 1am and despite having ear plugs with me, there was no getting away from the sound of the bass. I did fall asleep eventually. After our previous night at such a wonderful hotel we were brought back to earth with our stay here. It was OK and the staff were very friendly and helpful and it was convenient for the walk. You will notice from the morning photo that we are now five. My room mate T joined us last night so now only one is missing from the original group of six. As I mentioned in my first post S will not be able to join us this year as he broke is arm a few days ago.

I am reliably informed that today's walk should be no more than ten miles. Once again the weather was kind to us. A cloudy sky but it wasn't raining. We left the pub and walked through the centre of North Walsham. The Town clock, also known as the Market Cross is the focal point for the town. It was built in 1602 

although it has been renovated many times since then.

Standing in front of it, is this drinking fountain erected in 1911 to commemorate the coronation of King George V and Queen Mary. I expect we'll have a few more commemorative fountains etc over the coming months and years.

Another Grade I listed building is the medieval chuch of St Nicholas. It is the largest Wool Church in Norfolk, built on the profits of the wool and weaving. All the towns and villages we pass through have a connection to the wool and weaving trades hence the name if the trail. The Weaver's Way.

Today is Sunday and we were a bit concerned that we didn't have anything for lunch.  But luckily we found a coffee shop that was open which sold sandwiches. The choice was limited and the only one I fancied was a cheese and tomato toastie.  I didn't have the time to hang around waiting for it to be toasted so just bought it as it was. Big, big mistake.

Once out of the town it didn't take us long to pick up.the Weaver's Way.

Lots of beautiful spring flowers were everywhere.

The last view of North Walsham

This house was called the White Horse. Easy one for the delivery men to find.

In one of the fields was a bee keeper  checking his hives.

In this field I could see a couple of deer. I didn't bring my camera with me on the walk and am just using my phone so I couldn't zoom in enough to take a decent photo of the deer which was a shame.

The next village we came to was Meeting Hill. The sign has a spinning wheel which is another reference to the wool industry. The building is the Baptist Chapel and is possibly the origin of the village name.

A good use for this old telephone box which is now used to house a defibrillator.

The Baptist Church and graveyard.

We left the village and wandered on following the excellent signage for the trail. But this small path was hidden from the road and the greenery hid the sign. It was the first time we had gone wrong on the walk. Fortunately we hadn't gone too far when we realised something was wrong.

The next section took us across more fields. Although there are one or two inclines this walk is fairly flat for which I am grateful as my leg has been a bit more painful today.

Newly born lambs.

As with the previous day's walking the trail follows a disused railway line. I am hoping it's a bit more interesting than the previous one.

Much more water in the form of rivers, streams and lakes.

Out of nowhere appeared this perspex art installation. There was no information about it.

But we did have some fun trying out new group photos.

This was the old Honing station.

A few parts had been left such as the sign.

The old waiting room.

The porter's office

Time for lunch and a sit down. How I regretted not having my sandwich toasted. It just didn't  taste right but I suppose it was better than nothing. After lunch it was more of the same.  Another 4 miles brought us to the end of the railway line and into a small town.

We stopped off for a cup of tea in a small Cafe. This was definitely a mistake. If we'd carried on then we would have reached our destination for the night without having to walk through this.

We tried sheltering for a while but to no avail. We were so close to our accommodation but we still got soaked!