In and around the Burnhams

We have 2 weeks off over Christmas and the New Year so we have had plenty of time for rest and relaxation and walking. Today we decided to travel up the North Norfolk Coast for about 1 hour or so and start our walk from Burnham Overy Staithe. We had roughly worked out a circular walk of just over 7 miles. On the way we stopped off at Holt and visited Byfords a deli/bakery that does great walking fodder eg. pasties, pies and cakes.

Once fully kitted up which normally means Nigel carrying mostly everything, we set off and were immediately drawn to a field running along the salt marshes with quite a few geese grazing the grass. On closer inspection with Nigel’s scope, he identified them as Brent geese (picture not very good as they were far away and the camera is on maximum zoom) visiting from Siberia for the winter after flying 2500 miles. We were pleased as we had never seen them in the flesh before. We later saw skein after skein of Pink Footed Geese arrive from the nearby salt marshes to feed on the nearby fields.

We were following part of the National Coastal Path for a little way and this was proving to be everyone else’s idea also, it was amazing the amount of people using it. However we soon lost everyone after turning off the Coastal path and walking inland.

We now headed off towards Burnham Thorpe our next destination as we wanted to visit the site of the house where one of Norfolk’s greatest and most famous hero’s was born - Lord Horatio Nelson, this made us deviate a little off our planned path but we thought no matter as it wouldn’t add on that much.

Our next stop was lunch, so we found a handy grassy bank to sit on and devoured our goodies from Byfords with Tillie & Raven looking hungrily on – don’t worry we had packed food for them too but human food always looks more tasty. After a short stop we wearily got to our feet and plodded on.

Our next stop was to have a quick look at the ruins of Burnham Norton Friary which was founded in 1241 and was thought to be the first foundation of the Carmelites or White Friars in Norfolk but was dissolved in 1538 by Henry VIII.

By now, time was pressing on and we wanted to get back to the car before dark, so we trudged on, now towards Burnham Norton village to pick up the National Coastal path again and we slowly wound our way back towards the village of Burnham Overy Staithe but it was dusk before we got back to the car.

After one detour to Nelson’s birthplace and two wrong turns, our 7 mile walk in fact turned out to be 10.75 miles!! We can now actually track our walks as I am now the proud owner of an android phone and I have downloaded My Tracks on it, which maps the walk, giving mile indications, mile per hour travelled etc.

The dogs are now tired out and after some well earned dinner (Tillie for some reason always eats her dinner half in the utility room and half in the Hall) they are now crashed out and I fear they may not be able to stay awake long enough to welcome in the New Year.