I was sat a couple of weeks ago sipping my morning coffee on the sofa. I’ve got a bad habit of wasting time in the morning just scrolling through social media for an hour without actually paying any attention to what I’m looking at. This morning was a bit different though. Facebook had kindly reminded me that a year ago I was waking up at the coast, three days into my walk along Peddars Way & Norfolk Coast path.
I closed Facebook and went into my photo app instead, scrolling down until I found the photos from the trip. As a National Trail, Peddars Way & Norfolk Coast Path is not very well known at all. People flock to the Pennines and West Highlands, but Norfolk has its own beauty, kept a secret from most walkers.
I scrolled through a few more photos, all of which had been taken from my phone. I can remember thinking on the trip how great it would be to just explore the coastline with my actual camera. I don’t usually take a camera with me on trips because of a mix of not having enough space to carry it and a fear of breaking something I couldn’t afford to replace.
Why not go back then? Bank holiday weekend was coming up and I had no plans. I could throw my camera bag in the car and spend a couple of days going back to my favourite spots on the coast. I did a bit of googling to work out whether it was feasible. The drive was 3 hours drive each way, which I could put up with. Accommodation was a bigger challenge. I don’t like paying for accommodation at the best of times. Even less so when travelling alone. Why pay up to £100 for a hotel room when you could sleep under the stars for free? I would need some kind of room though, or at least somewhere with plug sockets to recharge the cameras. I opted for a Youth Hostel in Sheringham, where a shared dorm was £15 a night. With the bare minimum of the trip planned I just had to get through the next week at work. I’d figure out what I was going to do when I got there.
The bank holiday finally came around and after making sure all the camera kit was charged up and I’d managed to sort out all the different wires and plugs I needed, I was in the car and heading down the A47. I had eventually bothered to look up some places to go, so did have an itinerary of sorts. The plan was to find a couple of beauty spots for sunset and sunrise, and then fill the time in between with visits to nature reserves to look at some of the coastal wildlife.
Plan
Monday Afternoon: Titchwell Marshes Nature Reserve
Monday Evening: Burnham Overy Staithe
Tuesday Morning: Cley next the Sea, then Cley Marshes Nature Reserve
I pulled into Titchwell about 1:30 pm, and after paying my entry fee, stopped for some lunch at the cafe. It was a bank holiday Monday so was pretty busy. There were a lot of older people dressed in cargo trousers, cream shirts and floppy hats. They looked like proper bird spotters and some even had big telescopes and binoculars. I stood out a little bit in my Nike shorts and t-shirt.
Titchwell is a wetland nature reserve, so water weaves its way through the marsh at high tide, leaving a network of ponds and waterways, before it all drains back out again a few hours later, providing small pockets of water for the birds to fish in. There were a couple of out-and-back walking routes so I opted for the one which leads down to the coast, past a couple of bird hides. There wasn’t too much to do other than sit in the bird hides and have a look about. I didn’t know any of the bird’s names, so just took some photos which I could put into the Merlin Bird Spotter app later to work out what was what. Everyone else in the hide had a lot better luck than me, spotting tiny obscure birds nestled in trees or behind tufts of marsh. I did manage to spot some Avocets, a Little Egret, Eurasian Linnet and a few other species.
The reserve closed at 4:30 pm so I had to head back to the car in time. The next place on my list to visit was Burnham Overy Staithe. We’d stopped here on the walk last year and had spent an hour watching the world go by as we drank a cup of tea a local had made us. The village sits next to the River Burn, and a lot of locals have their own boats moored up which they can take out to sea at high tide.
I knew I wanted to get some photos here, and with a clear sky, it would be worth waiting until sunset. This meant I had a few hours to kill, and there was not really much to do there other than sit and watch everyone enjoying the water or go for a walk. I opted to do both, walking a fair bit down the coastal path out to the beach and then sitting on the bank watching the boats come in and out. It was a nice feeling not having anything to do.
After a few hours of waiting the good light started to kick off and it was a rush to get all the shots I wanted to. I kind of enjoyed the chaos though, it’s unpredictable, which just adds to the adventure. I raced about with my drone, getting a few photos and video clips, before rushing back down to the harbour.
As the sun finally set the crowds of people who had been sailing, paddleboarding and swimming in the harbour had left. I decided to leave as well. I still needed to check into the to hostel and it was now late evening. It wasn’t too much of a worry because hostels expect people to arrive at all sorts of times and keep check-in open until 10 p.m. in most places. After a quick pizza, it was an early night, ready for the next morning sunrise.
I was woken up at 4:45 am the next morning to my phone buzzing away under my pillow. It was a challenge as I crept about in the dorm trying to put socks on and find all my stuff without waking anyone else. Mission accomplished, I was in my car driving up the coastal road in the dark towards Cley next the Sea by 5.
It had been miserable last year when we had walked through Cley. Heavy rain and thunder had us hiding under a driveway for a while before we decided there was nothing to do but brave it and get wet. I was hoping for better weather today, although things weren’t looking hopeful as I parked up behind the windmill in the village. The sky was overcast, offering very little chance of any golden sunlight.
It was still a great spot even if the light wasn’t the best, so I chucked my backpack on anyway and walked through the tight alleyways that led out onto the coast path that swept through the marshes, the yellow gravel path sticking out like a sore thumb amongst the green and purple marsh. It wasn’t very far at all the get to the spot I had in mind. A simple wooden bench overlooking the marshes, about 50m away from the Windmill, raised on the coastal path to avoid flooding. I’d just sit here an enjoy the morning until the sun rose.
The light didn’t make it but I spent an hour sitting about watching the few specs of pink break through the clouds. I didn’t see a single person the whole time I was sat there, looking out to sea, not really seeing anything, but feeling the light breeze on my face and breathing in the sea air. What a way to start the day.
Once I had used up all the battery on my drone and taken photos of the windmill from different angles, all whilst avoiding getting wet feet, I decided to call it a day at that spot. The plan had been to go to Cley Marshes Nature Reserve but it didn’t open for another 3 hours. Nothing in Cley was open at all either so instead, I had to drive back towards Sheringham, and then even further into Cromer to find a place to get some breakfast. After a McDonalds breakfast I spent a couple of hours in Cromer wandering along the beach and the pier.
Cley Marshes did eventually open and it was the same plan as I’d had at Titchwell the day before. Have a walk out to some of the bird hides and have a look to see what I can see. If I could get some decent photos’s great, but even if they were only good enough to ID the birds then I was fine with that. Bird watching is an odd hobby and not one I expected to take up. I find the birds interesting, but probably not enough to dedicate a whole hobby too. I do however enjoy sitting and watching, not being able to be distracted for a second or risk missing something. It forces me to sit there and think of nothing other than what’s in front of me. It’s the exact opposite of my day to day life which is full of so many distractions its disorientating.
The hides at Cley both had a member of staff who was documenting some of the species out on the pools. He tried to tell me about some of the different birds out there, apparently, today was a bit of a dull day for spotters, but little of it made sense to me anyway and most of the birds were new to me. His telescope could see a lot further than my camera, so when he pointed stuff out it was hard to find, especially as I didn’t know what any of the birds looked like in the first place. We did spot a Stoat swimming across the water though, chased by a curious bird, which apparently was a rare sighting.
After a couple of hours at Cley, it was time to head back to the car and drive home. It had been a fleeting visit, only being in Norfolk for 24 hours in total, but it was great to revisit some of the spots I’d enjoyed last year. I love backpacking, but when you only get a week or two a year to do trips you usually end up cramming stuff in and most places you just pass through. The walk brought these beautiful spots on the Norfolk coast to my attention. A glimpse of their charm was enough to pull me back, as I am sure it will do again.
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