Day 6: Brancaster to Wells-next-the-Sea

Weather: Partly sunny with gale force Westerly

Distance covered today: 22.3km ( 13.9mi)

Last night's B&B: The Bays Guest House

% Complete: Cumulative distance: 76.2 %: 124.7 km

GPS satellite track of today's route: Day 6 (click!)

Although not scenically spectacular, today’s walk was by far the most interesting of the trip to date, and worth making a special effort to do it, even if one has no intention of doing the whole thing.  I would also say that for birders, particularly those interested in seabirds, this leg is a must. Vast numbers of many species of birds were making use of the salt marshes on the seaward side of the sea defence barriers.  I don’t even know whether this is a good time of year to view them?  Of course I know as much about birds as I know about wild flowers, which isn’t helpful, and I had neither binoculars, nor a bird-book.  What’s more, my little compact camera is no match for the proper equipment required to do these guys justice.  Perhaps the only downside of the day was that given the birds, there were indeed lots of birders, weighed down with expensive equipment and presumably resentful of my lack of stealth as I powered along the track amidst a sea of flapping wings and alarm cries as the birds headed for the hills, or more likely, Scandinavia.

I say the birds were mostly on the seaward side of the defences, but that wasn’t always true.  In at least three places, I saw evidence of recent emergency repairs to breaches in the sea wall.  During the recent floods, most media attention was focussed on the other side of Britain, particularly on the Somerset Levels, the coast of the South West and the Thames.  Preceding those crises, there was a confluence of circumstances which threatened coastal communities in East Anglia and brought back memories of the fatal floods of 1953 when hundreds of people were killed, including 60 between King’s Lynn and Hunstanton.  Sea defences burst in more than 1,000 places and thousands of people were displaced.  

The problem occurs at a time of seasonally high spring tides, when there is a very strong depression over the North Sea driving vast volumes of water down towards the bottleneck of the English Channel, amidst huge waves and high winds.  Following that tragedy, East Coast defences were greatly strengthened and indeed, the Thames Barrier was eventually built to prevent London from flooding.  The problem recurred in December 2013, and while everyone was expecting the worst, the defences held for the most part and although two people were tragically killed and a house or two fell into the sea as a result of coastal erosion, the media caravan moved on in time to the less serious floods in the West.

The Norfolk Coastal Path website had warned me that the trail had been compromised in places by the floods and I assumed that these would be where the sea walls and the trail coincided. (I was informed that repairs would be more or less complete by Easter, so I decided to take the risk. As it turns out, I was wrong. Tomorrow’s walk is compromised and I’ll have to find another route after I post this blog!).  Of course, once the wall has been breached and the sea has rushed landwards, nothing much can be done until the flood is over, by which time the landward side is under water. Fixing the sea wall at this point means that the water can’t flow back to sea when the tide recedes. The incongruous result is that viewed from the sea wall, all plains on the landward side appear waterlogged, while at low tide, the salt plains on the seaward side appear quite dry! The birds probably appreciate this, even if everyone else, especially the farming community, doesn’t!

The sea walls are more interested in height above sea level than in straight lines, so my progress today was via a delightfully meandering path that sometimes even, rather frustratingly, doubled back on itself, following the contours of the coastal plains and their disruptive rivulets. The effect was a constantly changing perspective, of subtle browns, greys and the odd green field on the landward side. All of a sudden, the path made a bolt for the sea; the earthworks turned to boardwalks, the dunes were breasted and I walked a delightful 5km (3mi) along a broad, flat beach, with gale-force winds pushing me along from behind and the sea frothing away merrily on my port side.  There was hardly a soul on the beach, and those I saw were as exhilarated as I was!

Then again, it all changed as I approached my destination and was greeted by the holiday attractions of a coastal resort, with its usual complement of sullen and bad-tempered families, out with the kids at half-term, with everyone hating the weather, each other and life in general.  Admittedly the wind was very strong and bitterly cold, and as I have noted before, one gets used to these things over long walks, but get out of your air-conditioned Beemer, and the blast is enough to set your teeth on edge, especially when the kids are screaming, and the in-laws are asking whose idea this was anyway! And so they all head for the tacky attractions of the resort, because there isn’t anything else to do!

As it happens, Wells-by-the-Sea is a moderately attractive town, with an extant fishing fleet and the B&B I’m staying in is very comfortable. My mood this evening was very much improved by two encounters. The first was with the Wells Carnival Committee.  I was sitting in the pub, preparing my data, minding my own business and all of a sudden the committee descended.  I couldn’t help overhearing the proceedings.  There was that rather formal, slightly bureaucratic approach to meetings so redolent of volunteer committees of enthusiastic amateurs. Minutes were formally read, the treasurer’s report was provided, and someone offered to get drinks from the bar. After the initial awkwardness, someone cracked a joke and they all erupted. All discipline was lost and a party ensued.  It could have been off a script from the Archers!  I was hugely amused!

I went to the loo, and was accosted by a fellow who, seeing my jacket, wanted to know if I was “off a boat”.  He told me that he skippered a “smack”, and they had shipped anchor this afternoon, but when he reached the “bar” and saw the size of the seas in that gale force westerly, he turned tail and repaired to the pub instead; he wasn’t sure he had enough draught in that tide. He had that wonderful estuary marine accent that convinced me he came from the East End and so he did.  He also told me he had walked the Pennine Way, and when I explained my exploits he tried very hard to settle me in. I could see where it was going, and extracted myself on what for him was a lame excuse; the Chelsea game!

Thank goodness I did, because I might not otherwise have been capable of navigating my way around the breached flood defences tomorrow! 

Eek!  I don't have any tide tables!

Not to worry guv, no water!

But there had been a lot, and recently!

Well, not on my land anyway! (There are numerous paths from the harbour to the main road, where any number of animals could be landed. This little Englander is nevertheless doing his duty, and he was of course flying the flag!  It is visible in the background.)

An Oystercatcher!!!!

I have absolutely no idea!

One of three breaches in the sea wall that I came across today that have been recently repaired...

So that the standing water is on the landward side....

And at low tide, the seaward side seems quite dry!

A working windmill, but it wasn't working in today's gales

A roller-coaster path over a destoned field

My motto, at last!!

A squall looked as if it would catch me. It missed!!

Heading for the dunes on the sea wall....

Which then turned into a boardwalk.....

And finally I reached the dunes themselves; shades of Betty's Bay....

And an angry sea!

Holiday makers, yuk!

By the hundreds.....

These boats service the offshore turbines

And so to the traditional (almost) fishing port of Wells-by-the Sea

Where they don't like the Department of Fisheries and Rural Affairs! (Fishermen's Friends are also a brand of strong peppermints!)

The fishermen's working boats