East to West Photos: Day 6

25 March (0730-1740 less lots of time stopped)
Distance: 19 miles (Tot: 107.5) (Pentney to Admiralty Point)
Weather: hazy sunshine, some cloud, thankfully not so hot!

It had been pitch dark when we returned to the tent the previous night, after an excellent meal and a fantastic evening courtesy of Sally & Geoff. Geoff wasn’t put off by our early start and so by quarter past seven, when we emerged from the tent in the chill of morning, he was already striding towards us. He kept us company as we walked (mainly) alongside the River Nar, until just before King’s Lynn where he headed off to head back south as we continued north. Here are Mick and Geoff walking together:

It seemed a bit curious, having a waterwheel with no other obvious structure nearby. Geoff kindly offered to take a quick snap of us. It’s unusual to get the two of us together in a photo when it’s not an obviously-posed self-timer (or Stic-pic) job.

The morning haze had burnt off and it was another gorgeous day as we continued along the water:

It wasn’t all lovely. This was a strewn heap of mixed household rubbish, which had been driven a distance along the embankment from the nearest road. Why, oh why?

We spent hours in King’s Lynn (where I failed to take any photos) before catching the ferry across the River Great Ouse. I didn’t take a photo of the ferry either, but here’s the river, approximately where the ferry crosses:

Our path went directly underneath this:

By this time we were walking along the west bank of the River Great Ouse, which had a completely different feel from the earlier walk along the River Nar.

We took our time finding a pitch near to Admiralty Point. Houses are few and far between in this area, but as it’s all so flat it can be difficult to get completely out of sight (unless you drop down onto the salt marsh on the seaward side of the sea defence, which didn’t appeal as an option). Added to the open flatness, it’s a nature reserve, so we really needed to be extra-discrete and ensure that we couldn’t be accused of causing any undue disturbance to the reserve. What you can’t see from this photo is that we’re on the perimeter of a cropped field, hidden in the corner where two sea-defences meet. As indicated by the photo, we didn’t pitch until sun-down, but even then a late dog walker came by. We were in fear of being moved on, but “Lovely evening!” was her only reaction to finding us camped there.

Thanks the wonders of technology (and thanks to Conrad who did the technology bit and provided the improved version) here's a lighter version of the above photo:

The original blog post for the day (which I’m typing in that photo above) can be found here.