The Road goes ever on and on; Down from the door where it began;
Now far ahead the Road has gone; And I must follow, if I can;
Pursuing it with eager feet; Until it joins some larger way;
Where many paths and errands met; And whither then? I cannot say.

[JRR Tolkien, Lord of the Rings]

Friday 25 March 2011

Day 6 - Pentney to vaguely near Admiralty Point

25 March (0730-1740 less lots of time stopped)
Distance: 19 miles (Tot: 107.5)
Weather: hazy sunshine, some cloud, thankfully not so hot!
Number of boar: 1

"Found you!" came the exclamation from outside of our tent at 0645 this morning. It was Geoff, who was going to join us for the first 10.5 miles of the day. He waited patiently as we packed away and at 7.30 (by which time the night frost had melted away but the day was far from warm) off we all strode, to pick the Nar Valley Way back up. Except for one big loop that we were going to opt to omit at Shouldham Warren (via a tiny bit of trespass), we were going to follow the Way the whole way to King's Lynn.

Despite my foot really not wanting to play* we fairly well marched along and by second breakfast we were able to take advantage of the bench outside of the delightfully-named Wormegay Church. (*The rules of a Big Walk seem to state that at least one of us has to get tendonitis and for me this year the tendon to the big toe is throwing a bit of a paddy.)

Rejoining the river after the Way took us away from it for a few miles, and just after passing a house with a guard-boar grunting behind the gate, elevenses were had at the point where Geoff was to leave us.

It was then just a few miles into King's Lynn where we surpassed our usual slowness in getting from one side of a town to the other. We entered the town just before 1330 and left at 1615! Firstly there was the need for lunch and a noodle-bar did the job nicely, then there was a trip to the supermarket to stock up for the next couple of days. Then, somehow, in between reaching the quay in the wrong place for the ferry and walking around to the right place, we fell into a pub. Well, we weren't in any rush...

Finally, we heaved our massively heavy bags (we needed water for tonight and tomorrow, so had 4 litres apiece on board, as well as food for 2 days) onto our shoulders and missed the ferry by seconds. Still, we weren't in a rush and it was quite pleasant to sit on the jetty for 20 minutes.

The ferry ride was over almost before I'd had chance to think "eeek, I'm on a boat" and back on dry land, out along the Great Ouse we went, to walk towards the Wash. It's not the shortest route we could have chosen, but it looked easily the most interesting option, and that's an opinion I've not changed having walked part of it. We're now secreted away for our first wild camp of the trip (and given our location I think this qualifies as 'wild'; we're not awfully near any significant civilisation).

(Louise: I always find that if I psych myself up to believe that a long day will be awfully hard, and if we set off early, then the reality is never as bad as I expected. As for having fun, we certainly are. The weather is, no doubt, helping.
Alan: we'd best keep walking. We're in the middle of nowhere as I type this! (Hmmm, just as I typed that a dog walker came past; didn't expect that in this location with darkness almost upon us!)
Geoff: Great to walk and talk to you too. Pleased to report that we didn't quite do the 20 miles you predicted for us today and even more pleased that we didn't do the same mileage as you!)

Sent using BlackBerry® from Orange

2 comments:

  1. I was walking past Admiralty Point yesterday! And yes, the route along the sea walls is much better than the direct route from South Lynn to Sutton Bridge, for which you have little choice than to walk along roads.

    Keep your eye out for two man-made islands off the coast - they were part of a 1970s scheme to turn part of the Wash into a freshwater storage lake. There is a causeway leading to the smaller island, although the path is very muddy and occasionally tidal. Great for looking at birds, though.

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  2. I was sulking all day at work, would much rather have been walking than filleting salmon

    Glad you had a good day and the weather stayed fine

    I picked Geoff up along the A10 around 4.30pm he had walked a massive 24 miles :-)

    Hoping the rest of your walk goes well

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