Round Norfolk Walk Day 5 - Diss to Wreatham

Distance: 22.5 miles
Ascent: 200m
Weather: overcast,  warm, humid
Mostly: nettles,  pigeons and bunnies
Swears 2
Also: Baby pheasants, skylarks, red-legged (French?) partridge, possible Norfolk sheep sighting, lapwing, curlew,  lost dog, a turkey!

We were up and off early as today's walk would be a long one. The hotel is right on the route, although we did have to cross the car park. We left Diss by Roydon Fen. Which according to the information board was home to bears and beavers. Once. Hopefully no bears now.

We crossed Wrotham heath common, which had short dry heathery moss gorse lichen and was very rabbity. With kestrels and lots of noisy rooks. The bunnies were out later than usual today, but soon made up for it.

Into Redgrave Fen nature reserve by a narrow path alongside a garden which was very overgrown, not helped by the heavy rain last night and we got very wet legs. According to one report I read, they have rare great raft spiders here but I didn't see one. Or even any spiders on crappy rafts.

Rob has found an app which lists the positions of benches, so our break for elevenses was planned with military precision, but when we got there, the bench was crawling with mites so we rejected it and carried on.

We passed the source of the River Waveney,  and saw some squirrel frolics.

Around the back of an enormous poultry factory we descended into nettle hell. An overgrown footbridge led into Hinterclay Fen and the path was abandoned in favour of the less nettly undergrowth.
Finally,  stung over hands and legs, even an armpit,  we emerged onto an area of short grass and relief. There was a carved bench, but it was right next to the big chain link fence, so we rejected that one too. Finally we found a bench overlooking a reed bed where we stopped for elevenses. We were just unpacking the provisions when we were ambushed by a squirrel.

We sat for a while with the birds, including reed bunting, chiff chaff, house marten, swallow, swifts, buzzard, sedge warbler. It is getting noticeably drier around here, leaving the fens, but there were still patches of damp ground with reeds, yellow flag iris and southern marsh orchids.

At Hopton there are a couple of shops plus stalls outside houses where people are selling their wares. We decided that we were OK for ceramics and cabbages.

We crossed some fields,  seeing a deer and hearing cuckoos. There were some cinnabar moths,  flocks of fieldfares, but mostly pigeons. The darkening skies began to drizzle but the shower was short and we soon dried out. 

Riddlesworth Hall is now a big posh school, set in parkland, which are planted with potatoes.

The Angle's Way goes into Thetford,  but isn't marked on the map beyond Knettishall Heath, which is where we leave it, and also start the Peddar's Way. They are at different ends of the country park though, so for a bit we were in walk limbo.

We had our lunch on a bench just before start of the Peddar's Way, and then went to go to look at the signs at the actual beginning. It meant retracing our steps but it wasn't far. The Peddar's Way heads north through tall woods, with foxgloves. Then there was an outdoor pig farm on one side, where the pigs were snoozing, rootling around and bathing in their water troughs.

The path was clear and straight through woodland, there were some scramblers whizzing up and down the straight track next to the path, there were tyre tracks on the path too but we didn't encounter any, and we passed a young couple who asked us if we'd seen their dog, which we hadn't, however a few minutes later said dog appeared and was willing to approach us, so we were able to return it to its owners.

We crossed a busy dual carriage way - 5pm probably not being the best time to attempt it, and then walked down a forestry commission lane with a military firing range keep out signs on one side. A bunny was a risk and sitting in it.
 
Being forestry commission,  there were lots of pine trees.  We'd done about twenty miles by now and feet were hurting. The stone gravel they'd put down was not appreciated.

We passed a smallholding with a field of rhubarb, got barked at again by dogs and saw a real Norfolk turkey!

Arrived at the Dog and Partridge, which is right on the route,  couldn't really be any closer unless the path went through the bedroom. We had a couple of pints, a real country dinner and an early night.