Round Norfolk Walk Day 7 - Castle Acre to Sedgefield

Distance: 16.5 miles
Ascent: 200m
Weather: very warm and sunny
Number of people who saw stoats: 2
Scrambling bikes 7
Creaky land-rover 1
Walkers 2
Yellowhammer, chiffchaff, buzzard.

Those Romans really knew how to build straight roads. The GPS track of today's route could have been drawn with a ruler.

The first couple of miles out of the village were along lanes, although they were quiet it still isn't much fun walking along a road. For a while the route went along a permissive path by the field edge, which seemed to have been lately mostly frequented by moles. The map shows some really odd field patterns here but disappointingly there was nothing to see when we got there, just normal large arable fields. Apparently the mapping publishers sometimes put odd things on to stop people copying the maps, so it could be something like that. Still a shame.

We left the road at a trig point (92m!) where our route went straight on and the road turned ever so slightly to the right. We stopped to faff with socks, turning around to see a vintage car approaching the corner. It had a proper comedy horn.

For the rest of the day we were on bridleways and flinty green lanes, with arable fields and occasional pig farms, near to Mad Dog Lane and Cockyhoop.

A stoat crossed in front of us, with something in its mouth. Probably a mouse. We stopped for tea and Danish pastries under shade of an oak tree.  An old motorbike trundled by.

Along the Peddars Way there are arty poem stones with inscriptions and we passed one today that included a new word for us.  "Pightle" means small piece of enclosed land often by a hedge.

The path was grassy with tumulus on either side, hares lolloping and a proper norfolk sheep with horns. The iron and bronze age burial chambers form part of a large number around Anmer and Bircham.

We stopped to let a group of bikers pass, followed by a chap on a much bigger bike who looked as though he might be having second thoughts. There wasn't anywhere to stop for lunch for quite a while, as the track was lined by hedges and trees, it was quite tight when a land-rover came along.

We stopped for lunch at a grassy patch where a path to private land joined. It was very warm and we aborted trying to open the dairy milk bar as it was too squidgy.

A warm but pleasant afternoon walk along grassy tracks over rolling hills, under big skies. We turned off the way to detour into Sedgefield, which seems to be world of holiday cottage.