It’s sweltering again and we start a little later than planned for various reasons. Our first stop is in a shaded copse beyond West Acre and we’re already really feeling the heat.
On our test walk, we followed the River Nar from Narborough to the A10 on the Nar Valley Way. It’s a distance of around 7 miles with no shelter whatsoever. Looking at the map, it doesn’t seem the most sensible route in this weather. We decide to reroute north of the A47.
The new plan cuts 3 miles off the distance and is more intricate and therefore potentially more interesting than our original route. It also takes in a path I’d been hankering after every time I drive to the Queen Elizabeth hospital to do an outreach clinic and even goes past the hospital itself, an added bonus! Rich wants to go into Costa there, but unfortunately it will be closed by the time we get there. The other fact about the new route is that it contains more road.
We consider this and decide that the road will actually be a better walking surface than the Nar Valley Way, which is uneven and was rock hard last time and there’s been little rain and a lot of sunshine since. What we have forgotten is that tarmac is dark and by the end of the day feels like it’s radiating as much heat as the sun. Rich gets his own back by leaving deep footprints in the melting highway.
Despite this, it is definitely a better route in these conditions and we get to see Leziate Lakes where people are enjoying the sun and the water. I have driven past these woods countless times on my way to the hospital and never realised they existed.
As we leave the lakes to walk along the B1145, a woman and her son cross the road behind us. It’s rush hour and the road is very busy. They use us as a shield, so they can walk the mile back to where they live in relative safety. It can’t be much fun walking a child along a pavement-less, busy main road so they can play, but if you can’t afford a car, what else can you do?
Entering King’s Lynn from this approach is a salutary reminder that life can be a struggle for people living here among the betting shops and the bargain booze outlets. Even the Jet garage advertises its cheap off licence in large letters by the pavement. We stop for an ice-cold Diet Coke at the Spice Market corner shop and sit at a bench overlooking Aldi and a traffic junction. There is the obligatory sign by the bench reminding encumbents that drinking alcohol in public on the bench is an offence. Nevertheless, we spend a very contented half hour watching the world go by.
We finish the day at The Bankhouse, a boutique hotel with fantastic food,
and our room has an incredible view of The UK’s fourth longest river: the Great Ouse. Tomorrow will start with catching the ferry across it.
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