Introduction


When we started walking the coast of England we had no intention that this would become a major lifetime project. Having to make a last-minute arrangement for our summer holiday in 1987, we said "Let's go to the nearest piece of coast and see how far we can walk along it." It turned out well and we started adding further stretches of coast, initially once every two years, but soon annually, or even twice a year.

We had always enjoyed the coast - there is something refreshingly "edgy" about having the sea always at our side, and one of us was into marine molluscs. We also enjoyed long-distance walking and had long been involved in general natural history recording. This project enabled us to combine all three interests.

You soon discover when embarking on a project like this that you need a few rules, which evolve from the first experiences. Our main rule was that we should walk as close to the coast as possible, which meant beach-walking whenever we could (unlike the official coast paths that largely remain above shore, recognising that at high tides the beach may be inaccessible). The route should also be capable of being a continuous walk, so that when we came to an unfordable river we walked inland along its banks to the first place at which we could cross, whether a bridge or a ferry.

We only carried light packs, so that at the end of each day's walk we had the problem of getting back to our car where we started. Initially we walked back, but soon realised we would be walking the coast twice this way! We used public transport whenever this was available - buses or trains, sometimes adjusting our start and finish points to make this easier. Failing this - and it was often not possible - we would phone for a taxi (an increasingly costly option over the years). Having our car with us gave us more freedom as to where we could stay at night - and after a day walking and only light food we were usually ready for being spoiled by a good meal and a comfortable bed! Even so, we stayed on the coast itself whenever there was a decent option.

Each walk was made for enjoyment, it was not a route-march to see how quickly we could get it finished. We therefore took it gently at times when passing through pleasant scenery or where there were many plants or creatures to record.

In terms of biological recording, we systematically noted every bird, butterfly, creature or sea-shell that we came across, sometimes spending time searching for the shells. We could not record every plant in the same way - there are too many common ones - so we were more selective, noting all coastal plants and any others that were not run-of-the-mill.

In our daily posts, edited from our original diaries, we include a star-rating from no star to **** according to our subjective estimate as to how special that day was from the point of view of natural history. This score (and our daily records) will, however, have been affected by the weather - it is difficult to appreciate the environment fully, for instance, in torrential rain, and there are many more butterflies and other insects to be seen in warm sunshine!

A summary of all our natural history records on the walk can be found using this link: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B1LLGD55lKRHYXd1SGU1QndrcUU/edit?usp=sharing





Friday, 31 January 2014

Norfolk: Cley-next-the-Sea to Cromer 8/9/2008***

 
From the same car park as yesterday we walked east, with a marked change in flora – shrubby seablite was suddenly rare and soon disappeared altogether, while the sea asters were all rayed, as against almost all rayless before.  The shore was wholly shingle until almost Sheringham.  This length of coast in front of Cley Marshes nature reserve will be left unprotected, thus allowing the rising sea to invade the land.  The shingle, as a result, was already being forced inland, eradicating the footpaths.  Birders and other walkers were treading new paths, either along the narrow crests of the shingle bank or below them at the head of the saltmarsh.  Both ways were laborious.  The marshes included many large pools and lakes, surrounded by reeds, with many birds – mallard, garganey, red-crested pochard, greylag geese, curlews, curlew-sandpiper, avocet, little egret and redshank.  We also saw short-winged coneheads in the reeds.  The vegetation of the moving shingle was wholly of pioneer plants – especially yellow horned-poppy, sticky groundsel, perennial sow-thistle and sea campion.  In more developed grassland we saw blackening waxcaps.  The saltmarsh ended opposite Kelling and progress was mainly on shingle until Weybourne Hope, after which the path was along more permanent grassland with spiny puffball at the top of rising clay cliffs (which themselves were eroding, depositing boulders and clay on the beach).  Near Dead Man’s Hill we sat at the cliff edge to eat our lunch bought from the delicatessen in Cley.  The hills (in Norfolk?!) gradually got steeper and then descended into Sheringham.  A steep hill rose above the far side and the coast path was signposted this way.  We were misled into following this, whereas it would have been preferable and easier to have descended to the beach and walked along this to Cromer.  As it was, the path followed the cliff top until it encountered a caravan park cutting off access, and then veered far inland, far from the coast.  Having been forced half a kilometre out of our way to the main road, we found a way back to the cliff-top only by walking through the caravans.  Here we found that other walkers were proceeding straight along the cliffs, as this was a permissive path.  The vegetation was largely rough grassland, with large patches of hare’s-foot clover.  However, to prevent any further problems we descended to the beach as soon as we got a chance at West Runton and trekked along to Cromer.  The beach had no shells and the going varied between sand, grit, shingle and wet clay just below the cliffs, becoming easier as we approached the big pier marking our ultimate destination.  We ascended into the busy town to find where the Coasthopper bus started, so that we could ride back to Cley.  This is the end of this very useful service.
Cley Marshes
Yellow horned-poppy

Blackening waxcap
 
Caravans near Cromer
 
Red-crested pochard
 
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