Suffolk: Great Yarmouth to Lowestoft 18/6/2009*

 

Common cudweed   Field mushrooms     Lifeboatman statue

We drove to the west terminus of the old ferry across the Yare and walked south along Riverside Drive, with more views of the river than the previous day, the development here being less heavily industrial, with some retail outlets like tool merchants.  Pieces of wasteland frequently had common cudweed, narrow-leaved ragwort, and Guernsey fleabane.  At the far end we emerged at the harbour of Gorleston and descended to the beach, where there were hundreds of stranded sea gooseberries but hardly any shells.  The beach became narrower as we walked beneath the golf course, and we had to ascend to the top of the low cliffs at the holiday camp of Hopton on Sea, as the cliffs past here were crumbling and the sea came up to ugly metal sea defences.  It was still not possible to walk at sea level beyond the next village, Corton.  In the process we crossed the boundary of Norfolk into Suffolk, although there was nothing to mark that transition.  The grassland just before Corton had plenty of field mushrooms and we picked a couple of fresh ones for lunch, while Val collected a little fennel as well!  In Corton we found a bench in the grounds of the Methodist Church where we could eat our lunch.  We dropped in at the Corton Inn for coffees.  Continuing along the road through Corton we entered a woodland nature reserve with a path parallel to the road.  The wood was unremarkable, but it included a large pond with water-lilies and adult and juvenile moorhens, while a kingfisher streaked across.  After walking through a small wood of twisted evergreen oaks, we came into heathland with bugloss, then crossed the road into another section of the reserve mainly covered in bracken and gorse.  The path gradually descended the cliffs to sea-level at Lowestoft North Beach, where we eventually joined a concrete way above the beach.  The beach was very clean and had much sea holly and rush-leaved fescue, but little else.  The walkway (also part of the North Sea Cycleway) continued beside the sea as far as Lowestoft Harbour, of which we walked the north and west sides and then followed the road west along the outlet of Oulton Broad (Lake Lothing) and the bridge crossing it, leading to the more gentrified seaside front of South Beach and its two piers.  We walked as far as the second pier, Claremont.  As we returned, the road and footpath were both closed in order to raise the bridge for six ships to pass through.  There was a statue of a lifeboat-man, the lifeboat station being hard by.  We then had to walk quickly to the bus station, where we just managed to catch the X1 bus to Great Yarmouth.  At our B&B Barnard House on Barnham Crescent the proprietor recommended the Cru restaurant at the Imperial Hotel on the seafront road, and we found they did good quality food, something of a rarity in this region, Yarmouth being an impoverished town, while Lowestoft seemed slightly more thriving. Lowestoft Harbour

Sea gooseberries       Fennel       Boat passing beneath raised bridge