About the Peddars Way and Norfolk Coast Path
This is one of Britain's national trails, running 93 miles (150km) through Norfolk.
As its name suggests, it is in reality two paths, of very different character:
the Roman Peddars Way, practically dead straight across the low hills of rural Norfolk;
and the path along one of the most remote coastlines in England.
Dave Travers and I walked the path in 1999 and 2000.
We took the Peddars Way on occasional Saturdays, and the Norfolk Coast on a three-day excursion in June 2000.
These pages give you logs of the walk - a useful aid to planning - plus information on travel.
There are photographs, and information on bird life, for the coastal stretches.
Transport
There is a small car park at Knettishall Heath, the official start of the path, just inside Suffolk.
The nearest town is Thetford, with trains on the Cambridge to Norwich line, four miles away.
There is no bus service direct to the start of the walk.
Most of the main roads crossing the Peddars Way have some sort of bus service:
the A47 Kings Lynn to Norwich road and the A148 King's Lynn to Fakenham, for example.
Castle Acre has buses from the small market town of Swaffham, which is itself only two or three miles from the Way.
Some other villages have buses too, but they may be very infrequent.
The position is better on the Norfolk Coast.
There is a reasonable service along the A149 Hunstanton to Cromer road, linking almost all the villages of the Path.
You might be able to use it to be based in Wells next the Sea for the three or four days it takes to walk the Path.
Hunstanton has a good bus service from King's Lynn.
At the western end of the Path, Sheringham and Cromer both have a roughly hourly train service to Norwich,
which we used to return home.
Birder's notes
On the coast path page, Dave has contributed some notes about local species seen along the coast -
this is an important area internationally for birdlife and there are many hides along the way for those for whom this is a major past-time.
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