Coastwalk , Peddar's Way / Norfolk Coast Path

Wells-next-the-Sea → Burnham Overy Staithe

Distance: 6.9 miles
Ascent: unknown
Duration: unknown

Endless miles
« Sheringham | Hunstanton »

And so I gave up. Seven miles where I would've preferred seventeen. As I reached Burnham Overy Staithe (no hyphens) my heart wasn't in the walking, and the drizzle started to annoy. I took a bus back to the car and cheated: I drove to Thornham and sneaked a preview of the next walk; I walked out to Seahenge.

Coastwalk , Peddar's Way / Norfolk Coast Path

Sheringham → Wells-next-the-Sea

Distance: 18.1 miles
Ascent: unknown
Duration: unknown

Across the top
« Cromer | Burnham Overy Staithe »

My slow amble towards the Wash has become a march once more. As news of Seahenge continues to grow, I've finally been able to ascertain its location: Holme next the Sea. But it's a race against time if I'm going to see it in situ: this week the first timbers were removed despite an earlier halt to the operation. I expect that this time next week there'll be nothing to see.

Holme is maybe thirty-five miles from Sheringham, but I'm booked into the Youth Hostel for the weekend so there's a chance I might be able to get there in time.

Coastwalk , Peddar's Way / Norfolk Coast Path

Cromer → Sheringham

Distance: 5.3 miles
Ascent: unknown
Duration: unknown

Inland
« Sea Palling | Wells-next-the-Sea »

Cromer is what Great Yarmouth will be like when it retires. In Cromer there are more electric wheelchairs than cars. And by Cromer the Norfolk coast has undeniably turned to the west on its march towards the Wash.

Here too we pick up a National Trail. Two paths are combined in Norfolk to create The Peddars Way and Norfolk Coast Path. We'll follow the Coast Path to Hunstanton, and leave The Peddars Way for others.

How long?

Four months ago, after spending a week's holiday walking the Pembrokeshire Coast Path, I decided to walk the coastline of Britain. A question I commonly think about — both of my own accord, and when asked by others — is just how far it is I'll walk. My hunch is that it'll be between two and three thousand miles.

As of this week I've completed about 200 miles of the walk - half of that in West Wales, the other half in East Anglia. Yet, looking at my progress map, it appears that the distance I've walked in East Anglia is about twice that which I've walked in Wales.

In his 1983 book The Fractal Geometry of Nature, Benoît Mandelbrot considers the same question. Mandelbrot does not give a definitive answer. Instead, he gives the cryptic answer, "it depends how long your ruler is"; his thesis is that a definitive answer will remain elusive.

Coastline length turns out to be an elusive notion that slips between the fingers of one who wants to grasp it. All measurement methods ultimately lead to the conclusion that the typical coastline's length is very large and so ill determined that it is best considered infinite. Hence, if one wishes to compare different coastlines from the viewpoint of their "extend," length is an inadequate concept.

I can explain my observations by saying that the Pembrokeshire coastline has a much higher fractal dimension than the East Anglian coast; any quick glance at a map will confirm this. Accordingly, the relatively long ruler length of the road atlas flattens out the kinks in the Pembrokeshire coast while on foot there are plenty of bays and headlands to walk around thus elongating the distance. Conversely the lower fractal dimension of the Anglian coast results in fewer such detours and very little extension of distance.

All great stuff, but it still doesn't answer the question. Maybe I'm walking in order to find out. Best estimates are that the coastline of England and Wales is three to four thousand miles long, with Scotland doubling that. There's a lot of walking left to do.

Coastwalk

Sea Palling → Cromer

Distance: 16.2 miles
Ascent: unknown
Duration: unknown

Classic coastline
« Hemsby | Sheringham »

I think today was the furthest I've walked so far in a single day. I was keen to make up for the curtailment of last Saturday's walk. I more than did so.

Coastwalk

Hemsby → Sea Palling

Distance: 8.3 miles
Ascent: unknown
Duration: unknown

Tilting at mills
« Great Yarmouth | Cromer »

For much of yesterday's walk I was hypnotised by the sight of a wind farm on the horizon. The ten turbines are in the village of East Somerton, just inland from Hemsby. Further along, Horsey Windpump projects a more traditional windmill silhouette onto the horizon.

Coastwalk

Great Yarmouth → Hemsby

Distance: 6.9 miles
Ascent: unknown
Duration: 2 hours 20 minutes

Ooh, Las Vegas
« Lowestoft | Sea Palling »

I raced up the A12 after work and was walking by six o'clock: along the prom from the pier, past the Youth Hostel where I'd parked and on towards the open coast.