Coastwalk

Hemsby → Sea Palling

Distance: 8.3 miles
Ascent: unknown
Duration: unknown

Tilting at mills
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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.

I wasn't expecting to see the turbines at all; aren't they usually associated with exposed highland areas where they have a constant stream of energy? I turned my collar up against the drizzle heading in from the North Sea and answered my own question.

It seems I've left the neon behind. This was more typical of other East Anglian walks than recent days: dunes and heath forming a narrow no-mans land between sandy beaches and marsh and broad.

The rain increased and by Waxham I was walking on auto-pilot. I'd intended to walk as far as Happisburgh, but when you're no longer revelling in the scenery you know it's time to stop.

Sadly the taxi I found in the car park at Sea Palling was a holiday-maker (from Yorkshire!), but after half an hour in a steamed up phone-box mine arrived. One taxi and two buses later I was back in Hemsby; time to head home.