Jane’s Walk 2023 – Day 9

Today, our friend Brigit and her boisterous young golden labrador join us. It is another glorious day with a fresh sea wind, much more pleasant than Saturday.

We leave the busy village of Blakeney and start our walk on the sea wall to Cley on the Sea, an extremely pretty village where we meet several keen watercolour painters painting the coloured houses on the waterfront and the beautifully restored windmill. We get into conversation with a number of them and are impressed by their talent.

The village itself is charming, with many of the flint houses decorated ingeniously with different-sized stones and lots of artisan shops, including a smokery. Back down the seawall to the shoreline, covered with pebbles banked up in great piles. Walking on these is difficult, and the only place possible is on the edge of the sea, which is sandy. The dogs have a wonderful time gambolling in the sea. The Labrador running rings around Moses as she is much faster than him.

Richard has found us a place for lunch in Salthouse, which means climbing back over the mounds of pebbles and back through the Salt Marsh to the village. We have a delicious lunch at Cookies Crab, a tiny place with only outside seating, and we have a mixed plate of shellfish for a very reasonable price. The only problem is that it is cash only, but between us, we managed to find enough cash to pay the bill!

Back to the sea and over the pebbles, we have a lovely walk along the beach, and the pebbles begin to disappear. There is great excitement as Brigit sees a Sea Otter, and I am disappointed to miss it. There are several fishermen along this stretch with long fishing rods on poles. They tell us they catch Sea Bass, Bream and Herring on a good day, which seems surprising so close to the shore.    We finish our walk at Weybourne, where we say goodbye to Brigit.