Background

The Peddars Way and Norfolk Coast Path comprises two seperate paths that join at Holme-next-the-Sea on the north Norfolk Coast; these paths are the Peddars Way, which follows the Romanised route of the Icknield Way from Knettishall Heath near Thetford to the North Norfolk Coast, and the North Norfolk Coast Path, which runs from Holme-next-the-Sea to Cromer. There is an option to walk the couple of miles west from Holme-next-the-Sea into Hunstanton, and this makes a good point to start or end the seperate halves of the walk.

I have not walked this route in one go; I first walked the Norfolk Coast stretch in 2001; I also did a more coastal variation in late 2002 as part of my walk around the coastline of Britain. I did the Peddars Way north from Thetford in late 2003 as a wind-down walk after the coastal walk, and I camped out along the way.

Of the two halves of the path I must admit that I much preferred the coastal stretch; there was must to see and public transport and accomodation was easy to sort out. The views were also magnificent, and there was not a single boring stretch of path. The Peddars Way is very different; it runs straight for a long distance along tracks and roads, and seems to avoid settlement as much as possible, meaning that getting refreshments and accommodation is difficult without diverting off the path.