The accidental shepherdess.....

Today's walk was from Great Yarmouth to Reedham, along Wherryman's Way - I'd estimated this walk to be around 9 miles but in reality it turned out to be over 11 miles, so I'm a little more tired right now than I was expecting to be.

The walk started off in Great Yarmouth, I came in by train and Wherryman's Way starts just over the road so is easy to get to. Unfortunately this means it starts in the Asda car park, not the most promising start to a walk I've ever had....

not the best start.....

I have to say I wasn't particularly enamoured with the first mile of so of the walk. From the Asda car park the walk continued around Breydon Water, which in itself is very nice, but being close to the town much of the start of the route was marred by an array of litter - beer cans, fast food packaging and even a sleeping bag or two. Then to the right was the train line and not far beyond that was the busy A47 - not the peaceful riverside walk I had been expecting. I didn't need to worry too much though as soon the scenery opened up to what I've grown to expect from a Wherryman's Way walk - river to the left, grazing marshes to the right....

The route continued along to Berney Arms and then through to Reedham, a section that I have walked before. When I last did this part of the route one thing that confused us is that there was clear, erm, evidence that sheep had been there, but no sign of the actual sheep - this changed today! Usually when doing these walks there are sheep and cows in the grazing marshes, usually they are positioned in a field, separated from me by a stream of some description. Unfortunately today they, and by they I mean loads of them, were right along the path. I then became some sort of shepherd for the next 4 or so miles of the walk, gathering a line of sheep running in front of me as a passed. Occasionally one would try to stand their ground in front of me so I soon developed a system of shouting 'move' followed by wiggling my walking pole until they eventually got the message. Did feel a little bit like the non-forgetful version of Little Bo Peep though.....

So I've now walked most of Wherryman's Way, the only bit I'm missing is between Surlingham and Reedham. This bit is going to prove tricky as there is little in the way of public transport at the Surlingham end. I have however walked this section of the river, just on the north side of the river instead of the south so maybe I can get away with saying I've walked the whole distance.......

I'll be doing another long walk tomorrow, on the coast this time. I'm really starting to feel those unexpected extra miles from today so it should be an interesting one......