Saturday morning saw 31 people (and 2 dogs) queuing in the Market Place, waiting for the Konect service 4 to Swanton Morley. Getting so many of us on board took some minutes, and we thank the very friendly driver for his patience and welcome while we made him a few minutes late.

We alighted at Swanton Morley as planned, to be joined by one more walker as we set off along the Wensum Way towards Gressenhall, initially along Harker’s Lane and past a field of alpacas (or were they llamas?). This track provided us a good off road start to our 5½ mile walk and was happily not very muddy, in spite of all the recent rain. At its end we joined the road to and past Hoe Hall.

The Wensum Way crosses the Mid-Norfolk Railway here, but the bridge that carried it was declared unsafe and demolished a while ago and has yet to be replaced. We therefore used the official diversion to cross the railway on the road, then descend a short but steep bank (thanks to the MNR for a handrail here) to walk the field edge paralleling the railway.

Then it was across the fields to Mill Lane. Here, the Wensum Way turned north to Gressenhall, while we headed south on the Wensum Way Extension (also the fairly new Jubilee Trail) towards Quebec Wood and Dereham.

Meeting the road at Gingerbread Cottage, we turned towards Dillington, then up (then down) Sandy Lane to get back into town.

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