ON TWO FEET
Stretching for 37.5 meandering miles, the Wherryman’s Way wends through the very heart of the Broads, following the banks of the River Yare as it slides through open marshes, grazing meadows and villages, all the way from Norwich to Great Yarmouth. The route, named after the black-sailed cargo-carrying barges that once sailed from city to the sea, takes about three days to complete.
I’ve walked sections of the Wherryman’s before (there are plenty of circular and there-and-back routes across its length), with one of the most memorable involving a request stop at Berney Arms railway station and a rain-streaked stroll across the atmospheric Halvergate Marsh.
This evening, I’m a little way upstream, or up-path, at Reedham. It’s a village with an interesting history; once a coastal settlement, it became landlocked as the marshes were slowly drained. Now several miles from the sea, there is still a strange feeling of salt and spray, an expectancy of a sea view.
I park at the village quay and walk up the wooden steps on to Wherryman’s Way.
The evening light is honey-soft, dripping
TOP Saving users a 30-mile journey, Reedham Ferry can carry three cars across the River Yare ABOVE The small brown skylark is distinguished by its head crest, trilling song and dramatic display flight, in which it rises almost vertically into the air into the reed-fringed River Yare and the dykes to my right, while the air is sweet with meadow grass from the cattle-freckled grazing marsh to my left. I go slow, past the red mill, listening out for the plop of water vole and searching for the scale-pearled spraints of otters.
I intended to walk an 11-mile circular walk to the tar-black flanks of the Berney Arms Windmill, but now I am tempted to retrace my steps and get the chain ferry that clanks its way across the Yare to join the Wherryman’s Way on the other bank. Or perhaps I could just relax with a drink at The Ferry Inn.
I sit with my back against a fence post and look at the dykes and think about how they hold more wildlife than I’ve seen for weeks: invertebrates and plant life, such as greater bladderwort and frogbit. The skylarks are singing, their frenetic, scribbling song stitching wide skies and wet land together. Sometimes, it’s not about the miles walked. Sitting still can take you even further.