THE DRIVES OF YOUR LIFE... NORFOLK
Windmills and windswept beaches, seal colonies and salt marshes, tidal creeks, flint cottages, nature reserves and Victorian seaside towns, all sitting under the big Norfolk skies… Susan Ward Davies recommends it all
This East Anglian county is the perfect location for a road trip
THE ROUTE
North Norfolk from Norwich to Swaffham, 131 miles
‘You either get Norfolk, with its wild roughness and uncultivated oddities, or you don’t,’ said Stephen Fry, of the county he grew up in. Sir John Betjeman loved it, too, and meandering along the coastal route through North Norfolk’s Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, you will see why. Beaches are mostly huge expanses of golden sand, backed by cliffs or grassy dunes, skies are massive and villages are clusters of little flint cottages and round-towered churches. You’ll pass the occasional impressive windmill, wade though salt marsh creeks to spot little egrets, marsh harriers and orange-billed oystercatchers, and take boat trips to see seal pups and colonies of terns. It is a wild county full of natural beauty, as well as boutique hotels, stately homes, gourmet restaurants and plenty of fish and chips. If you are looking for the ‘great British seaside’, with a side order of untamed nature, this is it.
Starting in Norwich, take the A1151 north-east to Wroxham for the Norfolk Broads, then north-west to Aylsham and up the A140, through flat, lush farmland to the Victorian beach resort of Cromer. Here starts the A149, the scenic coastal route that winds through the pretty seaside villages of Sheringham, Cley-next-the-sea, Blakeney, Wells-next-the-sea, Thornham and Hunstanton, Norfolk’s sunniest beach. In summer, hit the A149 early to avoid tailbacks and, before heading home, swing by King’s Lynn, and the Georgian market town of Swaffham, on the edge of the Brecks (Breckland), the beautiful sandy heath area crossing into Suffolk.