Of course, we should have made our walk between Cromer and Sheringham, via East and West Runton: we always do. But lo and behold, we did it yesterday exactly on the same day as two and even three (!) years ago; that’s what I call “stick to your schedule as much as you can.”
With a few improvements, however: before visiting Cromer this year, we both installed the app “My Tide Times” and boy, did it make a difference. See, every previous walk was during high tide, which meant that our route was through shingle and bigger rocks, which, once merged with chalk and sand, made every step heavier and sometimes painful if you wore sandals without a sturdy sole (I still couldn’t believe I managed to complete one of these walks in my light espadrilles: when we reached Sheringham, they were basically torn to pieces and we were forced to go back to Cromer by train: it wasn’t bad, but somewhat disappointing): the flat part of the beach behind the groynes was under water.
Not this time: we started our journey around 12, when the high tide was over and the tide was going out (it continued until late afternoon). What a bliss the walk had become: empty beaches (there were quite a few people, many with dogs, especially in East and West Runton, but due to the vastness of the space you didn’t bump into them anyway), and the Pier was left behind in greyish haze—the heavy rain clouds were dissolving and our path to the West was getting clearer by each step; according to our weather app, we caught the best time for our trip as the rest of the week looked rainy.
The Old Bois Groynes looked even more disintegrated: many of them had completely disappeared, and it made us sad; the cliffs were covered in bright red wild poppies, reminding me of Swinburne’s “Poppyland.” The wet sand of the beaches reflected all the hues of blue of the skies.
Sheringham met us with its usual black rocks on the beach, colourful huts, murals with lifeboatmen from the past, coffee shops with freshly brewed coffee and ice cream parlours on every corner (with ice lollies for pooches, too): everything remained the same, and it gave us that soothing feeling of stability (as elusive as it might be, it felt comfortable at the moment). Of course, we also viewed our favourite gift shop with the Tintin memorabilia, Green Pebble cards etc.: I bought a few (cards, that is: Tintin and his friends are way too pricey).
Our way back felt effortless and relatively fast: to my surprise, my phone told me that we did almost 26.000 steps this day (the number increased up to 28.000 in the evening, after our promenade walk), yet we weren’t exhausted at all; another Sheringham saga was completed.
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