Yaxham MNR walk - Easter Monday, 2 April 2018
Wet or what?
With the perversity that only Bank Holiday weather displays, our Easter Monday
walk was scheduled on a day when unremitting and moderately heavy rain was
forecast, leading more than half of our booked walkers pulling out.
Understandable as some of those hardy souls who came had to get past flooded
roads and traffic jams.
So it was that 14 of us boarded the 10:30am departure from Dereham, buoyed up
by wishes of good luck from fellow passengers and the Mid-Norfolk Railway
staff. Our destination - Yaxham - was reached in 10 minutes after the train had
slowly negotiated the flooded level-crossing.
As we left the platform we were confronted by flood water running down the road
- which of course was our route into the village. This quarter mile of road was
the longest flooded section that we encountered on the walk but there were a
few other places where we were ankle deep even along the crown of the road.
Over the first 30 minutes or so, the rain, which had never been that heavy,
eased substantially, and settled into quite a light rain of little consequence,
interspersed with a few patches of no rain at all. That was the weather that
saw us into and then out of Yaxham, and on to Mouse’s Lane (which in its latter
course was also a gently running stream) and into Clint Green. Crossing the
road, we continued north to a brief rest on Cutthroat Lane:
We observed fields turned into mini-lakes as we crossed into the parish of
Dereham over Mouse’s Bridge (not sure if this was the same Mouse as the Lane).
Our original plan had been to walk towards Dumpling Green, calling in at Badley
Moor, but we were aware that that route was often quite wet even in otherwise
dry conditions, so diverted from the plan by going further north to pick up
Cherry Lane (currently subject to a claim as a Restricted Byway). By this point,
most of the underfoot mud and wet was behind us - apart from a large pool
blocking our route just short of Tesco, though that was quite easily negotiated.
After that, it was just a short 10 minutes back to the station and the most
welcome tea/coffee and cake duly provided at the railway coffee shop.
Walk promotion
flyer
(pdf, opens in new tab).
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