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:
Brief rest

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).
Flooded fields

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.

Vista

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).

Back to Event History