London to Walsingham Day 7

---

By 7am I had left the comfort of The Ram behind and made my way across fields to Meeting, from where I headed back into the forest passing the ruins of Weeting Castle on my way out of the village.
Wide forest tracks led me on into Mundford, thankfully as well as written directions I also had gpx files and although I tried not to use my phone for navigation those files came in handy on this section!
A stretch of footpath alongside the A1065 followed until I turned to head towards Ickburgh. Here I felt the first spots of rain. The church porch made for a convenient dry spot to get into my waterproofs. While here a churchwarden came and asked if I wanted to look inside the church.
In honesty I wanted to get on but as she had made the effort to come out in the rain I agreed and in what seemed like no time another half hour had passed.
I shouldn't complain as it was these interactions with locals that made the walk so much more enjoyable, it's something that I really miss when travelling abroad and the language barrier means that I miss out so much on this.
Also as it happened this was one of the very few churches that I got to look inside in Norfolk as they were mostly locked.
When I finally got going again more woodland walking took me to the 8th Army memorial. The 'Desert Rats' as they were known were based and trained in Thetford Forest prior to going to North Africa and the desert campaign that made them famous.
The rain was now making for a miserable day and the walking wasn't really doing much to cheer things up. My directions had me zig zagging about to keep off the A1065 but although it was a friday lunchtime the traffic didn't seem too heavy so I decided to take a chance and go the direct route along the main road. It wasn't great but even in the rain wasn't as bad an experience as the previous day's walk into Thetford, as mostly there was a bit of grass verge to get on when necessary.
By the time that I had left the main road behind and reached Great Cressingham I was cold and wet, the church porch was locked and there was no other shelter so I pressed on, picking up the Peddars Way long distance footpath towards North Pickenham.
Thankfully the rain eased although the day was still cold and overcast. The gloomy weather, my aching feet and the fact that almost all of the walking now was on country lanes made this part feel more like an endurance test than a pleasant walk. I consoled myself with the fact that I should get to my hostel in Castle Acre with around an hours leeway before the village chippy closed. As I mentioned previously I had only returned to the UK a few days before starting this walk, the last time that I had fish 'n' chips had been on New Years Eve in Tbilisi Georgia, so I was well overdue some.
I finally arrived in Castle Acre around 12 hours after leaving Brandon, a long day not helped by the weather, still I could console myself with the fact that tomorrow a final 20 miles would take me to Walsingham and journeys end.

---