Wherryman's Way Walk - Stage Three - Ripening Blackberries In The Hedgerows
Welcome to the short stage in the middle.
After a couple of longish stages this felt like a quiet afternoon stroll in the sunshine.
Once again the guidebook was a little vague and it took us some time to find the start of the path by the Holy Trinity Church in Loddon. But like anything, when you realise where you are going wrong it suddenly becomes easy and we walked through the churchyard and onto a very clear footpath after just a few minutes head scratching.
We took our time looking at some beautiful large properties along this path (how can people afford such wonderful homes?) and found our first delightfully empty country lane. In fact, the majority of this stage was along such quiet lanes and it made for a lovely, peaceful walk without the constant looking at where we put our feet of previous stages.
Again the route used one or two winding footpaths between and around houses, this time in the middle of nowhere, with an occasional detour across a field or over a river.
We walked through a gloriously overgrown path in our approach to Heckingham Church and this seemingly redundant church and grave yard seemed to reflect our approach. Clearly with unloved and neglected grounds, this Norman church with traditional round tower was beautiful in the late morning sunshine. As is often the case, it raised that old question as to why such a church would be built in what is clearly a remote area.
We continued walking along deserted lanes, having the place almost to ourselves with very few cars and people around and, dare I say it, it felt almost idyllic. Big Norfolk skies and fields full of maize almost ready for harvesting provided an evocative atmosphere for our gentle walk, as did the numerous stops for ripening blackberries in the hedgerows.
We rediscovered the River Yare after a few miles along the lanes, fascinatingly in an elevated position above the road, and after passing an attractive old windmill soon found our way down to the Reedham ferry.
This ferry, the only working chain ferry in East Anglia, has been in use in its current format since 1984 and can take two cars at a time plus cyclists and foot passengers. Before that it was winched by horse and hand and can be traced back to the 1770's when the licensee of the local pub also had a licence to run a ferry boat.
You could feel the change of pace here as everything, from people to cars, had to wait patiently for the ferry to do its slow, repetitive trips from one bank to the other.
Once across, and we discovered too late that we could have saved ourselves 50p by saying we were visiting the pub on the other bank, we took the very pleasant path on top of the flood banks beside the river. Pausing to admire an old windmill now converted into accommodation and a bird of prey hovering above the reed beds, we walked into Reedham and the end of this stage of the walk.
A (very) late breakfast outside a nice cafe in the sunshine on the river side and then a stroll up to the railway station for a train back into Norwich wrapped up a pleasantly undemanding couple of hours. Once again it felt as if the distances in the guidebook were out and we happily added the additional mile or so from the train station to bus station in Norwich before finding our way back to the car in Loddon.
Stage 3 – Loddon to Reedham
Date of walk - 24th August 2025
Distance walked - 7.1 miles / 11.36 km
Floors climbed (using Apple Health app.) - 3 floors
Number of times lost - 1
Ongoing Totals – 30.8 miles / 49.28 km / 9 floors
