It is no secret to followers of this blog that I do a lot of walking, and that I go nowhere without my camera. This post looks in detail at a recent walk.

WALKING IN AND AROUND KING’S LYNN

One of my favourite themes around which to construct walking routes in and around King’s Lynn is what I call the ‘three rivers’. The three rivers of that title are the Gaywood, multiple sections of which are encompassed, the Nar, which is crossed twice at different points, and Great Ouse, the main river in this part of the world, alongside which some of the walk takes place. The particular walk that this post uses for detail took place yesterday, when the weather was bright and sunny but cold.

THE WALK

I started by leaving my house by the back door, as I was heading at first in the general direction of the town centre. The road that runs behind the row of houses in which I live is a private road and is unnamed. It disgorges on to Raby Avenue, which I crossed, and then headed down Townshend Terrace, a side road which forms a right angle, running from Raby Avenue to a pond at which point it swings 90 degrees and disgorges onto another road. However, as you will see I was not going that way. The pond usually yields pictures, and it did so this day as well…

While Townshend Terrace goes on way, a footpath leads in the opposite direction, through to Loke Road. On the far side of Loke Road, almost directly across from this footpath is a side road called Harewood Parade, which leads round the side of a second pond, until it terminates and is replaced by footpath which heads into a section of greenery flanked on one side by a section of the Gaywood River and on the other by Kettlewell Lane. Although the second pond did not yield anything for the camera on this occasion, the rest of this segment of the walk did…

Kettlewell Lane leads out on to what at that stage is Littleport Street, though a little way north it becomes Gaywood Road. By this stage one is very close to the town centre, but one is not committed to main roads. I crossed Littleport Street at the light controlled crossing on Eastgate Bridge, and headed down Highgate, past a little patch of greenery that sometimes yields pictures though not on this occasion, and down a little side passage that leads to a small bridge back over the Gaywood to the town side and another little section of greenery, which I exited on to Wyatt Street at the other side. I then crossed Wyatt Street, and took a footpath that runs alongside Eastgate primary school before coming out on Blackfriars Road, the road that runs past King’s Lynn station. At this point, for a brief period there are no further options for main road avoidance, so I followed the road round past the station, and shortly after the station headed into the park called The Walks. I headed alongside another section of the Gaywood (heavily sculpted at this stage of its route) until I reached the white metal bridge that leads in to the Vancouver Garden wherein is located the bandstand. I exited the Vancouver Garden by the other bridge from it, crossed the Broadwalk, and headed for the Seven Sisters exit. This section did not yield many pictures, but there were a few…

From the Seven Sisters exit I headed to where a passage leads through to London Road, joining that road at a light controlled crossing, which I availed myself of. I then headed away from town, passing the South Gate and then turning down the road that crosses the Nar, which I exited on to Hardings Way before taking a footpath through Hardings Pits to the Great Ouse at a point south of the town.

The next port of call was ‘Cormorant Platform’, although none of the birds that led me to give it that name were present on this occasion. There was a heron there however…

From here I headed on to a dike which can be muddy, but as we have had little rain of late I knew would be fine, and followed it until the path bifurcated – one route led to more of the Great Ouse, and the possibility of following that river as far as Purfleet Quay, but on this occasion i took the other, heading across another part of Hardings Way, through a gateway and down a side road which leads to play area that is at the meeting point of several roads, one of which leads to All Saints Church, reckoned to be the oldest church in King’s Lynn and then by way of Hillington Square to Millfleet.

I crossed Millfleet at a light controlled crossing, headed up past the library, though on this occasion I did not visit that establishment as I already had a number of books out. I then went past the war memorial and Greyfriars Tower, before heading on to Tower Street and thence to the bus station, though I was merely passing through, not intending to catch a bus. From the bus station I headed along Railway Road, crossed at a light controlled crossing and walked along the northernmost section of Norfolk Street to arrived a triangular road crossing that invariably involves two waits if you are a pedestrian, followed Littleport Street until the junction with Kettlewell Lane, passing through the greenery to the second of the two ponds mentioned earlier in this piece, but I now did not entirely duplicated the starting route, instead heading along Loke Road, on to Columbia Way, and then availed myself of a recently opened cut through to the private road behind my house and thus got home.

I hope you have enjoyed this account of a variation on one of my favourite walking themes, that of the three rivers.