Marriott's Way

The Marriott's Way is a twenty-six mile footpath from Aylsham in north Norfolk, which finishes in Norwich, and follows the old railway that once ran here.  It's a path with which we've become very well acquainted in the past few weeks.   The girls' training walks have done various sections of this path since the beginning of the year, but they don't seem to be getting fed up with it at all.  

A few weeks ago, Shannon couldn't make one of the walks, so Finn and I stepped in to keep Amanda company - we did the six mile stretch to Reepham, where we stopped for coffee and cake, and then strode the six miles back to the car at Aylsham, suitably refreshed.

At Easter, the girls decided they needed to do a night walk - complete with head torches - to get used to walking in the dark, and also to do quite a long stretch of the walk to see how it felt to be walking when you're already tired.  So, Finn and I duly dropped Amanda and Shannon off at Aylsham and we drove to Reepham, where we had a bit of a walk ourselves - a mere four miles! - while waiting for the girls to turn up with their diva demands.

Despite the weather forecast which had foretold rain, it was actually a really lovely evening, quite warm and with a smattering of cloud covering.  Although we'd had a full moon two nights previously, the cloud cover hid it from us until just after midnight, at which point the walk was finished anyway, seventeen and a half miles from the start.  A fab effort from the girls.   And I got an awful lot of reading done too while waiting for them in the car!   At each stop, Finn and I had got out and walked - even in the dark because I had forgotten my own head torch - but I soon put a stop to that when Finn kept disappearing, chasing rabbits and deer - blinking dog!

Three days after the night walk, on Easter Monday, the girls wanted to have another go at the path - this time though there were hundreds of other people using the path - walking, running, cycling - and I don't think it was a particularly happy walk for Shannon and Amanda as they had to jostle their way through the milling crowds.  However, they managed another creditable sixteen miles until blisters stopped play.

This next photo really makes me smile - it wasn't that I didn't allow their boots in my car, it was simply that the girls didn't want to look at their boots for a while!