Walk from Mundesley to Hemsby: Day 5 Norfolk Coast Path

Nearly 3 months later I made it back to finish what I started. Today I would walk from Mundesley to Hemsby. A 19ish mile stretch of the Norfolk Coast.

Yes. 19 miles. Not only that, I had a 4.5 hour journey across 5 trains and 1 bus to reach Mundesley from London. It seemed like a good idea when I planned it. But when the time came, I changed my mind. It was not a good idea.

On the plus side, I managed to get an advance sale ticket for £15. That’s cheaper than my commute to work.

What to expect when walking from Mundesley to Hemsby

The theme of today is beach. Lots of beach. In fact, it is quite possible to walk the whole 19 mile stretch on just beach. If the tide is out.

A long stretch of sandy beach with the sea to the left, on the walk from Mundesley to Hemsby. The sky is blue with fluffy white clouds.

Planks of wood sticking out of the pale sand, with the sea to the left on the walk from Mundesley to Hemsby.

A long stretch of sand glistening wet, when walking to Hemsby from Mundesley. The sea is to the left and grass covered cliffs to the right.

When the tide is in, some of the beach isn’t there, so the official coast path is sometimes up on the cliff or in the sand dunes, but I can’t say what it’s like as I tried to stay on the beach for as long as I could.

A rugged cliff with a wooden coast path sign on the top. — That’s the coast path sign up on the clifftop

A mass of jagged large rocks covered in green moss on the beach walk from Mundesley to Hemsby. There are rugged cliffs behind the rocks. — This is underwater at high tide

Note: The further out the tide, the more hard sand you have to walk on. As it makes its way in, you will be forced onto soft sand. I didn’t last long on this, and for the last few miles got off it.

The other theme of today is seals. The walk from Mundesley to Hemsby takes you through Horsey Gap which is the seal area. I’ve seen seals on walks before, but not to this scale. 100’s of seals stretching for miles.

Lots of seals laying on the sandy beach shoreline, with the blue North Sea behind, at Horsey Gap, on the walk between Mundesley and Hemsby.

Logistics

Start: Mundesley, Norfolk NR11 8BG.
Finish: Hemsby, Norfolk NR29 4HS.
Distance: 19 miles
Time: 6h
Terrain: Sand, sand dunes, grass.
Difficulty: Challenging due to the distance covered. The walk route itself is easy.
Elevation: Flat
Time of year: I walked from Mundelsey to Hemsby in late March

How to get there

You can reach Mundesley on the CH2 Coasthopper bus from Cromer and North Walsham. Both of which are on a train line. The train runs from Norwich.

From London, sometimes there is a direct train from Kings Cross to Norwich, sometimes you will need to go via Cambridge. At the time of writing, the direct train is only on weekdays.

From Hemsby, there is the 1 Coastal Clipper which goes to Great Yarmouth.

Amenities along the walk

Mundesley has a small Tesco, Spa, coffee shop and Chippy. In Hemsby there is a Coop, about 15min walk from the main arcade area.

Along the walk itself, if you are on the beach you would need to come off into one of the villages. Walcott (4 miles in) has public toilets, convenience store, and chippy. Happisburgh (6 miles in) has a coffee shop, pub, and village shop. Horsey (13 miles in) has an interesting looking 1940s tearoom.

Actually on the coast path, a few miles before reaching Hemsby, there is the Seal view Winterton cafe/food huts and a public toilet.

Black hut coffee and food sheds, with picnic benches.

Map for the walk from Mundesley to Hemsby

Read the previous section here: Cromer to Mundesley Day 4

Tips for the walk

Time the walk from Mundesley to Hemsby for when the tide is out (or rather, on its way out but nearly there). You can check the tide times here.
If the tide is in, or high, then some of the beach is not available to walk on (the official coast path often isn’t actually on the beach). That or the sand will be soft and not much fun.

If you are walking on the beach, be aware of the tide and its movements. There are long stretches walking below cliff without a way up. You don’t want to get trapped down there.
It’s a long day. I wouldn’t recommend walking this far in winter when the daylight hours are short. Or equally in the height of summer as you might get fried.
Sunscreen! I reapplied to my face a few times but still felt a little singed by the end.

You can read more about how to walk the whole Norfolk coast, including accommodation, and itineraries for 5, 6, and 7 days of walking on my Norfolk Coast Path guide.

Route Description: Mundesley to Hemsby walk

Getting off the bus at Mundesley, I followed the main road, and found a coast path sign which directed me back into the village centre, away from the coast. The Norfolk Coast path seems to do this a lot. So I ignored it and stayed straight heading for the actual coast, and onto the beach.

A triangle green with colourful flowers along the corner. There is a path around the green, and the sea ahead.

A blue sign saying Mundesley beach at the start of the walk to Hemsby. The sandy beach and sea is behind it.

A walking path leading down to the beach, with colourful beach huts on the edge.

Miles and miles of beach

Once on Mundesley beach, I turned right, not yet knowing I would remain on beach for nearly the whole walk to Hemsby.

A long flat sand beach with a wooden fence and lamp on the right, casting a shadow to the left. The sea is on the left and there are two people walking ahead on the beach.

It seems I had timed things just right. The tide was out. The sand was nice and hard.

A flock of birds flying above the sandy beach, with the sea waves crashing on the left, and wooden fences ahead.

I never knew quite where I was, as it all looked the same. But every so often I’d see stuff poking up behind the cliffs, where the official coast path is.

A red and white stripped lighthouse poking out from behind the rocked cliffs on the walk from Mundesley to Hemsby.

A war bunker poking up from behind the rugged cliffs ahead.

This is the time and tide bell, apparently about 1.5h before high tide it starts ringing with the waves:

The time and tide bell on the wide sand beach part way through the walk from Mundesley to Hemsby. There are cliffs ahead to the left.

I had brought my AirPods and downloaded some podcasts to help get me through the long walk from Mundesley to Hemsby, but I never used them. I figured that the constant sound of the waves crashing must be therapeutic, so I should listen to that.

Every so often there would be some people walking about, but most of the time I was all alone with no one in sight for miles and miles as far as I could see along the wide endless beach. It was wonderful.

Looking across the sand to the sea walk with big yellow writing saying 'Danger Keep off rocks'. There are big rocks below the wall, and two people standing next to them. The black coastguard hut is above the wall.

Some miles in (I can’t say for sure how many), there is a concrete walkway type thing for a bit if you want to mix things up.

A long stretch of concrete walkway steps lining the beach. The beach is to the left and lined with rocks next to the walkway.

Somewhere in all the miles I came across two seals. I thought this would be the highlight of the day, not yet knowing what was to come.

Two seals lying on the wide pale sandy beach part way through the walk from Mundesley to Hemsby.

A wodę pale sand beach with the sea curving on thew right.

Lunch, rain, and more beach

At around the 9 mile mark I decided to stop for lunch. So far the weather had been wonderful. But of course, as soon as I started eating I began to feel the little raindrops. Looking up, I was shocked to see a big black dark sky around me, out of no where. Then the hail came, so I abandoned my food and continued on. I would save the rest for later. Something to look forward to.

A long stretch of wide sand beach with very dark grey and black clouds above.

You see, I had already eaten all but one of my snacks for the weekend. That’s the problem with long train journeys.

The rain and hail actually passed through in an instant. I tried to holding off eating the rest of my food right now, but gave in, knowing I had just one snack to get me through the last 10ish miles.

After more beach, and some bigs rocks to navigate through, I was about to turn off the beach to give walking on the clifftop a go. But something told me to stay down here. And I’m glad I did.

A mass of big jagged boulders lining the beach ahead.

All the Seals

Moments after I nearly turned off the beach, I saw a long line of strange looking rocks lining the coast ahead. But they weren’t rocks. They were seals. Hundreds of seals.

A mass of seals laying along the shoreline.

I couldn’t believe it. I knew that walking along the Norfolk Coast I might spot some seals. I thought the ones from earlier were it.

I’d never seen anything quite like this.

After passing the seals, and a bit more beach, more seals appeared. Then more beach, then more seals. Seals after seals. In their groups spread along miles of coast.

A baby seal laying next to a big seal, on the beach, and lots more seals ahead next to the shoreline when walking from Mundesley to Hemsby.

Seals of Horsey Gap laying along the shoreline oil the pale sand with the sea waves crashing on the other side.

Groups of seals laying on the beach with massive jagged boulders ahead, and the sea with waves crashing to the left, on the walk between Mundesley and Hemsby.

Lots of seals laying on the sand next to the sea, at Horsey Gap.

Seals don’t do much really. They just lie around looking like sloths.

I did venture up off the beach at some point, as the seals were taking up the nice hard sand, forcing me onto on the soft stuff which wasn’t fun. It was quite nice seeing something other than beach, trying out the official coast path for a bit. Although, it turns out I swapped beach for undulating sand dunes which was worse. So when the opportunity came, I got myself back down onto the beach.

Long grass waving on top of the sand dune, with the beach and sea below to the left.

Walk to Hemsby

Past the seals, I decided it was time for my last remaining snack. But something didn’t seem right when I opened it….It was off! Expired one year ago. I was not pleased.

Snackless, I continued one. I had had enough now. My feet were starting to hurt. The sand was annoying me, all soft and cruel.

As I was nearing Hemsby, I turned in where the big sign is (see photo below), found the coast path sign, and followed it.

A large area of long grass, with a diamond shaped sign ahead. The sign is leaning to the left.

A sign saying Winterton Dunes next to the wooden coast path sign. Sitting on the grass.

The signs directed by along the sandy path, and undulating grassy bit, through a car park, and to the road.

A sand trail leading through the grass covered dunes.

A coast path sign pointing right, with the toilet block to the left.

A road c curving ahead, with a walking path on the left if it, with a grass bank to the left.

This road leads to Winterton-on-Sea. Along the road there is a coast path sign pointing back into the grassy area on the left.

A wooden coast path sign pointing left into the grass and bushes. There is a large pigeon sitting on the sign.

I rather enjoyed this section. Through a valley type thing, with the village homes of Winterton-on-Sea up the hill to the right, including some interesting huts.

Pastel coloured huts with straw roofs sitting on top of the hill in winterton on Sea.

A large green flat area with a grass covered hill to the left, near the end off the walk from Mundesley to Hemsby.

The main reason I enjoyed it is because it was flat with no sand. It was also incredibly peaceful. For the first time all day I couldn’t hear the sea. You really notice it if you spend 6ish hours with the constant sound of waves crashing, and then it suddenly stops.

To reach Hemsby, it’s about 1-2 miles through here. There will be paths that take you to the right and up the hill. I took the first one (1 mile in) which was too early. I stopped my tracker there thinking I was done, but had another mile or so along road to actually reach the main centre.

The end

I didn’t know anything about Hemsby before arriving, I only chose it because it was the only place along this stretch of coast which had reasonably priced accommodation (£65, instead of a few hundred pounds). I was expecting a nice little village, but what I found myself in was empty arcades. Open, but barely anyone around. It all felt a bit gloomy.

A bright colourful arcade on the street corner in Hemsby. There is no one around.

I then went off to find my caravan for the night and was in for a shock. Upon arrival, I discovered that electricity wasn’t included in the price, I had to go and pay to top it up. I was p*ssed. This was not mentioned anywhere in the booking. I started writing an angry text to the owner…then deleted it. I didn’t have the guts to complain.

I instead wacked the heating up nice and high and kept it on for a long time.

The next day when she asked me for a review, I did let her know how I really felt, she apologised and said she would change the information on booking to include it. That was it. No offer of my money back. I thought about leaving a bad review, or just asking for my money back, but chickened out.

Read tomorrows walk: Hemsby to Great Yarmouth Day 6