Weather and seasons
April, May, June and September. May has the fewest wet days of any month and sixteen hours of light; June has the longest days of the year, which is what makes a three day walk on a 75 km trail realistic rather than a forced march; April is dry and bright with the field edge paths at their most open; September keeps 19 C days and thirteen hours of light while the north Norfolk coast at the finish empties after the school holidays.
East Anglia is the driest part of England, averaging about 627 mm of rain a year against 870 mm for England as a whole and 1163 mm for the UK, and the Breckland sands drain within hours, so this is a sound choice when the rest of Britain is waterlogged. The route is open all year and no part of it has a season, so the real variable is daylight: nearly seventeen hours in June against under eight in December, which is the difference between a three day walk and a five day one. It is flat and easy underfoot but exposed, with long stretches of open heath and arable, almost no shade and nowhere to shelter, which cuts against you in a heatwave and in a gale alike. The two ends have facilities year round: Knettishall Heath at the southern start is open dawn to dusk with toilets from 9am to 4:30pm, and the Norfolk Wildlife Trust visitor centre and cafe at Holme Dunes at the northern finish serve daily to 5pm from March to the last Sunday in October and to 4pm the rest of the year.
Eight hours between sunrise and sunset is the whole problem. It caps a comfortable day at around 20 km and turns a three or four day walk into five, on a route where the places you can actually stop are already far apart.
7.4°C high · 1.7°C low · 8.2Watch for: Nowhere to get out of the weather. Long stretches of open heath and arable with no trees and no buildings mean wind and rain have to be walked through rather than waited out.One of the two driest months of the year here at about 43 mm, and daylight is back to ten hours, which is just enough for a four day split at sensible distances.
8.1°C high · 1.6°C low · 10Watch for: Cold rather than wet is the character of a Breckland February, and there is no shelter on the open middle.The driest month of the year here, about 39 mm over fewer than nine wet days, with daylight back up to twelve hours. Cold, bright and dry is a good combination on a flat trail with no shade.
10.7°C high · 2.9°C low · 11.9Watch for: Spring here arrives cold and dry rather than mild, with overnight lows near 3 C. Campers should pack for winter.About 40 mm of rain, fourteen hours of light and 14 C days. Cool enough that the lack of shade does not matter and bright enough to walk long, which is the combination this trail wants.
13.8°C high · 4.5°C low · 14Watch for: Ground nesting birds are on eggs on the Breckland heaths and in the arable margins from spring, and the Norfolk Coast guidance is blunt about the reason to stay on the line rather than cut a corner.The fewest wet days of any month, about eight, with sixteen hours of daylight and 17 C. Enough light to do the whole 75 km in three days without starting or finishing in the dark, which is the argument for this trail as a first long walk.
17.1°C high · 7.4°C low · 15.9Watch for: Sun. Seventeen degrees on an open Roman road with no shade burns people who were not expecting to need cream in May.Nearly seventeen hours between sunrise and sunset, the most of any month, and warm rather than hot at about 20 C. A three day walk is comfortable and a two day one is possible if you want it to be.
20.1°C high · 10.2°C low · 16.9Watch for: No shade. Open heath and large arable fields with almost no tree cover mean there is nowhere to sit out the middle of a clear afternoon.The warmest month at about 22.6 C, and the one where the trail's two weaknesses meet: no shade and a very long stretch with no water. Still fine walking with sixteen hours of light, but it wants an early start and more carried water than the distance suggests.
22.6°C high · 12.4°C low · 16.5Watch for: Heat and water on the open middle. Heath and coastal habitats here are noted as highly vulnerable to wildfire, so no stoves or fires away from designated places.As warm as July but wetter, about 60 mm, and usually as heavy showers rather than all day rain. Daylight has already dropped to under fifteen hours, which is worth noticing if you planned a three day walk in June and are now walking it in late August.
22.4°C high · 12.4°C low · 14.8Watch for: Cordoned areas for beach nesting birds are still in force at Holme into early September, and dogs need to be on a lead where signed.Nineteen degrees, under nine wet days and thirteen hours of light, with the coast at the finish emptying out once the schools go back. Autumn migration is under way at Holme, where the right weather can drop thousands of tired birds into the dunes and scrub in a single night.
19.3°C high · 10.2°C low · 12.8Watch for: Nothing specific to the month here beyond the light starting to go, an hour less each fortnight.The wettest month of the year here at about 65 mm, and daylight down to under eleven hours, which pushes most people to four days. Warmer than that sounds at 15 C, and the trail is one of the few in Britain still reliably dry underfoot in October.
15°C high · 7.6°C low · 10.7Watch for: Finishing in the dark. Sunset is around 5pm by the end of the month and there is no lighting on the route.Under nine hours of light and one of the wetter months, but the ground drains and the walking stays easy, so November here is a genuinely better proposition than November on most British long distance paths.
10.6°C high · 4.3°C low · 8.8Watch for: Short days against long gaps between stopping points. Work out where you can bail before you set off rather than at 3pm.The shortest days of the year, under eight hours between sunrise and sunset, on a trail whose natural stopping places are 20 km and more apart. Nothing about the ground or the weather rules it out; the light does.
7.8°C high · 2°C low · 7.7Watch for: Head torch, and a plan that does not need more than six hours of walking in a day.