Attdis one

Slow Way not verified yet. Verify Attdis here.

I walked this route from Attleborough towards Diss.
I would not recommend this route as is, but will detail more below.

Description
Leaving Attleborough, this follows a busy road heading towards Old Buckenham. (Lots of vans and some lorries I noticed)
The pavement then comes to an end and there was a section at national speed limit which involved walking on the road, before turning left towards the industrial estate.
Shortly after, you leave the road and join a footpath which takes you through some fields until Old Buckenham. Once through Old Buckenham, you go past some horse stables before joining a quiet country road.
The route indicates to take a right across a field - this was difficult to see and further up was a sign so I used that marked path instead. The fields were very wet and muddy so good footwear would be required.
This then joined Cuffer Lane which then arrived in New Buckenham. (At 5 miles in, this directly goes past a pub in New Buckenham)

After leaving New Buckenham, this is, to me, where the most difficult parts of the route start to occur. I followed the path out of New Buckenham and started crossing fields. These were not always easy to see, although there were 1 or 2 signs up which made it clear where private land started. I did however reach a point where the route suggested crossing a small ditch, however this was very overgrown so I ended up staying on the 'Buckenham' side of it, and headed in the direction of farm buildings before making a right. (There was a sign to indicate this).

After reaching Long Lane, you are suggested to make a right hand turn - there is a easily identifiable track, however the Slow Ways route suggests taking a left across a field to join some other path. Although there was an arrow that indicated this could be possible, I couldn't easily see where you were supposed to go, and I remained on the main track. (Green Lane) This brought me out at Heath Road, slightly further West of where the suggested route is.
I turned left and walked along the road to rejoin the route.

This next part is where I consider the biggest issue of the route to be - although there is a footpath marked from Heath Road, this is clearly not used often as it was not easy to follow, and this long stretch of walking along fields eventually reaches the perimeter of a farm - it was NOT clear which way I should be going, and I eventually arrived at a field marked with a 'bull in field' sign. The Slow Ways route suggests to then turn right and walk down Lodge Lane, however having checked Norfolk County council maps, this is indicated to be a PRIVATE road and should not be used. Therefore this part of the route is not valid, and you would have to take a detour in order to continue.
If you have reached Hall Road, the route suggests crossing directly over. This was also not correct as this led to a private drive, so I had to turn left and join the footpath further up. (which is shown on the OpenStreetMap on Slow Ways)

The path then takes you into Winfarthing, and having left Winfarthing following a path, again the suggested route was quite tricky to follow. I ended up on the edge of another farm, and having reached a stile in the corner of a field, there was some railway sleepers across a ditch - WARNING - these were rotten, one of them had already collapsed and the one I walked on did not feel safe. The path here was overgrown with nettles, although eventually I came across a sign that at least indicated it was a footpath.
There was then a long walk across the edge of fields (clearly marked at the start and easy to follow), eventually arriving at Back Heywood Road.
Here, the route takes the walker onto paths (which were not easy to see) and into Burston, which actually seems to add on to the journey, where Back Lane may have been an easier option. Although a road, it had looked to be very quiet. Leaving Burston, you almost reach a level crossing but take a right onto a footpath. Although this was fine, when you reached far end of this path, it navigated round some stable fields, and the gate to rejoin the road had been padlocked and so had to be climbed over. At this point there was a sign suggesting it had been closed (due to previous incidents of the gate being left open!)
Walking along Burston Road did not feel particularly safe, there were some slight bends meaning blind corners, and not much space off the road when traffic approached.
Once reaching Millway Lane, this was easy to follow, and then following Walcot Green into Diss. (again, some traffic on this road as well without paths until you reached the edge of Diss itself)

I was not sure whether to give 1 or 2 stars for this route, but have gone with 1, due to the main cons below:

- Walking on national speed limit road near Attleborough (and a couple of other parts of having to walk in the road with not much space next to it
- Some hard to follow paths in the middle of the route
- Suggested route implies walking on private land and so walker would have to readjust
- Unsafe bridge/overgrown path past Winfarthing
- Definitely not very accessible
- A locked gate past Burston


If you do decide to walk this route, please be aware it took over 5 hours to walk.

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