Hovacl two

Verified Slow Way

Verified by 100.00% of reviewers

I walked this route in December 2024, starting at Hoveton and finishing in Acle. As mentioned in a previous review, when reaching the edge of Wroxham, it is best to take a path through the housing estate which cuts a corner off. Once you leave Wroxham, there is a part of Salhouse Road which involved needing to walk on the verges at times as there can be a few cars or buses coming along this road, this part probably took about 5-10 minutes, and would definitely not be recommended for push chairs/wheelchairs.
You then turn left onto Hospital Lane and this soon becomes a footpath, which after heavy rain could probably be quite muddy to walk through although I encountered no difficulties on the day I walked it.
Soon you rejoin a road, heading through part of Salhouse, and past a car park for Salhouse Broad, where there are some public toilets. These country roads were very quiet with very little traffic. The road then continues on to Woodbastwick, (where there is a pub) and then on towards Ranworth. Again, I did not see much traffic along these roads so it did not feel uncomfortable to be walking on them. Ranworth features a pub and a shop at the Broad, there are public toilets here also but I did notice that in Winter these are only open at weekends.
Aftr leaving Ranworth, you arrive in South Walsham which featured a small section of pavements to walk on before there is a short footpath across a field before heading towards Upton.
In Upton, you reach the corner of a road where there is a footpath which takes you on to fields, past a church and heading into Acle, where there are shops, more public toilets, and bus and train access.
Overall, I'd give the route 4 stars as even though the majority of the route was on roads, I found these to be very quiet, with only the section just outside Wroxham where you'd need to ensure you took proper care while walking and being aware of traffic. There are places to stop at convenient parts of the route if needed.

I walked this Hoveton to Acle direction. I agree with the previous reviewer on this one. The route is good enough but there is a lot of tarmac. That said it could be a positive when you want a long walk and the weather has been very wet as it would be easy walking. The pluses of this route - it's very pretty, lovely villages and glimpses of the broads, good access to toilets (passes directly past three sets of public toilets), food - multiple good pubs and cafes, quite protected from wind given along the roads it was mostly with tall hedgerows either side. Not much option to cut short although you could stop at Salhouse instead of Wroxham/Hoveton and jump on a train. I know that defeats the purpose of slow ways but I didn't love the stretch of the B1148. It's less than half a mile, I took the housing estate footpath (would strongly suggest that too) but at 2:30 on a sunny Friday there were a lot of vehicles including buses. And they were all at or above the limit with somewhere to be. There is a wide verge which was cut and easy to walk on to start but it then had ditches and couldn't easily be walked down. The road gets a little twisty so walking facing the traffic wasn't an option the whole way along. I ended up pausing, getting on and off the verge quite a bit. On the other roads, I barely saw any traffic even at 5pm on a sunny Friday evening bar closer to the pubs when it picked up a little. There were other walkers and cyclists on the lanes and ducks were quite happily sitting in the road in places. The sort that in part have grass growing down the middle. In Ranworth and near Pilson Green there are footpaths running alongside the road behind hedges which weren't always easy to see if you weren't looking. I still did a bit of verge jumping between Ranworth and South Walsham but it was in the company of other groups of walkers. Lack of footpath was signposted to road users in places too. So it's roads but not the type to be worried by. A couple of places had narrow slightly overgrown footpaths so not always completely pushchair friendly even without the verge jumping! The field paths were all clear and easy though. I'd walk stretches again but maybe not all in one given the proportion of tarmac.

Firstly, myself and our group opted to walk this route in the other direction, from Acle to Wroxham - the train times presented better options if you do this in the morning and to travel back in the afternoon. The route is 'ok', you can't include much in the way of public bridleways because they are limited but it does utilise them where possible. It is about 25% on trails the rest is on the road, most of the roads are quieter during main business hours but some of the back roads did attract more traffic than expected.

We would walk this in the other direction, having decent weather is better as it could become very muddy in places potentially after heavy rain, about 90% of the route is safe except for a main road out of Wroxham which is busy and wouldn't advise it with younger children. The route is accurate but should probably use the footpath through a housing estate near Wroxham to avoid walking on a blind busy bend in the road (highlighted in the pictures).

Its not suitable for wheelchairs or pushchairs, it is worth doing the walk as it covers parts of the Norfolk Broads, offers good pubs to stop at, plenty of toilet options and bins (both rubbish and dog ones). Its well sign posted with the public footpath signs.

Share your views about this route, give it a star rating, indicate whether it should be verified or not.

Include information that will be useful to others considering to walk or wheel it.

You can add up to 15 photos.