I often think the best way to see the best of any landscape is by foot, how many times have you visited somewhere new, parked your car in a car park to find most people do not walk very far perhaps, no more than 1km from their car usually referred to as the ‘Honeypot’ area as this is where you will find most ice cream vans and gift shops.

But Still East Anglia is blessed with many footpaths most are on people’s doorsteps and they may never had ever set foot on them, but these are always worth exploring it is where you find hidden gems, for example when I lived in Lowestoft I used to walk around the village of Somerleyton just outside Lowestoft, this is where I discovered Memorials to US airmen where their aircraft had crashed in WWII, one was interesting as they had been in a british aircraft, lots of tales were circulated at the time, one was that they had stolen the plane and it was shot down to stop them flying to Germany, years later after the official secrets act was lifted, it turned out they were training to use radar in a RAF mosquito, they had seen a ‘doodlebug’ (flying bomb) over the North sea, they gave chase to try to shoot it down, the rule was if you had not shot it down within a mile of the coast you were to abort, unfortunately they carried on and were hit by the ack ack guns stationed at Hopton-on-sea who were also trying to hit the ‘doodlebug’.

I wonder how many people have never seen that memorial and that of another to a flying fortress crew that had also crashed near the church on the Somerleyton estate.

Gate on the footpath to Little Thetford from Ely.

There are lots of wildlife, history and fantastic views too be found  by foot and there are websites like Adventures Close to Home that will inspire you to get out there and discover those gems.