Week 12: More seals!
- Nov 22, 2021
- 6 min read
Our stops this week:
-2 nights at The Norfolk Broads Club site (near Ludham)
-1 night at Walnut Farm Touring Park (near Waxham)
-2 nights at Seacroft Caravan Club site (near Cromer)
-1 night The Lawns and Lakes Camping and Caravanning (near Spalding)
-1 night The Lawn car park in Lincoln
I am afraid the weather at the start of our Norfolk adventure wasn't great and it made everything look and feel very bleak. No rain...but a grey lid firmly enclosed everyone and everything from the tree line upwards.
However, on Monday I got to meet Rach, one of the Uni girls/ladies. (I think we don't quite fit under the girls category anymore.) When I asked Rach where the sky had gone? She informed me that it was Norfolk... it's always grey, muddy and wet in the Winter! As usual, it was great to catch up and we had a good walk, going only slightly 'off course', as we were talking too much to notice the signs and had some lunch. (Sorry, forgot to get a picture of us!)
On Tuesday, the grey lid opened and the sky returned. We made the most of the cold and crisp sunshine and cycled to Wroxham and then Horning. Wroxham is a pretty market town, with access straight onto the Broads, that we mooched around...and ate chip shop chips. Horning is much smaller but still very pretty, again with direct Broad access. We rested here for a little while, with a drink from the pub, whilst watching the boats and ducks. It still feels like a luxury and a treat to do things like this, on a school day!
Wroxham and Horning
Wednesday was a full and fun day, our best in Norfolk so far. We 'got going' promptly and took Gordon to Potter Heigham. We had 'scouted' the location earlier in the week and knew we could both park here and hire a boat. (At this time of year in the area, we have found many of the pubs, cafes and tourist locations closed. For example the pub by our campsite has a sign up saying 'closed until March 2022' and the Tourist Information in Wroxham is closed until Easter 2022.) We hired an electric boat, so we could see some of the Broads from a different viewpoint. Steve loves boats and remembers seeing the Broads like this when he was younger-telling me I'd love it! Steve knows I strongly dislike boats, so always goes into his 'OTT promotional speech' about how amazing it will be, when wanting to hire a boat or go on a boat trip. (Even when getting a boat to Robben Island/SA, during a storm, with the boat moving vertical into the sky then dropping, Steve was telling me about how great catamarans were and asking what I was most looking forward to...not dying by the boat crashing or then being eaten by the great white sharks in this stretch of water!!!) Anyway, it was a good trip. Bear helped Steve to steer the boat and loved spying the ducks from a closer viewpoint, Steve was very excited about it being an electric boat (?) and I liked nosing at the houses along the water side-everyone was happy. We then treated ourselves to lunch from the cafe and had great sausage baguettes followed by Oreo brownie. Next we drove to the Walnut campsite, near Horsey Gap, parked up and went to find the seals. Steve had spoken to people who live nearby and knew that from November the seals come to the beach to have their pups. Steve had chosen the campsite specifically, as it was close to this area. When arriving at the campsite, he was even more exited when the owner said we could walk directly from the site to the beach and that they had seen seals in the morning. After a short 5 minute walk, we walked up the sand bank and straightaway could see a number of seals on the beach. This was the most seals we had even seen, the closest we had ever been and the setting was amazing. Steve was beyond excited and we spent at least an hour, 'seal spotting' and taking pictures. The longer you observe, you can see how each seal is different, with its own personality and markings. It was incredible to be so close, to have no one else around and to see them in their natural environment. I have made a short video of some of the pictures Steve took, they are great...but please appreciate that I have saved you from Steve uploading the 200+ pictures he took and the endless seal facts he provided me with!!! (Steve did want you to know he used a zoom lens camera and did not get as close to the seals as the pictures look, as this unsettles them.)
The electric boat ride
Bear would jump out to try and catch a duck and get into the water...then panic thinking I'm cold, I can't swim that far-I'm more built for resting in a hot tub!
On Thursday, we headed back to see the seals before heading off. En route to the next campsite we went to Horsey Windpump, for a little walk. To be honest, I'm not sure what it was but the name made me chuckle. It looked like a windmill (...but is a wind pump???) and was another pretty area. I've never been to the Broads before but it is very peaceful, serene and parts feel like another country.
We then headed to Cromer, as Steve had arranged to meet some friends he had met through the Prince's Trust and having met regularly via video call for the last 2 years, was really looking forward to actually meeting them in person. Whilst in Cromer, we also took advantage of having a campsite within walking distance from a town and walked in to get some food and to look around. Thanks to Rach's tip, we also saw the Banksy 'Crab' picture. I hadn't known about this before Rach mentioned it when she visited. However, what I was most excited about was visiting Bucket List (Bucket List basically serves buckets of chips with amazing toppings.) a food place that Jake had told Steve about and going back to a pub we had visited previously, that served the best nachos we had ever had! Unfortunately, Bucket List in Cromer is only open Saturday and Sunday evening (we left Saturday morning) and the pub was not serving any food due to staff shortages in the hospitality industry!
Bear on Cromer beach
Next we had a further drive, bigger hop than normal, as we've had to re arrange our plans a little but had also arranged to meet some friends around the area. We stayed in the Lawns and Lakes campsite for one night, just as a convenient 'stop over' en route and to break up the journey. Again the scenery is really distinct, yet significantly different to the Broads area, with miles and miles of flat open land that mainly consists of crops. Rows and Rows of cabbage fields looked really hypnotising as we passed through and their endless neat rows fulfilled my like for structure.
Amazingly, Steve had happened to read about a place called 'Street Feast' that was on our route and had plenty of room to park Gordon. It's in the middle of no where and at the back of a hotel. A number of food stands have stalls and offer a wide range of food, with heated outdoor seating and a quirky setting...the amazing bit is that Bucket List were there! It was really worth the wait and the previous disappointment. All we ate for lunch that day was chips, with great toppings.
We then headed to Lincoln and had not intended on staying the night but when we arrived, found out we could stay in the car park overnight. This was for the same price as all day parking-£9. Even-though it was busier than the car park we stayed in in Thaxted, it felt to be a quieter area of the city, felt safe, was well lit and a really great location. Steve also looked on-line (on geek sites...opps mean Mo Ho enthusiast sites) and other Mo Ho-ers had said they had stayed with no problems, there was no noise and it was allowed. It is rare for us to stay so close to a city centre. In fact we had a view of Lincoln castle and cathedral from the car park. We both really liked the city. The cathedral was very imposing and impressive and the shops and this area of the city had many independent shops, old architecture and great views across the city.
Real cats in the coffee shop!
Especially for the Bear fans, some images from his week. Bear keeping warm, stealing gloves and being Bear!
If nothing else, I think you will have taken from this week's blog that it was a bad food week...well good in that we had lots of treats and food that we really enjoyed but bad for the weighing scales!
Ah such a beautiful place!!!! I have never been to Norfolk or Suffolk, but it looks gorgeous! Hope Bear didn't get jealous with all your attention to the seals :) x