English Travels - Part 2

On one of our walks

Now I remember why we used to do a blog every three days or so.... I’ve forgotten what we were doing a week ago now!

We left the Norfolk Broads and headed for the coast. We stopped at Cromer which was very chilly, having eventually found the one carpark that was open to motorhomes (location: 52°56'00.7"N 1°17'25.2"E). A good old British seaside town, we walked down the pier, and bought a dressed Cromer crab, sandwiches to die for for lunch. Couldn’t have them yet though, next stop was Cley next the sea which has a birding centre looking out over the marshes (location: 52°57'16.1"N 1°03'22.0"E). We had a lovely chat with a welcomer who answered my “what’s that?” With “a marsh harrier”. That was a tick then. We looked at the exhibition and spoke to the photographer who took the picture of the barn owl in the last blog. We didn’t do the three mile walk, it was still jolly cold and the crab was calling.

Cley-Next-The-Sea Nature Reserve

Nice regular campsite at Burnham Deepdale

We continued on to Burnham Deepdale, and another ‘proper’ campsite (campsite location: 52°57'56.3"N 0°41'05.0"E). This one also ran the garage, the tourist information and the pop up shops. I was taken with the sign that said the Thai food truck would be in the carpark tomorrow, what was that I said about not cooking? We walked round the village and I thought I might never cook again, why is this tiny place so foodie? I was restrained, in the end, all I bought was some smoked haddock from the smokery. It’s still in the fridge, and despite being vacuum packed is just making the fridge smell slightly smoky! I did cook, simple spaghetti carbonara, didn’t need much after that crab sandwich!

On the boardwalk through the marshes at Burnham Deepdale

And onto Brancaster beach which was huge - and empty!

Thursday, a walk around the marsh flats to the beach and then inland to the common. 7.9 miles in the sunshine. Only one slight mishap led to us coming off the common across someone’s back garden. We didn’t see them to apologise, but the dog didn’t mind and enjoyed some good tickles! (Here's a link to a short video we did of the walk showing the route with extra photos. Click on the following link and press play: Brancaster walk video)The Thai food truck was fab, much better than the half a jar of green curry paste I’m meant to be using up!

View after walking up onto the nearby hill and common. Brancaster beach is just out of the picture on the left, down there are the marsh flats and the motorhomes are on our campsite (don't think you can quite see ours, although you might be able to). This was very much zoomed in, we were much further away than it looks 

Patrick the AA man working on Big Ted at Sainsburys

Next stop was meant to be to look at the Wash, but the journey didn’t go quite as planned. We stopped to do some shopping at Tesco and Aldi. It wasn’t as big a Tesco as it might have been, so three miles later when we saw another and a Sainsbury’s both with fuel stations we stopped. In that 3 mile journey, I’d put the aircon on and we’d both commented on the smell of diesel, turning into Sainsbury’s Ted seemed to have lost traction but still, we were both fairly horrified to find diesel pouring out from the engine compartment! Rightly or wrongly we hopped back in and drive the 50 yards to Sainsbury’s main carpark and rang our breakdown service. Patrick was with us in just over an hour and decided it was a filter or the seal. Couldn’t get a new unit, but the car parts shop we could see, had the filter and seal for £34.00. Within 3 hours of stopping we were back at the fuel station filling up. Keep everything crossed it’s been ok. 

Another successful roadside (or carpark) repair. Well done Patrick of the AA

The idyllic setting of Walnut Lakes campsite

Perhaps we’ll just chill on Saturday then after our stressful Friday, well, we had mum and 13 ducklings to watch over... They are tiny ducklings and appeared very interesting to the crows that kept coming over. I think I saw one fly off with something in its beak, but we are not sure. Mum was doing a sterling job protecting them, but seemed to really struggle finding somewhere to sleep with her brood. Saturday morning, we didn’t do nothing, we rarely do, and even our short walk turned longer due to leaving Sutterton in entirely the wrong direction. This also meant we had to walk down the side of the A17, not a good walk! We did however pass a farm shop so bought some Lincolnshire sausage and a pork pie. Not a total failure then! We didn’t however see the Wash, but mum says it’s not very exciting, and we were only about 5miles from Bicker where she grew up, so she should know (Walnut Lakes campsite location: 52°53'14.7"N 0°04'42.3"W).

And look at mum duck looking after her 13 ducklings. How can you not relax when watching them?

So we did. Saturday papers and a chill (after an 8 mile walk)

Sunday we headed to a CL (certified location campsite for 5 vehicles) near Osgodby (Field Farm campsite location: 53°24'54.7"N 0°22'01.7"W). Not a particularly exciting place, though the site was lovely, but it was the nearest place to the highest point in Lincolnshire! As you can imagine, my excitement was palpable, or perhaps that was my heart, it actually was a bit of a climb, on the bikes, up the 163m! When we arrived at the gate into the farmers field, there was a CB radio man parked up. He suggested that asking Jonathan, the farmer, would be a good move. I let Brian cycle downhill on his own for that, but he was soon back with good news, we could cross two fields till we found the trig point.... (Wolds Top, highest point in Lincolnshire, location: 53°27'11.1"N 0°18'47.7"W) My Lincolnshire sausage and mash was probably more exciting! Particularly as on the way back my bike was making a funny noise. I’d got a puncture in my back tyre. Note to self, buy a new inner tube, the ‘spare’ had already been patched, and the tyre was flat again today!

On the campsite at Osgodby and ready to cycle up hill to Wolds Top, highest point in Lincolnshire!

The was much grumpiness at cycling up a steep hill

We left there this morning for another one night park up, at the closest CL to Spurn Point a little spit of land that sticks into the Humber Estuary (Kew Villa campsite location: 53°37'12.6"N 0°07'51.3"E). 4 miles on bikes, no problem, except for where the road has been washed away, so cycling on the beach? Not easy. The bikes made the easy bits easier, but the hard bits harder, pushing the bike through sand was horrible too, I seemed to end up with half the beach in my shoes! It was a grand view though, and there was a seal pup at the end. His turn on duty obviously. Most importantly, we made it back to the visitor centre for cake, and then had to have a pint on the pub too, well I can see it. It would be rude not to! Here's a link to a short video we did of the walk showing the route with extra photos. Click on the following link and press play: Spurn Head cycle/walk

Tomorrow? We are going to see my university friend Martin, he read the last blog and said “we are just near Bridlington if you are coming this far” we are, so we are visiting...

Here's where we dropped the bikes and scaled the fence to walk the last bit to the Trig point (after asking the landowners permission first as it is on private land with no public access) 

And there it is. 168m above sea level

But we decided we could get a bit higher and stand on it. We must be 169m now!

Quite a nice view here of - flat land! Well, it is Lincolnshire

Did she mention about Teddy coming apart at the seams? Don't think he's been stitched up yet either!

We took Big Ted over the impressive Humber bridge today. Here it is as we approached it. We were surprised how cheap it was, £1.50 toll the girl charged us (however that was the charge for a motorhome up to 3.5T - ours is 4.5T, so the charge should have been £4.00, but that's what she asked for, who were we to argue?)

Another small campsite, Kew Villa. This one is as close as we could get to Spurn Head - and it's next door to a pub that's open! Result!

Out with the bikes again. It's only 4.5 miles along the sand bar to the point right out in the sea between the North Sea and the Humber estuary. In this photo you can see water on either side

But at one point the road had been washed away so we had heavy pushing through soft sand, until we realised that we could go nearer the sea to where the sand was harder and we could just about pedal over it there

We got to the lifeboat jetty here, near the end and the road surface petered out. It was walking from here

Lots of old WW2 (and older) relics here. This was a searchlight housing. Did you know that the Norwegians departed from here after their defeat by King Harold at Stamford Bridge? A successful defence of the British Isles by King Harold then, but unfortunately for him William the Conqueror was about to land at Hastings and his forced, fast march south to meet them in battle was too much and the rest is history. The date? 1066 

The signpost at the point (usual stuff, Sydney 10400 miles, Lands End, John O Groats etc). However, there's just a bit more sand to cover till reaching the sea...

We're definitely at the end now. There's a tanker passing between Spun Head and Lincolnshire heading up the Humber for Hull. Apparently about 20% of UK shipping passes through here

And right on the beach there was this chap looking at us. We gave him a wide berth, this was a zoomed in shot

So we made out way back, stopping for hot chocolate and cakes at the visitor centre and finally a beer at the pub next door. Well, it would have been rude not to!

On English Travels - Part 1

Feeding a hungry swan on the Norfolk Broads

The morning dawned, bright and sunny, and off we set towards Bury St Edmunds and Margaret and Ron. Lots of lorries on the road and a slightly late start put us slightly behind schedule so we only had time for coffee, not coffee and scones when we arrived, before lunch!

The weather was kind, we could sit outside, albeit with coats on, and see some more, ‘real people’. We had a lovely time, and apparently did Margaret the power of good. Whether Ron shared this view as we cracked a paving slab, reversing off the drive trying to avoid the flower bed, we’ll never know!

Lunch with Margaret and Ron

Looking for Great Crested Newts near Thurston

15 minutes took us to our campsite (Bright Meadow Campsite,  location: 52°14'24.9"N 0°49'27.0"E), so straight out with the chairs and table, for a glass of wine in the sunshine, because we could. On arrival we’d been presented with a map of Thurston walks, how good is that? It was good, and fortunately Brian studied it, as when we set off for our walk on Saturday the map was safe and sound in Ted! A good three hour walk got us back in time for lunch, the Saturday paper, and the Duke of Edinburgh’s funeral, on the caravan next doors tv, whether we wanted it or not! And Margaret’s scones (here's a link to a short Relive video of our walk which shows the route and photos we took along the way: Thurston walk).

From our window on the campsite we could see loads of 'Mad March' hares running about in the field next door

Enjoying the warmish afternoon sun

A leisurely start on Sunday (I think all our starts are leisurely) and we headed to Cangate, a tiny place in the Norfolk Broads between Wroxham, Neatishead and Horning. We stopped en route at the English Whisky Company, we’d stopped here with mum a couple of years ago, and she’d put in a request for a special that they do, whisky mixed with sherry, apparently delicious! Charles has thought this sounded good so we had a double order. Contrary to popular belief, and the amount of mobile homes on the road, not every where is full. We are the only people here, in a field, with electricity coming out of the ground, a freshwater tap in one corner, and a toilet dump in the other. We’ve parked looking at the pond so we can talk to the heron, ducks and pheasants. The semi feral cats don’t want to talk, we haven’t seen a deer, but I do think I saw a big white owl last evening (Cangate House Campsite, location: 52°43'33.4"N 1°26'50.5"E).

Alone on our campsite in Cangate, except for the wildlife. Great location to get to The Broads on bikes, some 2 miles and some 4 miles away (and it is flat after all!)

We saw Ron by the pond on the campsite every night

On arrival I expected to chill, well we were here for three nights after all, but no, the bikes were out and after a quick lunch we were off, cycling the half hour, back to Wroxham, we’d driven through it and it was buzzing. We parked in Roy’s carpark, by Roy’s garden centre, walking past Roy’s food hall, Roy’s toy shop, Roy’s DIY and Roy’s clothes. The biggest village shop in the world! Apparently Roy isn’t a man, it is the Roy brothers, but all very unusual! We’d come for an ice cream which was soon sorted, not by a Roy, surprisingly, good though. We pottered about, looked at boat hire, fed swans, ate ice cream and just generally bimbled. Popping into Roy’s food hall for a tear and share chilli bread. Cycling back before it got cold, despite still looking lovely.

And, of course lots of windmills

Lunch at the Straithe n Willow

A proper day out on Monday took us, on the bikes, to Horning where we looked at more boats, eyed up restaurants for lunch, walked to the Ferrymans Inn, to find it was too early in the season for the ferry man to take us across the river to a nature reserve, but not too early for a beer! Back into town to the Staithe n Willow that had caught our eye with fresh Cromer crab salad and chips! Oh my, it was fab.

Having not managed to cross the river to visit the nature reserve we thought we’d better return to Ted via a boardwalk near Neatishead. The advantage of being on bikes was we could

On the boardwalk at Neatishead

park them in the disabled car park, which was right by the boardwalk. The walk from the other carpark, and toilets I think was actually longer than the boardwalk itself! It was an amazing feat of engineering, some of the pilings going 10m deep into the mud. Stopped at Neatishead for an ice cream, though not in the sun it was a little chilly, but hey.

Looking out over Barton Broad at the extremity of the boardwalk

An interesting notice on the boardwalk

Tuesday we’d decided we were going out on a boat, seems the thing to do on the Norfolk Broads, £20 an hour and away you go. We’d planned lunch, we’d seen it on Sunday, an amazing looking hot pork, beef, turkey or any combination thereof in a crusty baguette. Yum. Hired our little boat for three hours and set off, down the river, into and out of a couple of broads, pub for a swift beer, seemed rude not to! Brian found docking a little stressful, till a kind gentleman jumped up to grab the front while I hopped off the back. All terribly civilised. Back for an iced coffee (he didn’t have much ice cream) and cycled back to Ted after stopping at Roy’s for some cheese (here's a link to a short Relive video of our boat trip which shows the route and photos we took along the way: Boat trip video). 

Brian in charge of a boat!

Cooking in Ted doesn’t seem to be happening, we set off with some cold fried chicken, too good a bargain to miss, going cheap in Aldi. Margaret fed us on Friday, so no dinner required. Chicken salad Saturday and Sunday (hence the tear and share bread) crab salad out yesterday, no dinner required, huge baguette today, no real dinner required, perhaps some cheese and crackers? When will I ever cook the spaghetti carbonara, the three portions of frozen chopped chicken, ready for curry/stir fry/whatever, the frozen venison burgers, the frozen smoked mackerel, the corned beef hash, and the blessed Fray Bentos pie that has been to Europe twice and is not going back home again...

We knew we wouldn't post yesterday, despite having written and sorted the photos, the cellphone reception was just too rubbish.

So just to finish off yesterday, the big white owl came back and Brian saw it too. Despite appearing white, we don't think it was a snowy owl, just the underside of a barn owl. Lovely to see (see photo at the end).

We also went for a little amble and startled a deer, bringing up our wildlife viewing considerably

Some of the houses along the river were something special...

Instead of a driveway and garage for a car, they have berths and huge sheds for cruisers. Not all could be seen, just the end of their huge garden. How the other half live!

Lots of geese and ducks with their chicks taking in the sun

This island was safe enough for swans, geese and ducks to build their nests

She has quite a few eggs in there

Once you get away from the houses the wildness of the Broads really becomes apparent. There's almost no human intervention here, there can't be as it's just swamp. Anyone who treads on those banks are liable to sink into deep mud. As the boardwalk notice told us, solid ground is up to 10m down

Another windmill. Someone had already moored up and claimed that for the lunch picnic

At our lunch spot. The Swan Inn at Horning, having travelled the River Bure from Wroxham 

There's Jackie feeding ducks on our little boat at our lunch stop

Of course, its a tiny duck chick she's feeding!

There's Ron the Heron on someone's front lawn looking for his lunch

And here someone had cut a bush to look like a bird

Not all the Broads are open to the public. This one has a gate across and, on the map it's huge beyond here. I guess it's a protected area for birds and the rare plants that are only found in this area 

Here's that photo of a barn owl, one of which we saw gliding round our campsite in Cangate every night. This is not my photo (I wish it was!) We bought a small copy at a photo exhibition at the visitor centre at Cley Marshes Nature Reserve. Peter Mallett is the photographer and we met him there amongst his huge collection of fabulous photographs. He told us patience is the key (something I have little of), but his equipment helps. He told us his camera cost over £5000 and the lens he uses was £4000 second hand! My £150 camera just isn't going to cut it then!