The Daily Echo: Our Shielding Story, Day 180

Our plan this morning was to get up early-ish and zip over to Holkham for a bit of a visit to the grounds of the Hall before making our way to Cromer. We didn’t get going very early though, so we just went to Cromer.

I have to confess to having been anxious about the trip. Even though the children are back in school, if Wells-Next-The-Sea was anything to go by, it was going to be busy. With people. And we’re not really doing people mingling. We’re still trying to avoid close contact with the ‘great unwashed‘. Just in case.

However, we went. It was busy. But we decided to at least take a walk to the pier. It was cloudy with the occasional break when the sun shone through, so it was pleasant enough but it was a bit windy. We strolled at a nice, leisurely pace down to the ‘front’ via the back roads so as to avoid the throng. We looked down on the pier. “Are we going down the steps?” we asked ourselves, knowing we’d have to walk back up again. Yes. So off we went.

Had a lovely walk along the pier but there were far too many people, so we found ourselves a nice little sheltered corner near a couple of sea anglers and sat there for a while, admiring their skill and nonchalance at their catches. People walked by but we were well back so felt safe enough. The sun was shining then and the wind was the other side and we were nice and cosy.

“Fancy a coffee?” says John. We looked at the tables in the bar area. All full. “Nah, we’ll give it a miss.” We walked on. A bit further down, there was the cafe. Tables were well distanced, and there were very few people sitting there. We stopped for a coffee. Someone had fish and chips. “They look good,” John commented. “Shall we have some?” I asked. “ Go on then, let’s treat ourselves,” John grinned. It’s not on either of our diet sheets but we’re on holiday after all. They were delicious – with curry sauce. Mmmmm…..

After we’d eaten, we carried on with a little walk further on towards the RNLI Museum which, to our disappointment was still closed. Never mind, I’ll have another paddle…… The beach was very sparsely populated and I had the waves to myself, apart from a small shoal of surfers just learning how to ride the waves. Bliss. Although, to be fair, the wind chill factor took the edge off just a bit!!

After that, we called it a day. We made our way through as many of the back roads as we could but, from where we’d ended up we had to walk through the town. We kept our masks on and our fingers crossed.

Once back at the house, we kicked off our shoes and sank into the sofa with a cuppa….aaahhhh…… that was nice. We didn’t sit long though, because it was time to ‘click and collect’ again in Swaffham. Successful trip with a fill-up of fuel, a purchase of our journey companions, Minstrels, and the pleasure of seeing yet another super sunset to boot. Grand, eh?

Not so grand though, was the WhatsApp conversation going on between the family members, revealing the horrible truth the we’re going to be in lockdown as of Tuesday. It’s William’s birthday celebrations next weekend – all planned, a barbecue, people coming from various parts of the country….. but not now….. can we bubble? Can we? Should we? Shall we? Oh, dear… here we go again. I don’t think I’m a happy bunny now!!

Talking of bunnies, we saw hares in the fields today. That was a bonus. I do love to see a hare racing across the field.

And, so, what can I say? 3,500 people infected with the virus today. The rate of infection doubling every seven days and predicted to increase over the next week or so. Hospital admissions up and death rates up.

We hope we’ve done all the right things to avoid infection while we’ve been on holiday. We thought we’d be bold and go out, but who knows? Fingers crossed.

Stay safe everyone and take care of yourselves for your own, and your loved one’s sakes.