Woke up to the most glorious, wall-to-wall blue sky and sunshine this morning. Honestly, I can’t believe how lucky we’ve been with the weather on our week away. The most I’d been hoping for was no rain, but this amazing spell of good weather has made us both very happy. On our last full day here, what more could we have asked for? It’s been wonderful.
We’ve accepted by now that we’re not early risers, but we were up earlier than some of the other days. In fact, I got up early enough to roast a chicken before we set off this morning so that we could come back to something nice to eat rather than setting to on the cooking front at nearly seven o’clock at night.
Our plan was to have a beach day today, so we set off for Brancaster. We weren’t disappointed. The beach is a great stretch of sand, and the sea, being relatively shallow as it encroaches on the beach, was warm, having been heated up by the sun.
We strolled down onto the sand, and sat in its softness ready to people-watch. After a little while, we lay back, faces to the sky and eyes closed, listening to the birds wheeling in the sky. It was warm and very relaxing.
After a short while, I was conscious of the heat on our skin and thought we’d be better off taking a walk to the far end of the beach, to the inlet where a colony of seals play.
I know I am a soppy old thing, but I was so excited to see the seals. John, being a little more cynical, hadn’t expected to see any at all, so even he was delighted. The tide was out and seals were in a small pool carved into the river inlet by the meeting of the sea water and the river water draining from the land. They were just diving, then popping up again, looking surprised, which made me laugh. It was as if they were saying, “Hey, look!! People!! Let’s watch them and see what they do!”
As we watched, the tide turned and started to come in. Surprisingly, it rushed into the pool area with a fairly strong current, which the seals took full advantage of, by swimming out a bit then relaxing into the flow of water and taking the ride back – a bit like a water shute at a water park, only for seals not humans. It looked like great fun.
Soon, our parking time was nearly up, so we moved on, making our way back to the car. I paddled the whole way back, and John laboured over the sand. It’s not easy, walking in soft sand. But there was a reward beckoning.
Must be time for an ice cream? Well, yes. We are on holiday after all. And another cream tea? Yep. Let’s go in search of one. And do you know what? We haven’t had a Cromer crab sandwich yet….
We drove to Blakeney where we knew the hotel would have both a cream tea and a crab sandwich. We also knew that Blakeney’s a delightful place to be and just one of the best places to do a bit of crabbing. Not that we intended to do that, as we hadn’t got the kit or the kids with us, but to re-live our beautiful family holiday of last year.
We were disappointed, however. The hotel was only accepting pre-booked customers. Ah, well, the pub’ll have to do. Good pub, nice garden, excellent organisation on the COVID safety measures and delicious crab sandwiches. But no cream tea….. Not to worry, the crab sandwiches made up for lack of a scone and clotted cream.
We sauntered down to the promenade, where all the crabbing takes place, and I had to smile as we watched a new father get his bucket and crab-line out and prepare to drop the line down into the water. The baby was all of a couple of weeks old, but you know, a father’s got to show the child the ropes, at whatever age they are, hasn’t he? Great excuse for going crabbing, eh?
We had intended to walk on towards the sea, but fatigue overtook us and we opted for the return journey instead. There was a nice roast chicken to come back to after all. What a lovely day. Just all the right ingredients and we thoroughly enjoyed it.
In contrast to a blissful day in the Norfolk country/seaside, there seems to be discontent in the political scene. Nothing new about that, I know, but there’s a veritable mess that I think will have a horrible sting in the tail for us in the years to come.
Couple that with the pandemic and I’m beginning to think I could do with a permanent holiday in Norfolk….
And for the record, fewer than the last couple of days, but over 2,500 cases of COVID-19 infections in the last twenty-four hours and 9 deaths.
Let’s celebrate what we can, when we can – and keep our chins up, folks! God bless.