Monday - forgotten what a pain the roads are to get to North Norfolk. A relatively short journey of 75 miles, but it took hours on slow busy roads. Eventually we arrived at our site, the temporary holiday site at Alderman Peel High School in Wells Next The Sea. We usually try to avoid the school holidays when we go away, but we will be losing the van yet again for Camper UK to have yet another go at resolving a damp issue in the garage later in august so we had to squeeze a trip in. We parked up on the massive school playing fields, stuck up the awning and had a wander into town to have a quick look around and see if we could see Wells harbour with the tide in. We didn't - the tide was well and truly out!
On Tuesday we went for walk through town, had an ice cream that wasn't as good as Chez's at Fairford, walked along to view the sea, had a quick look at the crowded beach and wondered who would pay £77.5K for a garden shed on stilts stuck on the beach. Walking back towards the site we stumbled across the Norfolk cider place and decided to stop for a quick cider. Big mistake! The garden was gorgeous, the cider, equally gorgeous, the sun was shining and even the wasps and blooding irritating yapping dogs that everybody seems to have these days, couldn't ruin the experience. The cider was strong..... we are not as young as we were and they serve it in 75cl bottles. We had rather a lot and we hadn't eaten. We wobbled to get some very expensive fish and chips from French's and sat on the harbour wall to eat them before heading home to recover.
Wednesday we took the Wells and Walsingham train into Walsingham. The smallest public transport in the world, this tiny railway runs for four or so miles into Walsingham. The journey should take half an hour - it took longer as we had to wait for the engine to build a head of steam to get up a "hill". We arrived 13 minutes late, which wasn't bad for a little steam train. We then wandered around Walsingham, a deserted but attractive place full of holy tat shops. We had some tea and cake in the cafe near the shrine, admired the shrine and waited for the train back. It was half an hour late arriving. We set out. A few minutes later it broke down with a brake issue. We waited for a part to arrive. They fitted it and we set off again. A few minutes later we had steam pressure issues. We waited again before setting out and, lo and behold, a few minutes later more steam issues. We waited for the diesel engine to come out and tow us back. Over two hours for a half hour train trip - now that is Normal for Norfolk!
On Thursday we unloaded the bikes and rode along the beach path to Holkham beach, avoiding the muppets and their bloody dogs blocking every path. As usual the beach was deserted and we had a paddle then relaxed for an hour or so before taking the bikes onto the Holkham estate. This is the first time we've actually been onto this massive estate and it is lovely, albeit some of the tracks are loose gravel and therefore a bit dodgy. We have to go back. By the time we got back to the van we decided that we couldn't be bothered to cook dinner, so we walked to the Bowling Green Inn for a delicious meal.
The following day the weather turned, with rain in the morning and a strong, cold northerly wind blowing in off the sea. We wandered into town and stopped at the No57 Tea rooms in Staithe Street for some amazing local crab sandwiches before walking along the harbour front. Finally we headed back to pack up the awning and get ready for an early departure in the morning.
On Saturday it was up and out, getting home in less than 2 hours despite cocking up the ridiculous roundabout in Kings Lynn.
In all, a great few days away with Nottinghamshire DA on their Temporary Holiday Site. We would certainly do it again - but perhaps not the railway!
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