DAY5

Friday May 27^th  2016                                                              

Lowestoft to Kings Lynn                                                                      Miles 133

Today we have been to California, climbed windmills and traveled on a steam train – all on our coastal route.

Having arrived late last night we toured Lowestoft this morning.  It is pleasant enough town, but I was secretly disappointed that it was not my imagined seaside town with lots of fishing boats.  I know that the British fishing fleet has been decimated, but I was still hopeful that I might see some trawlers in the harbour.  Lowestoft is the most easterly town in England and Lowestoft Ness its most easterly point.  As I am aiming to visit all of the cardinal points of Britain, we of course had to drive to the Ness.  This was quite easy to do and is close to the RNLI Lifeboat station on the seaward side.  Lowestoft is divided in two by Lake Lothing, which forms the harbor and is the confluence of Oulton Broad, Oulton Dyke and the River Waveney. 

We decided to move on to Great Yarmouth only a few miles north and stop for breakfast.  Great Yarmouth is a town of two halves, pleasant enough, but not the place I had expected it to be.  It is at the mouth of the River Yare, which divides the town in two.  The harbor itself is on the inside of a promontory and is industrial in appearance.  On the other side of the promontory, just two blocks away and facing the sea, is a pleasure beach, a complete contrast.  There is of course the obligatory pier but the fun fair seemed untidy and uninviting.  Next to it we saw a sign saying “Free Parking for Paying Guests”, which seemed incongruous that you had to pay to receive free parking!

We could not find a greasy spoon with parking outside, so decided to treat ourselves to a good breakfast at the Imperial Hotel.  We were met by extremely friendly staff and given a lovely table in the conservatory facing the ocean.  They even put on the heating for us, as despite the weather forecast for sunshine over the whole of the UK, Lowestoft was cloudy and chilly.  The view was out onto another wind farm about a mile off the coast.  We counted 30 turbines, which was confirmed by our Ordnance Survey map.  Ordnance Survey must be the best maps in the world whether you are a walker or a driver.  Accurate, detailed, colourful and inexpensive.  They even offer a free app which you can use without WiFi to show where you are if you feel lost.

Our breakfast was superb and though there were only the two of us eating we had all four of the staff attend to our needs.  The waitresses enquired as to what we were doing and when we said “Driving all round the UK”, one said “How fantastic, can I come?”  We said OK, but you have just two minutes to quit your job, pack your bag and meet us at the car, as we are about to leave.  Needless to say, she felt that was too short notice!

The area west of Yarmouth and Lowestoft is the famous Norfolk Broads.  Numerous waterways pass through fields and reed beds and are a mecca for people seeking a peaceful time on the water.  Not on the coast, so unfortunately we saw little of them.

From Great Yarmouth things deteriorated and we began to see a plethora of caravan and chalet parks and they multiplied and multiplied all the way along the coast, well into Norfolk.  Most incongruous of all was the chalet parks at California.  If you ever book a holiday to California and it seems really cheap, check that it is to the California on the west coast of America, not the one on the east coast of the UK.  You will be very disappointed.  There are a number of places named Sidney in Canada and we frequently hear stories of people who think they got an unbelievable deal on a flight to Australia, but arrive in Nova Scotia where it is a lot colder and no kangaroos.  California in Norfolk is definitely not San Diego or LA!  California in Norfolk also happens to be by the ghastly named village of Scratby – you don’t want to go there either, though I can’t imagine this name would be mixed up with anywhere more exotic!

The road takes you in-land quite a bit, but whenever we could get back by the sea, chalet and caravan parks dominated the view.  Where do people come from for there to be so many of these places?  

The countryside in this area is lovely.  The seaside itself remains very much the same along the whole of this coast.  Beaches of shingle pushed up into steep banks with flat fens, marshes and muddy river outflows.  The first really pretty place we came to was Horsey a National Trust property situated at the end of a Broad with an ancient Wind Pump (mill).  

Horsey and the Broads

We then not much further on found a windmill that we could enter and explore at Stow, near to Mundesley.  This has been restored but is not operating.  We paid our entrance fee into the honesty box and climbed to the top.  Little to see by way of a view, but it was only as I was climbing down the very narrow stairs from each of the four floors that I remembered that it was exactly a year ago today that I had an argument with the Vicar of Dibley’s baptismal font that resulted in my breaking my right femur! This caused me to hang on tighter, but as my right wrist has also recently been under the surgeon’s knife, I took it very slowly and eventually reached the bottom without accident (phew). 

Stow Windmill

The Stow windmill and house is currently up for sale with permission to use it as a holiday let.  If you have  £550,000 to spend this charmer could be yours!   Caution though, before you buy a windmill in Norfolk you have to wonder whether Norfolk will still be here in fifty or a hundred years.  Most of the east coast of England is being eroded, but this seems particularly so in Norfolk, where it is either falling into the ocean or being submerged by the sea.  Go and visit it now, before it is gone!

All of the small towns moving further up this coast have so much more to offer the traveler looking for peace and quiet than the larger resorts such as Yarmouth.  We stopped for an ice cream (our lunch) at Overstrand beach and then went on to Cromer.  Another small town, pretty but not exciting, certainly compared with Sheringham, which was our next stop.  Sheringham is absolutely charming and seems to offer the traveler everything you could wish for.  From cutesy shops and places to eat, to lovely cottages by the ocean.  I did not see any chalets or caravans here (but maybe they were hidden away).  What is very prominent as you enter the town is the steam railway, the set for many a movie and the TV home of Dad’s Army at Walmington-on-Sea.  The smell of the coal smoke and the whistle of the steam engine called out invitingly to us, such that our driving had to be halted for two hours to allow us to take a coastal journey by steam train.  It was magical and even allowed us to see parts of the coast that we could not see from the road.  The journey was short, only 20 minutes each way, with a break mid-way to allow us to buy a cup of tea at the end of the line before returning.  The golfers at the very smart Sheringham Golf Club stopped their games to give us a wave, both outbound and inbound.

Sheringham Steam Railway

Before we left the town I tried to find and photograph a house that had belonged to the father of a friend in Vancouver.  I had myself only seen the house from a photograph so I had to drive around trying to identify it from the image in my head.  I think I did so.  What was so special about this man, who I met on a number of occasions, was that he had managed to escape from the Japanese in Burma and then went on to live to 103, only dying two years ago.

As well as caravans and chalets, Norfolk has windmills and big churches a plenty.  Most of the churches, even in the small villages, are large in size reflecting the wealth of Norfolk over time.  We did see three churches that have become derelict. One of these churches we noted had received a grant from the Heritage Lottery to be rebuilt as a village cultural centre.  Perhaps the good folk of Norfolk are losing their faith.

Another windmill - and anther one

Norfolk has extensive bird life, particularly around the broads and dunes.  We brewed a cup of tea at Holkham and watched for twenty minutes as a pair of Avocets flew at every other bird that came near to their newborn chick.  We also saw and heard Buntings, Meadow Larks and Warblers.  The other creatures in abundance were the twitchers.

The area from Holkham to Burnham Thorpe (the boyhood home of Lord Nelson) is known locally as Chelsea on Sea.  The homes are smart with a high proportion being second homes for wealthy Londoners.  Certainly no holiday chalets are located here.

We finished off the “hump” of Norfolk at Old Hunstanton and (new)Hunstanton.  The contrast here seemed to be a microcosm of so much of what we had seen along the Norfolk coast.  Old Hunstanton was smart and quiet with fine architecture of the old buildings.  Just one mile later in Hunstanton you come over the brow of a slight hill on to what should be a lovely village green only to see below, on the beach front, a gaudy fun palace and the green itself covered with people eating fish and chips.  There were even more holiday parks here, been built just out of site of Old Hunstanton.  

Across The Wash we could see Boston and Lincolnshire, our destinations for tomorrow.

Finally I have to say that the Norfolk accent is distinct accent, particularly in the country areas.  Norfolk folk don’t seem able to pronounce a word with “ew” in it, changing it to “oo”.  So they might tell you that they have a “noo tractor”, or that they have visited “Koo Gardens”.  They also pronounce other words differently. I still remember the first time I met anyone from Norfolk and heard them speak.  I was aged just 17 and had gone on holiday with Mike, a friend, to Jersey, one of the Channel Islands.  As we found it impossible to cook a meal or even buy the right food from the supermarket, we would go each morning to a local café where one of the waitresses took pity on us.  If we ordered a cup of tea, “on the side” arrived a full English breakfast, “on the house”.  Our Norfolk interaction came one morning when the waitress greeted us and said “I’ve got a special treat for you this morning lads.”  We thought that we were going to get ice cream. However, her idea was to introduce us to two girls and she sat us down with two very attractive maidens, one blonde, one brunette, both about our own age.  Mike and I looked at each other, pleased that it was not ice cream after all. 

None of us spoke for a couple of minutes then I, bravely, used my favourite chat-up line, “So where are you two from”? 

The blonde girl answered, “Us be frum Naarj”. 

“Sorry I didn’t get that” I replied, and I genuinely could not understand her. 

“Us be frum Naarj” she repeated.

“From Naarj” I responded, where abouts is that”.  “Naarj, youm know.  It’s the main town in Narfuck”.  

Mike and I both looked at each other and decided it was time to go.  Beauty really is only skin deep and it can disappear if you open your mouth!  I think what she was actually trying to say was. “Thank you kindly for enquiring where we come from.  My companion and I come from Norwich, the county town of Norfolk.  We like you and your friend very much. Would you like to take us out on a date?”

I put this experience on a par with my two Aberdonian taxi drivers in the toilet in Aberdeen!

After a tour of the Sandringham Estate (the outside) and a view of the road sign pointing to Anmer, where William and Kate now live, Jim directed me to his house, where his lovely wife Jean, had a meal ready for us and a very welcome glass of wine.

Tomorrow we set off for Lincolnshire and Yorkshire and some more very distinctive accents.

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