Norfolk Caravan Trip August 2012

Having recently had a boat holiday on the Broads we felt that we would like to visit some of the places that we had seen but this time by road. We decided to stay at a caravan CL that we had seen near Womack Water.  However this particular site was full and the owner offered us a place on his other site which was only a few hundred yards away. As it turned out this was a much nicer site that had much more room and was still within easy walking distance of the river. It was known as Danny's Paddock. When we arrived and met the farmer we were a little surprised that it cost £12 a night but decided that overall it was worth it. We rounded off the day by having a meal at a Toby Carvery (a very busy one) that we had discovered to the south of Great Yarmouth.

Masses of room at Denny's Paddock

On Thursday (2/8/12) we walked the short distance through the farm yard and the other CL to the river and noted the very crowded moorings. In fact this was probably the only really crowded moorings we saw on this holiday despite it being peak season. We made it a circular walk by visiting the large Ludham village shop. The pub in Ludham appeared a bit noisy and we didn't visit it the whole time we were there. Our next port of call was Potter Heigham where we looked round the shops. A walk over the bridge to the place where the bridge pilot can be found let us meet Dillion the Border Collie again. He was still just as anxious to bring things to be thrown and this time had found a discarded fender to use as a 'ball'.

Dillion kept Julie busy for ages throwing his 'ball'.

Whilst playing with Dillion we saw a couple on a boat approaching the bridge. It seemed obvious that their boat was too tall to go under the bridge and in addition they had a bicycle in a blue bag on the roof. They seemed oblivious to the danger and only turned away from the bridge at the last minute. The tide, which was coming in, had them firmly in its grasp and pinned their boat sideways on against the bridge. No matter what they tried they couldn't escape. The pilot had seen their plight and dashed round to help. After some pushing and shoving they made their escape, hopefully having learnt a good lesson!

The boat held against the bridge by the incoming tide.

We had enjoyed our visits by boat to Stokesby so decided to visit again. As usual the free moorings were fully occupied but as we had found in June there were spaces near the Pub that were free until the early evening. We made sure to visit the Cafe for lunch and once again had a splendid meal.

Waiting to have lunch at the Tea Rooms.

After Stokesby we motored on to Reedham. It's always interesting to see the boats coming and going here. As we have previously discovered the tide can be quite treacherous and people trying to moor are pleased if you volunteer to catch a rope etc.. Whilst we were there I heard some shouting on the river and eventually realised that a sailing boat, with its mast up, was heading towards the railway bridge that was closed! The boat made a couple of tight turns and eventually the bridge swung open, panic over.

Sailing boat forced to turn sharply to avoid closed bridge.

The bridge swings open and the danger is averted.

Near to Reedham in a village called Moulton St Mary we saw some nurseries that had the most amazing display of flowers. It was hard to take a picture that conveyed the huge dispaly but here is my attempt.

The huge display of flowers in Moulton St Mary.

We wanted to have our evening meal at the pub in Thurne. We had read all sorts of strange things about Sid the guy who runs this pub and wanted to see for ourselves. Arriving a bit early we walked to the moorings at Thurne mouth. Plenty of room there and a nice gentle walk. Getting back to the pub we had a very enjoyable meal and Sid turned out to perhaps be a little officious but otherwise very helpful.

On the Friday we first went to Ludham Bridge where we visited the shop. We saw a strange machine here. It appeared to be used for getting weed or trash out of the river.

Machine with conveyor to rake the river bed.

After this we went to Horning, we had often passed Horning by boat but had never seen anywhere to moor. Parking turned out be easy (and free) at the village hall. Quite a few facilities in Horning and some interesting old buildings.

Pub on the river front at Horning.

At Wroxham we parked in the car park for Roy's shops and had a walk round. We found the Faircraft Loynes boat yard and looked at a number of their boats. They were beautifully prepared and seemed to be no more expensive than the other yards. Their boats had things like Satellite TV and interesting layouts, well worth considering for any future boating holiday. 

One of the superb boats at Faircraft Loynes

A number of times, whilst on boats, we have headed for Sutton Staithe only to find that there was no room to moor. 

Sutton Staithe, room to turn  but limited mooring and few facilities

We finished Friday off with Fish and Chips from Potter Heigham.

On Saturday we visited Lowestoft. With the help of some instructions from a local radio amateur we first went to the most easterly point in the UK. This was next to a huge wind turbine. On the spot (at Ness Point) there is a large circular metal ring that shows the distance to many places. We have now visited the most Easterly, most Southerly and most Westerly points, only the most northerly to go.

The most easterly point in the UK

Part of the ring showing the distance to various places.

The complete 'Most Easterly 'ring.

Lowestoft has a lovely beach but seems to lack amusements etc.

A bit quiet for me at Lowestoft

Oulton Broad was a place that I had never visited before. Mooring at the Yacht Station was not too expensive and there were shops nearby.

The view across Oulton Broad.

It was a short journey from Lowestoft back up the coast to Great Yarmouth. We had a good time at Yarmouth visiting the amusement arcades where we won a pencil, two model coaches and a model VW camper!! We had a meal in one of the many Yarmouth Restaurants. 

On Sunday we visited 'Dillion' at Potter Heigham again and then went to Stracey Mill to see the goats, pigs etc.. 

One of the many friendly animals at Stracey Mill.

We had a great meal at Acle Bridge and discovered that you moor for free on the east bank of the river during the day time. The small shop on this bank also does bacon rolls that seem very popular with lots of people.

The little shop at Acle Bridge where you can moor for free in the day time.

In the evening I went to see the stockcar racing at Great Yarmouth stadium. The stadium was a very pleasant place to watch racing and was quite luxurious. Lots of good food outlets there too!

Yarmouth Stadium with great undercover seating.

A very enjoyable short break and one that I'm sure we will repeat.

Bedford River Festival 2012

The Bedford River Festival took place over a weekend recently and I decided to have a look on 21st July. I had been in previous year but this year there seemed to be a huge number of people, perhaps many more than before. Maybe this was caused by the fact that we have had a number of weeks of bad weather and suddenly it was lovely and people wanted to have a day out.

Almost every parking spot for miles round Bedford seemed to have been taken but I was lucky enough to find somewhere to the north of Russell Park. The park itself was full of people in the middle and had a large music stage and a variety of stalls round the edge..

A vast number of people packing Russell Park

There were a number of music stages with this one in Russell Park

One of the main purposes of the Festival is to provide a shop window for local clubs and societies.

The local Microlight Centre had a stand.

Lots of fitness clubs put on displays and were on the
lookout for new members

Food stalls, particularly foreign foods are a feature of the Festival so there is no need to go hungry at this event...

Naturally the river provides the centre of activities with things like Dragon Boat racing, boat parades and various canoe events.

A canoe coming down the high ramp.

Not a bad day out with a huge number of other side shows etc. I enjoyed the company of my friend Don at the event but I think that we probably both felt that this may not be one of our favourite types of show. I felt that although a lot of people put a huge amount of effort into organising stands to promote their particular interest it really lacked the content that would have made it of more interest to me personally.

Kent July 2012

We decided to make another visit to Kent (we went down in 2011) to the area where I spent my childhood. We travelled down on the 12th July and returned on 16th July. We stayed at the same caravan club CL in Halling as the previous year. Our trip coincided with a long period of very rainy weather. Luckily the site seems to drain well and we had no problem with getting on and off the site. We had three main objectives for this trip. The main one was to visit the Kent County Show, we also wanted to meet up with my cousin Trevor who was over from Cyprus and I also wanted to visit some of the burial places where my relations are laid to rest. The later purpose may seem a bit strange but I felt that I would like to see, for instance, the place where my father's ashes were scattered.

Also whilst we were in Kent we visited the churches at Meopham and Cuxton. I took a number of pictures of grave stones that referred to either my family or people that my family knew well. These were really only of interest to me personally so I haven't included them. I wasn't able to find the grave of my Auntie Florrie and it may be that her grave is unmarked, I intend to follow this up with the clerk that looks after the Meopham Church Yard

The people who own the caravan site also own a number of old coaches and buses that they were taking to the county show so we got a preview when they got them out ready for their journey..

The show was on for the Friday, Saturday and Sunday, we had decided that we would prefer to go on the Saturday which turned out to be very lucky as on the other days the car parks were closed early due to the condition of the ground. Another lucky thing was that the people who owned the caravan site were able to give us tickets for the show which saved us quite a large sum. We managed to get round virtually the whole show before the rain returned. The show had all the usual attraction and if the weather had been more agreeable it would have been brilliant.

One thing that I hadn't seen before was where there was a large pool of water and dogs were retrieving balls after taking flying leaps into the pool. The dogs certainly seemed to be enjoying themselves...

Another series of interesting exhibits were ones of handmade clocks including one where a ball bearing rolls along a track to keep the time... 

On the Friday we visited Allhallows where you can look out over the Thames Estuary towards Southend and see the shipping making it's way up and down the river...

Our next port of call was Upnor. Although having lived nearby for many years I don't remember ever having visited Upper Upnor before. Upper Upnor comprises a village street leading to Upnor Castle and has many houses displaying Kentish weatherboarding, as well as some terraced streets formerly used by the MOD. It is on Chatham Reach of the Medway directly opposite St Mary's Creek. It's a fascinating area and looks as if it may well have featured in films etc., as it's mainly unspoilt...

Later on Friday we went to Bluebell Hill where there is a lovely view over the Medway valley towrds Aylesford and it's paper mill...

Nearby is the Medway Crematorium. The crematorium covers 14 acres and is a mix of woodland, shrub beds, formal planting and grass beneath large and stately trees. This is where my father was cremated and his ashes were scattered in a quiet woodland glade.

On the Sunday we visited some local seaside places. The first was Sheerness, this turned out to be less than successful as there didn't seem to be an easy way to reach the sea from the main town. We did go past the town and found an area where you could look out over the estuary but gave up on the actual town. We then went to Leysdown which turned out to be a lively place with lots of amusement arcades. There was free side street parking and one slightly strange thing was that Burgers, Hot Dogs and Ice creams were all priced at a pound which seemed quite reasonable.

Our final seaside destination was the resort of Herne Bay a real traditional British seaside town. There used to be a huge pier at Herne Bay but the centre section of the pier was torn away by a storm in 1978 leaving the far end isolated in the sea. The landward section has recently had a lot of work done and looks very smart. It appears that various shows are held on the large area of tarmac now available. 

Herne Bay front from the northern end (where there is some free parking!)

There's a large 'bandstand' on the front and a harbour has been formed by the use of thousands of tons of rock. We enjoyed our short stay at Herne Bay and finished off the day with a tasty but reasonably priced roast dinner at a pub in the Whetherspoons chain.

Despite some of the weather this was another happy journey down memory lane and we look forward to visiting Kent again before too long.

Skegness 29th June 2012

Usually at this time of the year we go to the Norfolk Show but this year we wanted to do something different to celebrate Julie's birthday. We decided to go to the seaside but from where we live all the resorts are a long way away. Our usual trips are often to Great Yarmouth but this time we decided to have a look at Skegness. After a steady drive where we seemed to get behind numerous tractors and to find umpteen road works on our route, we arrived. We remembered that in the past we had found free parking at the south end of South Parade and once again we were lucky. Despite the weather on the journey being a bit grey and drizzly, as soon as we were out of the car we were greeted with sunshine and a lovely blue sky. The gardens seemed well tended..

As the weather had only just cheered up the beach, which was a lovely sweep of beautiful sand was pretty clear of people. The clear sky made the outline of the many wind turbines clear to see....

There's no shortage of rides on the pleasure beach and some are quite large.....

One of the side shows (that is accompanied by a very distinctive tune!) is one that is also found on a pier in Great Yarmouth and involves racing camels...

Julie is a bit of star player when it comes to the 2p machines that push coins off shelves. This one had a very nice tiny bear as a prize and Julie had her eye on this one. Luckily she is such a good player that she usually doesn't have to spend any money to get the prizes she plays for.....

There were some strange goings on on the streets of Skegness when we were there. There were some 'ladies' on what appeared to be Segways. Also some living statues. We also saw what appeared to be a Police incident, complete with police tape and posters asking for anyone who saw anything to report to them. I was totally taken in by this and was asking a security man what it was all about when he explained that it was just a publicity stunt for the Punch and Judy show, did I feel silly!! Luckily I didn't get any pictures of this last event :-).

We were very strong minded and didn't make use of the many food outlets including this rather pretty ice cream parlour...

However on the way back we stopped just to the north of Boston where we found a lovely pub called The Ball House ( http://www.theballhouseboston.co.uk ) where had a great meal that was a fitting end to a lovely day out and Julie's birthday.