Saturday 2 June 2012

Norfolk Coast

And here is the harbour at Wells-next-the-Sea.  It is still a working port. Although you might think you were stepping back in time several hundred years.




You see, not a person in sight, again.  Lovely for getting away from it all.  And, unusually, the sun is shining.

We went to Wells regularly when the children were small. Always I remember it being absolutely freezing cold, the sea a deep dark grey colour, most uninviting, and a chill wind blowing from the North at all times.  Norfolk, the country of the North Folk, unprotected by any shield from weather gusting straight from the North Pole. 

We always walked the long mile down the sea wall to the shoreline, in the teeth of the North Wind.  The children moaned and cried. Their legs were tired, it was too cold to eat an ice-cream, and it was not buckets and spades weather.

The sands were not golden, but hamster-coloured.  Sort of dun verging on grey.

Then, after a short spell on the so-called beach, we would have to walk all the way back again.  Strange that I never remember the sea being blue, or the sands golden. 

So today, it seems like a huge treat, and a delight.  Blue sea and sky, golden sand, and driving the mile to the end of the sea defences.  This is my alternative to the Outer Hebrides, and not a bad one.

4 comments:

  1. What a lovely place - and such nice photos!

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  2. The memories of times with the children don't sound so good and yet I'm sure you laughed and had a good time....thats what we all do in grim times isn't it? put on a brave face and make the best of things....your most recent trip sounds great......and the photos are great.
    We stayed in a friends cottage at Wells-next-the-sea one year and seemed to walk for days and days, and then visited Holkham? seems many years ago now...might have to pencil in another visit.

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    1. What interested me was how different a place could seem. Then I went back two days later and it was JUST how I remembered it - freezing, the sand and the sea really dirty grey colours and not enjoyable to sit on the beach at all. Also, when I went back, I noticed the wind farm, which I completely did not see above(hence saying you could be going back in time, when in fact wind farm technology is 21st century!) A mystical place with different personae it seems. I will be back!

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