Day 1 – Saturday 27th May
Ooh we’ve been looking forward to
this break; it’s been a long time coming.
Eventually the day arrived and we were up and ready to pick up Billie (yes, we've decided Bill is a girl) before the gate to storage was open!
The roads were kind to us and we
didn’t hit any hold-ups until we reached Swaffham where we were held up by the
local Sheep Fair. Our home for the week
is Old Brick Kilns campsite is just outside of Fakenham in the north of
Norfolk https://www.old-brick-kilns.co.uk
We had a warm welcome and had an
allocated pitch in the Adults Only field.
The campsite isn’t huge but is very pretty and very laid out with lots
of pretty flowers. There’s a restaurant
and bar on site which also does takeaway and a reasonably well stocked shop.
The weather was bootiful and
there were no signs of ‘big black clouds on the horizon’ (see May 2017) so we
put up the awning – all straightforward, no arguments and Del had a new gizmo
to get the correct tension on the rods...... needless to say that there was much
‘stepping back and admiring the roof of the non-saggy awning’, so much so a
photo was put on Facebook that attracted many many comments and a considerable
amount of innuendo about erections etc.
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| No saggy erections here! |
Whilst we were setting everything
up, I was inside, Del was out, there was this almighty ‘crack’ – “flipping ‘ell
what was that”? we both said in unison,
“wasn’t me!” we both said. Within a few
minutes we realised that the fridge wasn’t whirring and the kettle wasn’t on...
“we’ve tripped the switch” said Del and he hot foots it to the rear of the van
where the power is plugged in – “nope” not that.... after several minutes of
trying every possible thingy, a trip
to the office was made where we were informed that not only the site, but the
whole of the village was in the midst of a power cut. Power up between 4-5pm and it was!
The last thing to be connected was
the TV – I know many campers don’t bother with TV but we like TV in the
evenings. Last year Del paid out a lot
of money for satellite TV and up until now it’s always been a case of plug it
in, switch it on and voila! Oh dear...
not here... oh for goodness sake.... we
just couldn’t get a signal. So we went
to the bar and had a drink! Of course,
walking back through the camp TV screens were shining brightly – all except
ours. It didn’t take long for us to
make the decision to find a local supplier of digital TV antenna – GO Outdoors
in Norwich – that was the plan for the morning!
Day 2 - Sunday 27th May
Woke up to bootiful
sunshine. We found that there was a GO
Outdoors outside of Norwich about 50 minutes away where we found both the
aerials we were looking for, better still they were having a discount weekend
so we bought both in case the preferred one didn’t work. Good job, because it didn’t! However, within an hour Del had the aerial up
and we had TV – just in time for the Grand Prix...
Now this evening, we noticed that
our neighbours were looking for something around their car, they were peering
in the car windows shining a torch – we thought about asking if they needed help
but didn’t want to intrude in case it was all “a sore point”.... didn’t want to get involved in any domestics!!!!
Day 3 - Monday 28th May
Mmmmm.... well next door were
still walking round the car, peering in the window. THEN up drives this great big car rescue
lorry and out jumps a man-who-does.
Bits of wire, magnets, more bits of wire, even the man-who-does was
getting frustrated, he pulls out a jacket from this little gap he’d made in the
rubber surround – nothing. AND THEN out
comes an engineer’s mallet and smash goes the quarter light. The alarm was going, glass everywhere and
eventually they pull out a small black bag... voila! les cles sont trouvees –
the keys are found. Blimey what-a-to-do
– reminder to oneself, two sets of keys
at all times.
Anyway, back to the holiday. Today we decided to go to Wroxham – The
Broads. Lovely there, we had a great day. A trip on the Bure Valley Railway followed by
fish and chips at Ken’s (thoroughly recommended), and we were pooped enough to
want to come home and relax. Really
very nice place Wroxham and we’ll be back later in the week for our boat trip
on the Broads.
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| Wroxham |
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| Burr Valley |
Oh yes, we needed change for the
car park so I bought two bags of duck food for 50p.... now all I need are some ducks!
Day 4 - Tuesday 29th
May
We woke up to a very low eerie
mist and blinkin cold! The decision was
made (and it wasn’t difficult) that we would go and do the little bit of
shopping we needed and spend the day relaxing and doing a few odd jobs that
needed doing.
Just down the road is a Morrisons
and guess what??? I managed to get a
bottle of my favourite tipple – it seems that no other supermarket stocks it.
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| Blood Orange Gin |
We came back and decided to have a
go at polishing Bill – wow Silky is the way to go!
Really not much more to report on
today, the field had almost emptied this morning but as I look round this
evening nearly every pitch has new campers.
The weather has lifted a little but it is still cold and windy, tomorrow
it’s promised to be better.
Flaming Nora, Flippin Hell,
Blinkey Blimey, what a night! We were
woken up at just before two with the biggest loudest clap of thunder I’ve ever
heard! We’d seen on the news all the
terrible storms that have been happening at home but we’d had nothing here
until last night. Good grief that
caravan was rocking!!!!!!!!!
Day 5 - Wednesday 30th
May
We woke up quite late as we’d had
such a disturbed night. The rain had
stopped and the air was quite close and warm.
We decided today may be a good idea to go to Cromer and enjoy some nice
crab at the seaside. Huh! and ha bloody ha what a sh*t hole! Sorry to any Cromerites who maybe reading it
is really really awful. Between the
footpath and the lower esplanade there is a grass bank where they allow goats to
graze – IT STINKS! We felt we were the
only people who didn’t have a dog – however, some need to have a few lessons
about clearing up after them, but then again a few doggie bins would be useful to. There’s a few seaside souvenir shops, cafes
and charity shops – tat tat tat. Never
again! Although we’d paid for 4 hours we
left within the hour.
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| Crappy Cromer |
On our return we popped into
Wayford Marina where Del got his fix of boats for the day. Then at Felbrigg Hall www.nationaltrust.org.uk/felbrigg
for tea, food and then a tour round the bootiful house and gardens – if you’re
in the area, it’s well worth the trip.
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| Felbrigg Hall |
We have new neighbours at the
campsite, not sure they’ll be that friendly as Del had to remind them about the
‘safe distance’ between caravans (fire regulations) and that where they’d
parked their caravan was not a safe distance.
They’ve parked their car so close to Bill that I could almost wear a seat
belt! Ho hum.... we’re not really here
during the day anyway.
So tonight despite the weather man
telling us that it’s going to rain tomorrow there’s a bootiful red sky tonight
and the air is very still. Let’s hope we
have undisturbed sleep tonight.
Day 6 - Thursday 31st
May
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| Sandringham |
What a lovely day today - really
warm if just a bit cloudy. We made the
short journey to Sandringham.
Fortunately we got there reasonably early so parking wasn’t an issue –
if you’re going, don’t leave it too late!
There’s a short walk from the car park to the main entrance where
there’s shops, restaurants, loos etc. and then another walk to the House
itself. Oh wow! What a bootiful house, setting, garden etc. You are not allowed to take photos inside
the house so I took some of photos in the museum – obviously nowhere near as
good as the real thing but it will give you an idea of the grandeur of the
house. The rooms we saw were rooms that
the Royal Family use when they are in residence. The guides were very knowledgeable and liked
to feed you titbits about when they are there.
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| Please forgive the hair!!!!! |
* In one alcove in the lounge room they place a huge Christmas tree every year. The tree is decorated 2/3rds by the staff but the bottom third is left for the Queen to decorate with her grandchildren.
* There is a small round
table there where she sits afterwards with them and they all have tea together,
I’m sure these days it’s more with the great grandchildren, but how lovely is
that?
* The ballroom floor is covered by a
bootiful carpet. The original carpet
was designed by Queen Victoria and our current Queen thought it was so precious
that she had it rolled up and put into storage. I asked if the room was ever used as a
ballroom, but it seems the floor is too slippery. The room is now used as a cinema where the
Royal family and staff sit together and watch movies when they are in
residence.
* When the Queen is there,
there can be up to 300 people in the house – the kitchen staff arrive two days
before the Queen to prepare – a fantastic insight into the house and how it all
works.
There is also a museum to wander
through, most of the exhibits are gifts given to the Queen by visitors to our
country. Bootiful pieces of work in
jade and silver including a box made of the tiniest shells you have ever
seen. I particularly liked the
miniatures, tiny little silver trinkets of the royal carriages, jewellery and
lots of other bits and bobs.
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| Some of the cars from the Royal Family and some replicas that were made for the children. |
Fabulous day, aching feet and lots
of oohs and ahhs but well worth it!
Day 7 - Friday 1st June
Last day – spend your holiday
money, souvenirs, postcards etc. etc.
There’s so much to see and do in Norfolk it was a hard decision of where
we should go for our last day. We
headed out towards Holkham beach as we’ve been told it’s a “must go”
place. If you’re a few years younger
the beach would be lovely – it’s a helluva hike from the car park to the
beach! We didn’t stay, there was quite
a mist and the water was out so far we couldn’t see it. I’m sure for young families it is a lovely
place to go, but not for us.
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| Holkham Beach |
We then
drove onto Wells next the Sea – now this is more our style. Lovely seaside town with a few knick-knack
shops and restaurants. There’s a lovely
park there if you’ve got young children.
We decided to have lunch on The Albatros, a Dutch boat that served
lovely food – I soooo wanted pancakes but we settled on the crab salad and
yummy it was too. Well worth a visit if
you’re in that area.
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| Wells next the Sea |
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| Crab Salad |
This evening it was gorgeous, hot
and sunny so we sat for a while having a G&T outside, chatting to the other
campers and swapping stories. Before too
long it was time to get the awning down and start to pack up for our return
home. It’s been a fabulous week, but as
they say all good things come to an end.
Just remember - car parks don’t accept duck food!
