The Last Few Remaining...

So its off to the Channel Islands - to tick off few of the remaining 'sovereigns' on my list.

Day 1 - its Flybe to Guernsey

Everyone remember where we parked (that's a STIV:TVH reference)

View over the Solent

Civilised way to fly - boarding takes 10 minutes, depart at about 8:30 at destination by 9:20 ish - in time for second breakfasts by the harbour

St Peter Port in Guernsey.

Guernsey is a whole lot nicer than Jersey.  Good bus network as well, not so much traffic and generally cleaner in the city and less "pressure".  Only negative was seeing some expensively be-suited bankers posing for pictures outside plush offices.  You don't meet many young Guernsey folk - there is so much well paid employment in the financial sector - in the shops and restaurants its Russians and Portuguese.

Lots of these spectacular plants around - popular with the bees

I walked down to the "point"

Nice little cafe where I had tea and chips - last customer for the day and chatted with visitors from Austria.

My walk !UP! to the hotel was through this fantastic garden

La Collinette Hotel - formerly German Naval Command

Hotel was a bit of a walk but the hill - but very reasonably priced, in a quiet area with local shops for supplies and tourist guidance.

This year's Welsh Walk was in Birmingham...

Into town by train and then meet by the ICC/Gas Street Basin

It is about 5 miles - we walked at a leisurely pace - for some reason Ian and Ryan shot off - perhaps it was the lure of the pub...

Amazing - the Dutch consulate is in Stirchley

...and the Belgian - I wonder how much business they do?

I think this used to be Akrams* but is now Kolkata Lounge

Pretty good food - and top class decor - still my favourite is a Podinah from Balti Hut.
*Oops - no this is 1488 and Akrams is still going strong at 1526 (nice tune on the website)

Shut!

..so off to Orford for the main reason got my visit - a three day trip from Birmingham.  Parted with extortionate day rate parking fee and then round to the National Trust office to buy my ferry ticket (not free for members) - Orford Ness is shut on Sundays - it does not matter if it is high season or low season

it is shut - Grrrrrrrr.....

So I gave my 10 minutes used parking ticket to another visitor and went to Sutton Hoo

I can see why the ship burial was on this ridge - a really spectacular and elevated location - not many of those in East Anglia

Nuclear Family...

Next on my list - the Nuclear Power Plants at Sizewell .

 
It was a very cool and blustery day but that did not stop your typical British Family pitching a windbreak and having a picnic next to the intake/outflow from the power plant.

The children pointed out to me a shoal of little squid all lined up at the high tide mark

"They are squids, they are ALL dead!"  Surely just a coincidence.

Magnificent Sea Kale - very crisp and tasty

Sadly - was not opening time during my visit

The Dunwich Dynamo

A drive through some lovely heathland and sandy pine forest and a quiet breakfast on the beach at Dunwich. Not quiet at all...

Looking South - next target in sight

Its the Dunwich Dynamo - explained here and here 

Looking North - some solitude

Bikes in the Truck, bodies in the Transit

Horning Staithe - so long and so disappointing

Many years ago I read all the East Anglia Arthur Ransome books (Coot Club, We Didn't Mean to Go to Sea and etc.)  Horning Staithe features in these as a magical place to fish for perch and to sail in dingies.

Many years later my father, on business in Norfolk, made a pilgrimage to the Staithe and called me up from the Swan Inn to describe a scene unchanged from Ransome's era - a lambent summer's evening, a lone fisherman catching tiny perch one-after-another and a nice warm  pint of beer

But don't bother its all been ruined...  I returned my father's call - 30 years late - and we commiserated.

OK the rain did not help

Rather heavy - I felt sorry for the wedding party sheltering at at the even more sorry when I say the faux-Mississippi-steamer they were boarding.

Every 60 seconds one of these big white things chugs past

Yuk Yuk Yuk Yuk Yuk - your own riverside palace, complete with mooring and ugly cruiser and 500 boats a day pass your windows

This is Irstead Staithe - at the end of a quiet country lane - a few houses, a church and a couple of fishermen.  Idyllic - if you can ignore the big white plastic cruises passing down the River Ant every five minutes or so

A traditional boat house - lord knows how much the just out of shot thatched houses are worth at Hickling Broad...

Hawking over the reed bed  - is this a Marsh Harrier?

Might be - habitat and flight correct and no white rump - but I am not sure - wrong time of year for a Hen Harrier and the only other possibility is Montagues Harrier - which is very rare

From here a spectacular drive on the A47 near Great Yarmouth and then south looking for somewhere to camp:   Place 1 the office had closed at 18:00, Place 2: signposts ran out about a mile short - eventually found it - one caravan and no one in the house, then to a Camping & Caravaning Site - very friendly but as not a member they advised me to save money and go to the independent to the South - it was now dark and I found that there was a BIG concert on so many side roads closed and marshalled and campsites full - eventually found campsite just outside bass-beat range from the show.

Grimes Graves - Great

Grimes Graves has been on my list for a long time - and I was not disappointed.

Its a neolithic flint mine - a huge area pockmarked with back-filled and collapsed mine shafts - and a pretty unique flora and fauna. It's a rainy Saturday in July - and for the hour I was there - I was the only visitor. You get a short walk around the visitor centre and then down a ladder to crawl around a mine. If they would let us orienteer there it would be spectacular:

Copyright: English Heritage

I ought to know this one... it is a type of thistle

A Mullein - specifically Dark Mullein I think - no white hairs on the leaves.

I found another blog - and they, independently chose - the same snail, the same "Escher" raindrop effect and the pink and yellow flowers - strange

"Let's Off-road" - just - it is the official car parking spot.

Who do you think...

Up early at "The Friendly Club" site in Thetford.  Too early for the museum so it is off for a walk at the local nature reserve.

Langmere on East Wretham Heath - what a magic place - visit it early in the morning...

 ...All to myself - if you don't count the curious deer and the various geese and crows.  Learn all about these "disappearing lakes" here.

Copyright Norfolk Wildlife Trust

All of Breckland is pretty special but there is one place I particularly want to visit:

The Road to STANTA: Shame its been off limits now for seventy years

Stanford Battle area is where they filmed much of the outside scenes for "Dad's Army"

Captain George Mainwaring - not very bright - but knows it, a chip on each shoulder but immensely brave

A war time tea - complete with Norfolk vinegar cake - scrummy - all at the Dad's Army Museum (check opening times)

Thetford high street is a little bit of Poland in England - but away from the centre you can find locations from the TV show

Wicken Fen

A trip to Huntingdon for a "Munters" training day and then to Wicken Fen.


Amazing and Excellent - I thought I took more pictures!  It is a tiny fragment of wild fen - almost the last remaining - so many insects, so many birds, so many strange plants.  Saved just in time - but what must have Fenland been like before it all got drained.

That Tansley bloke again - second time this year.

Should I know what this is?

Guelder-rose?

A bees nest - right by the path - I sat and watched for a while - sitting very still - surrounded on around and above by hundreds of bees