Last hurrah

With the second lockdown imminent, Chris and I decided to have a last day on the Norfolk coast. This proved to be a popular idea and the traffic was very heavy (Considering it was midweek in November), with long queues round Wisbech. When we arrived at Titchwell, the RSPB reserve was full and they were turning people away, so we headed along the coast to Holme Dunes NNR.

This proved to be a very good move. We walked out along the beach, following the retreating tide, and getting rather wet feet in the process, and appreciated the glorious sense of space and calm. The fossil forest provides a rich feeding ground for all manner of waders including sanderling, oystercatcher, bar-tailed godwit, knot, ringed plover, golden plover, curlew and dunlin. The calls of all these waders provided a perfect musical background to our walk, though these oystercatchers were definitely the noisiest! A surprisingly close view of a juvenile gannet was an added bonus. After a short lunch stop we walked back through the dunes, where the highlight was finding a population of Collared Earthstar under some pines. 


The journey back was even more horrendous than the outward one, and it took us about an hour to weave our way through King's Lynn (the satnav reckoned this was faster than the A47 - we weren't so sure). More problems on the A47 meant that the last part of our journey was on minor fen roads through hamlets such as Throckenholt and Murrow Drove. Driving on fen roads after dark takes a lot of concentration thanks to the frequent right-angled bends. We arrived home at about 6.30 p.m. and then all sat down for an Indian takeaway - the last time we'll all be together until after the 2nd December, which happens to be Chris's 30th birthday!