Sunrise at Brancaster Staithe

For the past few months I have been waking up before 6am every morning, I just cannot sleep later than that. Today was particularly bad as I woke up at 4am! I lay in bed trying to get back to sleep to no avail, and eventually I got up at about 4.40am and went out to photograph the sunrise. It only takes me a few minutes to walk to the harbour, and I could not believe the sky, it was the most fiery sunrise I have ever seen. I took my filters but forgot my filter ring (duh!) so my images were taken without any filters and have hardly been edited, the colour was so intense in the predawn light. In the extras is one of when the sun actually rose, but I left soon after that. I prefer the sky and colours before the sun comes up when I find it gets too bright and you have just a white orb in the sky.

I was exhausted by breakfast time! Nevertheless we had plans today to do another thing we have never done before, and today it was to go on a steam train on the 'Poppy Line', which is the North Norfolk Railway, a heritage steam railway that runs between Sheringham and Holt. Today was also the weekend of 'Dad's Army Live' with people dressed up as characters from the classic BBC sitcom. The train journey is very short, only about 25 minutes and it is run by volunteers who are dressed in 1940's period clothing. 

We drove to Sheringham and then boarded the train there (including Xena). The train stopped at Weybourne station for 6 minutes where you could also get off if you wanted to see all the Dad's army activities, and then it continued to Holt. I have an extra of the steam train and the Dad's Army characters. When we got to Holt it was about a 25 minute walk into town where we planned to get lunch. To our surprise most cafes and shops were closed today but we did find lunch at a deli where we sat at their tables outside to eat what we had bought. 

After we had walked back to the Holt station and got the train back to Sheringham we drove to another National Trust property in the area, Felbrigg Hall. It is not as striking as the property we saw yesterday but has extensive parklands which is good for walking.

It has been a busy day, Xena is exhausted as she usually likes to snooze after her morning walk and was unable to do so today. Tomorrow...more activities. I had hoped to visit the Norfolk Tulip fields which are the largest in the country, but as the tulips are so good this year and it was featured on the TV news the other morning the tickets for the 5 days it is open, 14,000 tickets were sold out within 90 minutes!