Holiday – Page 4 – Neil Baldwin's blog : Warning contains walking, technology, photography, holidays.

Norfolk 2016 – Black headed yellow wagtail

A&C were due back home today and C had the Spurs Chelsea football match to attend, so we got an early start at Burnham Overy Staithe the plan was to walk back to the Cafe at Wells next the sea. We parked up at 09:30 and headed out along the sea wall the windows was blowing and we were glad of the layers we had with us. On the west side of the wall in the mud we saw quite a few waders highlights included Golden Plover.

It was much warmer when we were out of the wind and after some distance on the beach we headed into the pine forest in search of Goldcrest but we dipped. Helen’s foot had been playing up so we stopped for a rest at the hide for 5 minutes, before resuming. The walk was a lot longer than we expected, and we were glad to the get to the cafe, where we all had a drink. We thought we might get some nice food back in tow.

We cheated and got the miniature train back to Wells. It was an experience not to be forgotten and one I have never done before, it also saved us the long boring walk along the sea wall with the rest of humanity. We managed to get a table at the Wells Deli and I had a wonderful bowl of noodles vegetables and prawns in a chilli broth, it was excellent. We went back to the hut and grabbed A&C stuff then they dropped Helen and I back at the car. It had been great to have their company for a couple of days.

Helen and I drove to Titchwell RSPB which tuned out to be quite an adventure, first we blagged our way in because we could not find our current membership cards. The guy at the gate told us that there was a Black Headed Yellow Wagtail about and pointed out where it was on the map. Neither of us had ever seen one, and they do not feature in all bird ID books. Down on the path we saw a load of bird watchers scanning the area it had last been seen, but it had started to rain and so we did not hang about.

The next hide did not seem to have much wildlife about it so I suggested we went to the Parrinder hide a bit further down the path. We found and empty hide but noticed that there were a lot of people in the one next door. We scanned the water in front of the hide and started to spot the odd wader or two, there was not much about to write home about. I noticed that the people next door were looking in a certain direction so I trained my binoculars there too. After about a minute I chanced upon a canary yellow bird with a black head, there it was the Black Headed Yellow Wagtail. We watched it for a while and had great views before it disappeared behind a bank.

Whilst all that was going on it occurred to me the people on the bank might not know, so I checked them out with my binoculars and someone had obviously radioed the news over to them, as they all decamped over to the hide next to the one we were in. When they got there a few of them were disappointed an grumpy because it has moved out of sight. Some of them came into our hide to see if the angle afforded a view but it did not. We left the hide soon after, and when we got back to the bank some birders had managed to get a view of the bird on the bank that was out of view. We saw some of the grumpy ones heading back to where they started.

Helen and I got a look through one of the scopes it was a very distant view. We had been very fortunate. On the walk back to the visitor centre we told a few people where to see the bird and quite a few epople had arrived to take a look. We headed home for some dinner (salad) and an early night.

Norfolk 2016 – Walk from Salthouse to Blakeney

We were up relatively early and were aiming to get a bus from Blakeney village hall to walk back to Blakeney, taking in a coiple of coffee stops. A made us some porridge for breakfast, and we followed that up with some toast, we were all set to walk at least until lunch time. The weather was sunny and slightly warmer than the day before.

It did not take long to get to Blakeney and the car park was not very full. We had a ten minute wait for the bus which arrived full of passengers but the bus almost emptied before we got on. The bus fare was £2 a head one way to Salthouse green. The weather was fine with wispy cirrus clouds, the type of Norfolk big sky weather I like. We took the beach road towards the sea and then turned west. The walk was a bit of a slog because NWT now let the shingle banks collapse in the winter storms.

We stopped often to look for birds and I spotted what I thought was a Short Eared Owl, it was close in but flew away from us. Some other birds watchers further down the road confirmed by my sighting. The last time I had seen one was on the path between Cley and Blakeney quite a few years back. When we go to the East bank we noticed a new open hide had been built where a bench used to be, we stopped and tried it out, but most of the waders were over the far side further east. I took the opportunity to take a time lapse sequence of the stunning sky. We heard rumours of a Spoonbill and were chuffed to spot it close in further down the bank.

We stopped of in the NWT visitor centre for lunch which we had outside as the weather was noticeably warmer than the day before. I had a crab sandwich for a second day running. I took the opportunity to remove my thermal under layer. C took the opportunity to visit the Cley Spy shop to get replacement rain guards for her binoculars which she had lost the day before.

Next stop would be Blakeney, and we headed into Cley then took the path that passes the Windmill rather than the busy road. Three of us grabbed an ice cream at the Cley Deli which went down well, and gave us an energy boast for the sea wall walk to Blakeney. Soon after the start of the path we spotted what might be Bearded Tits and after some perseverance we got great views which were a first for C.

News papers sold from a windows in Cley next the Sea

We were quite tired by the time we got to Blakeney and did not hang about as there were a lot of people about. On the walk back to the car we tried phoning a few restaurants to try to get a table for 4, we we did not hav much luck until we called the Edinburgh Hotel which had a table for us. At first we were a bit worried as to why there was a table available, however when we looked at the website it looked OK and sold pub grub.

We got back to the hut and rested after the long walk. The pub seemed like a genuine local with lots of Norfolk accents to be heard at the bar. I had some great fish and chips with a very generous portion of mushy peas washed own with a pint of Woodfords Wherry and another of Nelson bot very quaffable. By the time we return to the hut we were ready for bed and soon were sleeping soundly.

Norfolk 2016 – It’s all about the journey

No Thames Path for a couple of weeks as we are off to Norfolk for a week, staying at Wells-Next-The-Sea. We were up in good time so much so I took the opportunity to get a long over due haircut in Wendover. It was at the front of a queue of 3 when they opened, and left shorn when there were 7 in the queue. We had invited A&C to stay with us on the Saturday and Sunday nights.

We left the house at 09:30 and took a route via Hemel Hempstead and Hatfield, then on to Thetford and beyond. Helen contacted A&C via SMS it turns out we had made similar progress they were slightly ahead and warned us about traffic in Fakenham, which enabled us to take a cross country route. We agreed to meet up at Cley NWT for a bite to eat. After eating we decided to grab some food from the Cley deli them go to the hut and sump our stuff then go for a walk.

We walked from the hut out along the sea wall to the caravan site and them the coat guard watch hut. We walked along the beach where there were some seals. I convinced everyone that we should walk all the way to The Victoria then get the bus. On the way we saw some Brent geese and later some meadow pipits. We arrived at the bus at the time of what turned out to be the last bus which luckily was running late and so we got the bus.

For dinner has stuff we had bought at the Cley deli. The blue soft cheese was lovely. All in all a good journey and a great time with good friends.

Osprey at Weston Turville reservoir

Since the first week of our holiday I had seen reports on Twitter of an Osprey at Weston Turville reservoir, a local to home reservoir. It is pretty small as reservoirs go there is a sailing club but they sail small boats like Lasers. I would say it is about 200 metres by 300-400 metres. I thought I should check it out, so I dropped Helen off at her folks and popped round.

The signs were good there were bird watchers there with scopes and binoculars. I enquired about the Osprey it had apparently made an appearance earlier and caught two fish, but had not been seen for a while. Time lapse and birding are quite complimentary as you can set the camera up and use the waiting time to watch for birds. That is exactly what I did, I tried out my new panning device bought on Amazon for less tgat £20, basically a good quality kitchen timer.

I had done one sequence and popped over to start a new one, taking in the sailing rave tgat had just started and noticed that the other bird watchers had got all excited. The Osprey was back, it circled over the water for a while, giving me a chance to get some shots, as it passed over the bank end of the reservoir, then headed off towards Stoke Mandeville. Mission accomplished, next I popped up to Coombe hill to get some more sequences, there was s nothing like doing something to get proficient at it, the old 10,000 hours theory.

I put the GoPro on the panorama plinth at the monument, at the top of Coombe hill, it got some funny looks and some questions but I managed to do 20 minutes which equates to 120 degrees of panning. Some people were I view at times but I hoped that it would add to the final video, remember every day is a school day.

The rest of the day was spent processing photo’s and videos and catching up on missed TV especially “This is England 90”

Journey home via Stourhead National Trust

There was not much to do in the morning as we had cleared most of the house the night before. We left the hut at 09:35 with Helen’s parents with us for the journey home, lunch would be at Stourhead NT which was about the half way point and convenient for lunch. The traffic was heavy but nothing really held us up apart from the odd queue at major junctions. Stourhead Was busy as the sun was out and it was warm, but we easily found a table in the Cafe.

The courgette and minted pea soup went down well, as did Helen’s cheese scone. We did a light stroll around the park via the gardens, but did not bother with the house. There was a wedding on and I suspect there is most weekends, the photographers seemed to be numerous on the ground so probably an expensive one.

The rest of the trip was fairly uneventful other than wasting 30 minutes having to stop at a Tesco to check the pressure of the tyres as the warning light had come on. We stopped at Waitrose in Berkhamsted for some dinner then dropped Helen’s folks off at home before getting home to have a ready made curry, watch the rugby, and start to download the 600 odd pictures that need to be sorted and filtered.

Last day of holiday at Croyde Bay

Another slow start for me, the more enthusiastic ones were down on the beach walking or paddling, followed by hot drinks. People had mentioned plans, pottering around the local point and beach, and body boarding. For myself I thought it would be good to go to Lee and walk out to Bull Point and back.

View from Coastal Path just past Morte Point Devon

Helen’s dad and I went for the walk, we drove to Lee which is a lovely little village nestled into a deep valley. The walk starts in land and very steep up through some woods with lots of rhododendron making it dark and damp. After plenty of huffing and puffing we were out of the woods and into the sun although there was still some ascent to do. The footpath took us over the rolling hills and we had to descend two further deep valleys before we got to Bull Point light house our turn around point. We were hoping that the path back would be less brutal but it was, the valleys have streams in them which eventually need to get to sea level so the three valleys we had negotiated in land were that much deeper when they got to the sea side. Mostly they were steps maintained by the National Trust, most of them very deep. When we finally hit the road again at Lee it could not have come soon enough. The hotel at the bottom and of the village was still shut, and apparently had been for the past 8 years, they were having problems with planning permissions. There was however an Italian place selling food, but J wanted a beer and they did not sell alcohol, so we walked towards the car and dropped into the Gamas Inn where we had a very welcome half of bitter, brewed on the premises, and a cheese and tomato panini, which was very welcome.

When we got back to the hut no one was there, so J went to read his book and I went down to the rocks to see if I could spy the others on Croyde beach, with my binoculars. They were body boarding or swimming (ed: the braver members of the party swimming without wetsuits!). It was an usually high tide, which might relate to the imminent full moon (or Supermoon). We did some tidying up and got ready to go out to dinner, at The Rock in Georgeham, but unfortunately C was feeling ill, so missed out.

I had salt and pepper squid, followed by spaghetti a la vongole, very nice, and cheese cake for dessert. The bonus was that they also sold Timothy Taylor’s Landlord ale which went down a treat.

Not on Lundy but a walk around Morte Point

Three of the party went to Ilfracombe to catch the boat to Lundy, the wind was blowing so my decision not to spend 4 hours on a boat was vilified. Breakfast was at a leisurely pace and Helen and I left the house at just after 10:30, destination Mortehoe, where we have done a very enjoyable walk on a few occasions.

There was a shower coming in as we parked up so we delayed our start with a look around the museum and then a coffee. The museum is a small eclectic collection of stuff about Mortehoe and surroundings, apparently you could rent a rabbit farm for £40 a year then sell the rabbit meat at 19d per pound, which would bring in £15 per week, which seems good business.

The National Trust coffee shop was closed on Wednesday’s and Thursday’s but there was a coffee shop and deli just down the road, I fancied a cake. The coffee shop was a bit of a disappointment they only had filter coffee and no cake. The deli supplies were a bit thin on the ground too, it gave the impression they were either shutting down for good or the winter months.

At the southern edge of the village you can pick up the path that goes around the point, we chose that end to gave us the wind behind us for the best part of the walk, as it turned out we would also be facing the direction for the best light too. The weather was in fact great for photography with small cumulous clouds growing and high altitude whispy ones on a blues sky.

Just round Morte point we found a convenient bench out of the wind and hung around a while doing some time lapse sequences. I’m quite getting into them and will do a blog post with my workflow soon. This morning I was taking a look on eBay for cheap canon powershots that will run CHDK, you can get them for less that £50 which is a bargain.

The final slog from the coastal path back to Mortehoe took some considerable effort, but we took our time today’s walk was a very leisurely affair. At the village shop we got a loaf and headed back to the hut, but pulled into a parking space at Woolacombe to book a table for 7 for Friday evening at The Rock at Georgeham, a restaurant we enjoyed the previous time were were down this way. We stopped of at the local Nisa for some more supplies and popped into the amusements for 10 minutes but the quality and variety of games was disappointing, why do they insist of giving prizes as paper tickets, it is not the same as hearing the cash tinkle as it is paid out.

After a sandwich I went up to Baggy Point to take some pictures and left Helen watching Bridget Jones on Amazon Prime. In the end I never got to Baggy Point as I went down into the rocks and worked my way towards it, but eventually came to a dead end where the sensible thing was to turn back, and retrace my steps. I made the most of the opportunity by taking some stills and a few time lapse sequences.

I got back to the hut at 17:00 hoping to help Helen with the cooking for the evening, tonight would be Helens lovely veggie sausage and bean Spanish stew with baked potatoes. The question is do you add olive oil and/or salt or just leave them au naturel? I would go with the plain but the consensus is olive oil and salt, as the the people from Portadown say “just go with the flow”. (ed: the stew was of course, fantastic 🙂 )

(ed: The Lundyites had some great tales, they had seen seals and a porpoise. The trip was a bit bouncy, about one in ten of the passengers needed a sick bag but according to the friendly & helpful staff, it was nothing compared to the trip out on windy Tuesday. On occasions our party to had to hastily move to avoid being “caught” by a traveller loosing their sea legs/breakfast. There was a point where travellers were asked not to move about the boat as some big waves were coming up. Fortunately Lundy has a very good pub.)

Body boarding in Croyde Bay

Relaxed start to the day for me but three of the party went down to the beach at seven in the morning for a swim. Well I say seven but in reality even though Helen had prepared her stuff, she was still ferreting around and rustling about in our bedroom at 07:30! I got up at about 08:30 and made myself some breakfast, black cherry jam on toast and a mug of coffee.

The other came back at about 09:00 they had managed to get wet up to the ankles (ed: it was above the knee!) and complained that the water was cold. We sat around deciding what we should do with the rest of the day and someone suggested some body boarding. Great idea, so C & T and I got into our swimmers and headed down the lane to find an establishment that would rent out the kit. Our first stop was Baggy Lodge Surf Hire but there seemed to be no one on duty, so after trying to get some attention we headed down to the Croyde Surf school.

The surf school did not hire out kit without lessons but they kindly pointed us in the direction over the other side of the road where the caravan park shops are. We headed over and were soon kitted out with wetsuit, boots, gloves and a bodyboard each. We used the shops changing rooms to squeeze ourselves into the wetsuits, then wandered back across the road to the beach. We left Helen looking after the kit on a handy rocky outcrop and headed to the waves.

Surprisingly in a wetsuit the keeps you warm in the sea, unless you put your back into the wave then the water goes right down the neck and through the wetsuit giving you an all over chill. Being novices we took some time to figure out how to catch a wave, but after about half an hour we had figured that you needed to be not too far out, and wait for the wave that sucks you in before you launch yourself forward using the purchase you get from your feet on the sea bed.

Rather than go back to the shop we walked back to the hut to have a shower and extract ourselves from our wetsuits. Then I drove down to the shops with Helen and dropped off the gear. We had also decided to stay in and I had volunteered to cook pasta for dinner.

I had seen a recipe in the Tesco magazine for baked chick peas and J had purchased some while they were out for a walk near Appledore. You bake them with a teaspoon of olive oil and smoked paprika to which you add honey and seeds for the second part of the bake. It took a lot longer than the recipe but I think it was a combination of the oven and the fact I did double the quantity. I will try again at home, with my own trusted oven. They tasted fine with extra time in the oven.

I had a portion of the cheese cake I made earlier in the week. The middle was not divine but the edges were still split, so the fridge is not the answer. We watched the bake off then went to bed, C, T & J were going on a Lundy boat trip on Thursday the rest of us were undecided.

Pirate golf at Woolacombe and a long walk back

Grey start to the morning and another leisurely preparation for the day. We left in two cars to drive to Woolacombe for a round of Pirate golf. We took the really small lanes via Georgeham to Woolacombe, I suspect there may have been a longer but takes the same time route further in land. We had to do a lot of giving way, and had to reverse once. Confusion with a cyclist meant we had to sit behind them as they cycled up the road. The cyclist waved us past but in the confusion we missed the opportunity to pass and then the road narrowed, the cyclist shook his head in disgust!

At Woolacombe we parked up they have a car park where you pay £3 if you leave before 13:00 and £5 if you leave after 13:00, which means if you turn up at 16:00 and park for even 5 minutes it will cost you £5, is that the most expensive parking around? The pirate golf is an unusual 15 holes, and although it has a pirate theme that is more the surroundings than the golf itself. Each hole is basically a straight forward rolling patch of green carpet, some of the holes are in dips which makes getting a hole in one fairly simple and keeps people moving on. T was winning most of the time, until C awarded him a 7 on one hole, then I got a hole in one at the penultimate hole and pipped everyone for the win.

We grabbed a pasty from a little bakery on the front then headed down to the sea front benches to meet the non-golfers. Next activity was either the slot machines or a walk back. I opted for the walk back. We wandered down the beach along Woolacombe Sand towards Putsborough Sand. On the way we saw a dead young seal washed up, and a plastic crate that had what looked like mussels on stalks, they were still alive and were putting out tentacles as if they were trying to taste the sea. A look on Google when I got back but could not figure out what they were. At the Putsborough cafe I had a coffee and a slice of Banana Cranberry and Orange cake which was nice. At one point a squall passed over so we waited for the rain to stop, people taking shelter by returning to the cafe.

Next was the slog up out of the bay and onto the coastal path towards Baggy Point, about half a mile round we were hit by another squall and I had to get the poncho out, but it has seen better days and only managed to keep the worst of the rain off, luckily it was windy so we dried out quickly once the rain stopped.We decided not to go right round the point and took the route over the top that comes down into the national trust car park, but we sneaked over a field and came down just above the hut. The others got back an hour later. T ran back to Woolacombe to pick up his car!

For dinner we grazed on the contents of the fridge, most of it healthy.

A gentle walk from Saunton Sands to Croyde Bay

We woke a a reasonable 08:30 to rain, as expected, so we took our time with breakfast, followed by some card game version of Monopoly. By about 11 the rain had stopped and the weather looked good for taking photos. C&T were planning a bike ride and the others were going to Saunton Sands, so I hitched a ride.

I walked for a while on the beach at Saunton there were some surfers and bodyboarders. There was also a kite surfer, I think because the beach is not patrolled by the RNLI and as such kite surfers are allowed. It seems that kite surfers are often not welcome on beaches.

We walked about half a mile down the beach and then the others decided to head into the burrows, I chose that moment to head back to Croyde on foot, the burrows are sand dunes and therefore hard going under foot. I purchased some Polos from the souvenir shop, then headed up the stepped path to the famous hotel, and sneaked through the car park. Rather than the coastal path which heads high up above the road, and for a good part of it the view is obscured by the bushes. I thought it might be possible to walk below the road on the field.

It turns out you can’t walk in the field despite what looked like a path, so I ended up walking up the road. There are a few parking spaces along the road and I stopped and sat on the wall and took a time lapse of the view across Saunton Sands. At the end of the road the coastal path crosses and I was able to get down to the sea, for another time lapse. The tide was out so was able to walk straight across Croyde Bay which saves a lot of time. The hut is across the bay and up the coastal path, and there is a jetty you can take to get just about 100m from the hut.

Dinner was to be a fish and chip supper from the best chip shop in Braunton, South Sixteen fish and chips I volunteered to go and collect. After dinner we were planning some card games.