On Sunday we had one of those irritating days where you have to wait in for something for a 'time slot' of four hours which is pretty much half the daylight so it was an early-ish start to make the most of the day. I suggested we head to the coast to ring the changes. Last year we took a disastrous new year's day trip to Wells Next The Sea and got trapped in half the population of Norfolk also trying to park which was miserable. Predictably, on a misty Sunday morning in February nobody else really fancies a beach walk so it was delightfully quiet. On land the mist was everywhere but all of a sudden at the coast it tailed off (and even looked sunny for a bit).


Not a breath of wind about, the sea looked so peaceful.
Below: I was impressed with someone's castle building efforts. This is old school fun.

The wonderful thing about the Wells to Holkham stretch is that it's so vast that you can almost always escape the crowds and feel like you are hogging all the tranquility to yourself.

The recent tidal surge must have given the dunes a real beating. Many of them looked open-faced and depleted.

You can see what I mean about the mist. We reached the end of the cloud.



It seems some mighty big dogs have been roaming around the beach... Bears maybe?!

We parked in the beach car park and were once again shocked by the prices (I'm sure they have gone up again). £3.50 for up to 2 hours, £5 or 6 for up to 4 hours then £8 for all day. When we have our next trip I will allow much more time and park somewhere remote and make a very long walk from the town. So expensive. The beach cafe is having a revamp at the moment and there is now a Joules shop on site too. It's a shame that the thousands generated in revenue from the parking haven't been able to upgrade the toilets as yet. Maybe the Holkham Estate is saving up the pennies.

The landscape along the coast is so diverse; dunes, grasses... the pine forest trying to encroach further onto the beach. I find it fascinating.
Sophie