A HOLIDAY WITH A DIFFERENCE.

This blog is one that I never intended to write. As a few of you will know Sue and I spent most of last week in Norfolk, at a place called Walcott to be precise. Walcott is a village almost on the Norfolk coast between Great Yarmouth and Cromer.We had come to this part of the world to attend my Motorcycle Clubs Annual national Rally, this club is for enthusiasts of the Honda V engined CX and GL models. So, perhaps to start off i should say the rally was a great success. It was held in a Caravan/Camping field at the "Lighthouse Inn, Walcott. The organisers did us proud with, lge Marquees, Hog roast, Breakfast each morning, and wonderful organisation of events, ride outs etc, we thoroughly enjoyed it. (I intend doing a future blog on this).
Now we come to the main content of this blog, which, I must say is not normally me. After the three day Rally we stayed on a few days to check out the area, its nearly 350 miles from us in Devon so its not a place to nip up to for the day.We went into Norwich, Gt Yarmouth, Cromer,Mundersley, Wroxham and several other places, including several lighthouses. The nearest Lighthouse to us at Walcott was the one 1/2 a mile away at Happisburgh (below).On the Sunday because the weather was wet and windy and very dull, we decided to go to this lighthouse, when we arrived we were the only ones there so were told that if we wanted to climb to the top we could. Now if you have ever seen inside a lighthouse, you will know that to get to the top you have a spiral stone staircase winding around the wall, this has only a waist high open handrail (and I'm not great with heights). After a little deliberation we decided (with more than a little trepidation) to give it a go.As we were the only ones going up we figured that at least we wouldn't have to squeeze past others as they passed in the opposite direction.Only looking in an upward direction the whole way (around 300 steps) we eventually arrived at the top (i was cream crackered), our guide then pointed out a lot of the landmarks to us, he said he walked up an down up to 30 times a day, rather him than me. Now the journey back down was something else, talk about underwear problems, blimey, anyway we eventually did get down. Now back to our Guide, after pointing all the sights out to us he then informed us that the lighthouse although fully operational, would probably not be there in 35 to 40 years due to coastal erosion. Also pointing to an area of coast that 40 years ago was a hamlet of 15 or 16 houses, all of which have now been swallowed by the sea.During the last two winters alone they have lost over 25 metres of coast. The very small cliffs in the area are made of what looks like sandstone and erodes so very easily. The guide told us that not only rising water levels due to global warming but this erosion actually puts the whole of the popular Norfolk Broads system under threat.At this moment in time, as serious as the problem is, nothing at all is being done on the Defence of the coast in this 10 to 15 mile stretch.So if you like me hadn't realised these sort of problems existed, please read the links at the bottom of this blog and maybe sign the partition to get aid to fight against the loss of Broads,Coast and even property.

I found this article (below) on the web.

EDP: “Visitors lobbied over Broads threat”

Holidaymakers visiting a part of Norfolk Broads which could be left to the power of the North Sea were yesterday warned about contentious plans to give up sea defences in the area.

Hundreds of trippers in Potter Heigham were stunned to be told about a scheme to surrender 25 square miles of the broads and six villages to flooding.

Read the full story by Anthony Carroll on the EDP website

Filed under: North Norfolk, Press Article —

Sorry about the quality of pictures but the rain made the windows mucky.
Please click on any picture to enlarge it.
The picture below shows how close the sea is to these houses, only 25 years ago they all had large seaside gardens.If you enlarge this picture, at the caravan you can see two or three people examining the edge of their garden where erosion is taking place in these wild sea's.
Our Guide told us that this area in the bay(picture below) was where only a few years ago a small hamlet stood.
Its just a pity these windows were so dirty, making the pictures hazy.In the distance is a caravan /Camping site I'm not sure i would want to be in during a storm.
I put this picture below in to show on the left the glass of the actual light.
The next few pictures show the very pebbly beaches all around this area, note the Crab and Lobster fishermens boats. These boats are pulled up and down to the sea each day by a caterpillar like tractor unit, the day we visited they had several baskets of Crabs/Lobsters.
This part of the Norfolk Coast is as you can see very quiet and peaceful.You can see the very small 20 to 30 ft high cliffs, also the colour of them which to me looks decidedly sandy and weak.
Again here this view of these cliffs look very soft and frail.
So please read these links, and go on to other sites linked again to this one, perhaps signing the petition too.

http://www.happisburgh.org.uk/gallery/mikepage/index_html?&start:int=84

http://www.happisburgh.org.uk/

Joke of the day.

Three women: one engaged, one married, and one a mistress, are chatting
about their relationships and decided to amaze their men. That night all three will wear black leather bras, stiletto heels and a mask over their eyes.After a few days they meet up again for lunch.
The engaged woman: 'The other night when my boyfriend came over he found me with a black leather bodice, tall stilettos and a mask. He saw me and said, 'You are the woman of my life. I love you.' Then we made love all night long.'
The mistress: 'Me too! The other night I met my lover at his office and I was wearing the leather bodice, heels, mask over my eyes and a raincoat. When I opened the raincoat he didn't say a word, but we had wild sex all night.'
The married woman: 'I sent the kids to stay at my mother's house for the night. When my husband came home I was wearing the leather bodice, black stockings, stilettos and a mask over my eyes. As soon as he came in he said,
'What's for dinner, Batman?''