#1 The English coast

in #travel6 years ago

Norfolk is possibly one of the most rural places in Britain. The county doesn't even have a single motorway/highway/freeway/whatever it's called in your part of the world. Norfolk is famous for, among other things, the city of Norwich, Colman's Mustard, the Norfolk Broads, the actor, writer & comedian Stephen Fry, and Sandringham House, a country house which is the private residence of the Queen.

I live in the town of Great Yarmouth, which is more or less a stone's throw from one of the most fabulous things in the whole of the UK: the Norfolk coast. Great Yarmouth and the nearby town of Gorleston are an extremely popular destination for domestic holidaymakers, with wonderful stretches of golden sandy beaches.

Great Yarmouth beach.jpg

I took the above photo a couple of years ago. Friends of mine are always shocked when they see this for the first time - "you have this in the UK?!"

Great Yarmouth Beach - Sand
Yes, we do! :)

About 10 miles south of Great Yarmouth is the town of Lowestoft, which is just outside Norfolk. The beach isn't anywhere near as wide and tends to be very stony in places, but it's still very atmospheric:

IMG:Lowestoft coast

As you can imagine, these are very popular destinations for walkers (both with and without a dog) Local byelaws prohibit dog-walking on the beach during the main tourist season. Looking out to sea, it was raining pretty hard in the distance:

Lowestoft rain

One of the things that pictures don't show is how loud the sea can be. Fortunately it was a reasonably calm night. Sorry that the quality of this photo isn't particularly great. A better camera is certainly something on my shopping list. I was trying to capture the moonlight on the sea and the moonlit clouds, which still look pretty cool.

Yarmouth beach at night

Things get stonier as you go north as well as south. I like the dusk light. When you have been on a long walk along the beach, there is no better feeling than heading back towards the dusk light and putting your feed back on solid ground. The beach is lovely, but it's definitely a work-out for your ankles.

Great Yarmouth Dusk

The terrain gets very different as you start to leave Great Yarmouth and head towards the Scroby Sands Wind Farm, with large grassy tufts taking over.

Great Yarmouth Grass

The ruins of an old pier. I'm not exactly sure of the nature of this ship, but an educated guess would be something to do with the oil/gas/energy industry.

Great Yarmouth Pier & Ship

Hope you enjoyed the tour! :)