116 The Norfolk Broads

Friday 27th July

A quick decamp and a 500m ride down to the harbour for our 8:45 appointment with the boat. We were met at the harbour which was in reality more of a life boat station complete with slipway etc and issued with some large waterproof jackets. It was then onto the boat with 8 other guests The boat was one of those madly fast rigid inflatable boats (RIB) with twin 200hp engines. The captain was a small woman and the crew were two burly blokes !

We set off slowly with the warning that the sea outside the harbour area was very rough. In realty it was not that bad but the wind was blowing onto my side so I got soaked while Karen laughed. We saw 5 harbour porpoises on the way out. They are like dolphins but a lot smaller, black in colour and very shy. At last we has seen something whilst on a boat trip.

The captain then told us that as the sea was not too bad we would take the 1 hour trip to a small island that we could just see about 20 miles out west. It looked like it was covered in snow. We saw puffins, razor bills and guillemots amongst the se birds during the crossing. On arrival at the island we could see that the snow was in fact a 100,000 strong gannet colony.

The ‘snow covered' island.

It was incredible and as we drove around they took off almost all together. It was one of those sights that we had wanted to see for years and it was absolutely amazing.

When they took off it was amazing.

Also dotted around the island were numerous grey seals who kept a watchful eye on us and followed us around the island with their head bobbing up and down to see what we were up to.
We left the island for a long looped haul back to the harbour hoping with out success to see some dolphins. On the bright side, the wind was now on Karen's side and she got soaked through down to her underwear. I did laugh - a lot.
Once on dry land Karen set about finding a campsite and we got a space on a crowded site near Tenby. This time of year, especially at the weekends, finding a spot can be difficult. Add to that the fact the summer had finally arrived.

Wales was a beautiful place.

I am sure we will be back.

The campsite staff told us that they had never had a Landy with a roof tent on top, let alone one with a resident cat. As usual Gromit created a great deal of interest with campers coming up all afternoon to ask about it. I sorted out the TV and dish so we could see the opening ceremony of the Olympics. We go the barby in the go and at 9pm sat down to watch the ceremony which was actually better than we had expected. For me it was only spoilt by the Olympic flag being carried by Maureen Lawrence, (the woman that has made a career [and a lot of compensation from the police out of her sons murder and virtually blamed the police for it) and Chammy Chakravati, (the woman who represents Amnesty International and is constantly on TV whining about our immigration policy). To my mind it should be about sport not politics.

Camping in the sun at last.

Saturday 28th July
I let Karen have a sleep in today and got up to start striking camp and make the coffee. Karen went for a shower and I said I would pack everything away. This all went well till about 30 miles into our journey towards Great Yarmouth I suddenly realised that I had forgotten to put our coats, and several other items it the box on the roof. This would not normally be a problem but in this instance they were not inside Gromit but sat loose on the roof.
Bugger....
We pulled over and I climbed up onto the roof and found all the said items sat exactly where I had thrown them. Even the lightweight (but expensive coats) had not flown away. I was gobsmacked but very relieved.
At about the 160 mile point, we decided to stop at a McDonalds for a bite to eat. We consumed a cardboard flavoured fish thingy and on our return to Gromit I noticed our torch/lantern that we use in the tent at night was still sat on the bonnet being held in place by the shovel. I was obviously having an Alzheimer's kind of day.

We managed to sort out a small campsite about 200m from where we were due to pick the boat up from on Monday and decided to go all the way to Yarmouth in one hit. We arrived at about 7:30, parked Gromit on the spot and wandered off to the pub by the boat yard. No change there then. Unfortunately by the time we got in the pub they had stopped serving food 5 minutes earlier. We were having a great day but as they say, 'a bad day on the bike (OK Gromit) is better that a good day at the office'.

Sunday 29th July

Sunday being Gods day of rest, was appropriately honoured. We got up late, slowly devoured a ready made breakfast from a tin and then wandered down to do a bit of shopping at the local sell everything shop, Lathams, and yes, you guessed it, visited the pub. After watching a mother and father of a thunderstorm and having a pub meal that had been cooked several days ago followed by 2 pints of delicious Green King IPA and 2 rounds of 'lets see how long we can make this last' darts. We called it quits at 1 game each as we needed to go to bed sometime. We then wandered back to Gromit to watch the Olympics only to find that the cloth chairs, that we deliberately left out to get wet as a character building exercise, contained large puddles - bliss - and the satellite dish had decided to search for worms as opposed to Astra 2. Luckily for me it started to rain again whilst I was trying to realign the dish.

We finished the day in front of the TV and watched 2 valiant British ladies hammer the Canadians at Beach Volleyball (Oh Yeah). This was followed by Rebbeca Adlington getting our second Olympic medal.

Monday 30th July

A rapid decamp and Gromit was ready to roll at about 9am. We drove into Great Yarmouth to get some provisions for the upcoming nautical expedition, just the usual stuff, sextant, spare cannon, Jolly Roger etc. I decided I was looking too scruffy and went for a haircut and then following a delicious Subway bun, we descended upon Sainsbury's.

Whit an hour to spare we popped in to an antiquated boozer called the 'First and Last'. All morning the weather had been glorious and as we arrived at Herbert Woods boat yard in Potter Heigham, the heavens opened up.

After sitting the storm out we collected the boat, loaded it with all the food and other gubbins that we needed, had the quick 'this is how the bog works' and please don't wreck our boat, chat and we were off. The boat turned out to be a 5 berth but very well presented boat called Evening Light 3. Aside from 2 small criticisms, namely there was 6" of play in the steering wheel so we left a trail like a snake up the river, the other thing being it would not do more that 5mph which is OK most of the time but sometimes you need a bit of power to avoid the sailing craft who can literally do what they want and have legal priority.

Watch what happens when I twist this thing......er Nothing.

The boat was comfortable as evidenced by Leon.

Leon was a bit confused as to what was happening and decided to hide himself in one of the sleeping bags. After about an hour of us both steering the boat as though we were on a bob-sleigh run we moored up at a place called Womack Water, Ludham.
I (Karen) was inside the boat and Ray was outside practicing his knot tying skills when I noticed that it had gone very quiet. I went out to see Ray and he was white and very wet from the knees down. It turns out that he had slipped off the edge of the boat, fell on his thigh on the quayside and ended in the water between the boat and the bank with his feet in the water bent double over the bank.
Unfortunately he had hit his thigh quite badly. I took him inside and after getting into dry clothes, fed him ibuprofen with gin and tonic. After a while he seemed to brighten up. We decided to stay on board and had a nice quiet night.

Tuesday 31st July
Up early again and having plotted our route, set off after a leisurely breakfast. Just before casting off we heard a duck quacking loudly and then saw the noisy beast walking past the window on the outer walkway of the boat. It had not stopped raining all night and today did not appear to be any better - so off to the pub then. Actually we had planned a pub crawl but the first pub we passed had not opened yet. We were starting to get the hang of the steering by now and there were some straight stretches appearing in our wake.

Parked up at the boring pub at Wayford Bridge

Our first pub stop was about 11 miles up river at a pub called the White Horse at a place called Neatishead. It was a crotchety old place but the best pubs are. Then It was back in the boat for a 5 mile stint North to Wayford Bridge for the Wayford Bridge Inn which was one of those newly overhauled pubs without any soul but intended for posh folks (which did not really include us) and the prices reflected that too. It was Karen's turn to fall today and as we approached the shore she jumped off a bit too quick and fell flat on her bum into all the goose poo that was scattered all over that bank. I was a bit panicky as she disappeared beneath the front of the boat and I could not see if I was going to run her over or not. It was funny when I realised she was OK and just covered in poo
Next was a 1 1/2 mile punt to the Cross Keys at Dilham. This was by far the best pub. The owner was completely bonkers and as we were watching the Olympics on the pub TV was giving a series of witty comments and gave the pub a very homely and very British atmosphere. We stayed for 2 pints in this one and loved it. Then is was back to the boat for a very hot, spicy and delicious Spag Bol carefully crafted by the boss.

Wednesday 1st July....Doh!

 I got up first (no surprises there then) and made the coffee. Then when Karen got up and sat down to drink hers, I started the 'pinch, punch, first day of the month' war and for once I won - Wohoo.

EDIT:  Spot the deliberate mistake...its August. I paid for this as Karens brother John spotted this and I was repaid with a full broadside of "pinch, punch, first cock up of the month".

We sat for a short while watching a bright blue Kingfisher fishing from the quayside about 20m in front of us.

I was lucky to get this, they do not stick around long.

After a cooked breakfast we set off again. This time the sun was out and Karen sat on the bow (front) and took about 200 photos with the DSLR (i.e big) camera.

As if this isn't hard enough already.

There were lots of these wind pumps on the banks. They are all now unused and replaced by electric ones.

One of Karen's favorite birds, A crested Grebe.

An Egyptian Goose taking her kids for a walk.

What we did miss with the camera was a grass snake that was swimming across our front. We were so stunned at the sight of it that by the time we figured out that it might be a good idea to photograph it, it had gone into the reeds. Neither of us have seen one of these so it was quite exiting for us. (We are easily pleased).

It did not take Leon long to get used to the boat. As soon as he figured he could jump onto shore through the window he was off.

There were lots of swans about.

And some cheeky hungry ones too.

Karen was getting good at using the camera.

We finished the night in the middle of nowhere alongside some other boats and settled down to the Olympics again.

115 Lag Farm, Ripley bike meet and Bruces Chill on the hill.

Monday 2nd July
After escaping from Newcastle (the campsite felt as though we were being watched all the time) we plotted a route across country and over the Northumberland and North Yorkshire Dales to John and Tims house. They have a lovely rented cottage just outside Kirkby Stephen, sited in the middle of nowhere and between two mountain ranges. John was at work in London doing his best to help pay our pensions (he he). Tim, AKA Fluffy fingers had performed miracles on another sponge cake and as if to pay us back for John paying our pensions, he was getting us fatter. It was a pleasant visit but we needed to cut it short as we were on our way to the farm in Scotland. It was a brief visit for me (Ray) as the next day I set off for my annual adventure bikers meet in Ripley.

4,5,6,7,8th July
Leaving Karen to chill for a few days with her Mum and Dad, I set off for Ripley at midday and arrived about 6pm. The meet is for bikers who have an interest in two wheeled world travel and as you all know this features greatly in our retirement plans.

Ray Walton. Another Ray with a Super Tenere like us. We know each other from bike meets.

Although the meet is strictly 3 days, I had been cajoled into helping with the setup and admin of the event so got there two days early and pitched in. My official title was as team leader of the rubbish and recycling but it turned out to be domestic engineer (toilets etc) and mobile electrician too. Add to that the fact that the rain, as in the rest of the UK was biblical, I also got bleeped to dig a trench to relive the lake that had formed and was encroaching on the tented area. Actually despite the weather it was all good fun.

We needed to do something before the tents were taken over. The owners were out riding.

An inane grim from a very wet dogs body.

I met a psychotic guy there called Sjaak LLarrsson, a dutch, who had driven a 1000cc Yamaha R1 sports bike several times around the world, through deserts and tundra alike. (An R1 is designed to be used on good tarmac only). He is currently planning to ride the bike to the North Pole dragging a sled as sleeping accommodation. He makes his own ice studded tyres. He is a nut case in the purest sense.

The guy with the cap is the Dutch nutter

The rain abated for the Saturday and Sunday and allowed us to do the final clean up before setting off back at 55mph back to the farm in Scotland.

The final clean up.

9, 10 , 11, 12, 13, 14, 15th July.
We spent this week relaxing and doing some work on Gromit. He needed his wheel hubs rebuilding. The job was fairly simple but made more complicated by the fact that I do not know one end of a spanner from the other and that some of the parts that were supplied were the wrong ones. A days job ended up taking three - ho hum. All was well in the end and Gromit now drives much better.
Mum and Dad are having the usual stressful time that everyone has when house hunting but we tempered it by going out for a lovely meal in the Moraig Hotel (which had featured prominently in our wedding plans 13 years ago) to celebrate Karen's past and my upcoming birthdays.
I took time out to wash Dads quad bike and when he came home and saw it he just said "did they dispose of the old one for us". He looked a bit perplexed when he saw his quad "cowped" (on it's side as in upturned sheep) and having its belly tickled with the pressure washer.
Mum had made a suggestion to us and as a result we have decided to delay our trip to Africa next year and will be going to North and South America instead. Yipee, no visas (in advance) and no Carnet (the massive fee paid to the RAC to exempt import duties on vehicles). Now the good bit....it's going to be on Wallace. Two wheels at last.

Monday 16th July
Time for the off again and to continue exploring the UK. First stop was John and Tim's place. This time John was there as Tim was about to go back into hospital for another big operation on his sinuses. Again, fluffy fingers had done his magic and another delightful sponge was served up, of which we took half away with us. We camped that night at a site in Kirkby Stephen that is owned by an adventure riding buddy whom I had been getting drunk with 2 weeks previously at Ripley. The site, Takoda, was small and had all new first class facilities barring electricity and was very well kept by our hosts, Paul and Maria Holroyd.

Takoda camp site. Very well presented.

And the owner on the left. Guess where ?

Tuesday 17th July
We decided to take a look around Kirkby Stephen. It was another typically quintessential English villages, full of pride and nice people. Unfortunately, like the rest of Britain, the recession had hit and many shops had recently closed down.

Kirkby Stephen town Centre

More Kirkby Stephen

We then decided to take a look at and buy a pie and a pint so to speak, at the Tan Hill Inn. This is the highest Inn in the UK and frequently gets snowed in and 2 years ago, they were on the news for having 30 people stranded there for about a week following a New Years eve party. It was a smashing place, again, oldy worldy and British.

Tan Hill Inn, the highest inn in the UK at 1732 feet above sea level.

The inside. A proper pub

We then headed off South and intended to head for Buxton in the peak district but the roads were so slow (partly due to Gromit and partly due to them being windy mountain roads) that we kind of ran out of time and re-routed to the direction of Wales. We came across a small rope making factory in a village called Hawes in Wensleydale (which was fitting seeing as we were in Gromit !).
Prior to this we had been laughing with Paul Holroyd (the Kirkby campsite manager) about a particularly sad father that had taken his adolescent daughter for a day out to the factory for her birthday and here we were also visiting it - very sadly. In our defense, we did however stumble across it.

It don't get much sadder than this. A Rope making machine in full swing.

Anyway, I took photos whilst Karen kept herself busy rolling her eyes up at me. Yes, I knew what she was thinking.
We then down to a small campsite just outside Crewe, beside Oulton Park racing circuit. After getting our pitch we drove to the nearest pub intending to buy dinner but they had finished serving so we went hungry and immediately crashed out on our return to the campsite.

Wednesday 18th July
We struck camp and set off for Bruce and Lynn's place in the welsh hills. Just prior to their house we were stopped a a cattle grid by a bunch of very daft cows. They had blocked the road and regardless of how much noise we made they refused to move. In the end we used Gromits bull bars for their intended purpose.

They would not get out of the way.

On arrival they were both still at work and although the day had started nice, as is usual at their place, it started to rain. They had obviously had a lot as the place was awash with mud and it was extremely depressing to think that they were going to have an outdoor party in it. Bruce and Lynn arrived back from work and we all set off for Newtown to get the food for the BBQ etc and then adjourned to an Indian restaurant to round the night off and attempt to cheer ourselves up a bit.
Thursday and Friday 19th & 20th July
Karen had been clever enough to insist that we take our wellies and they came in very handy. The day was a wash out and we toiled to get the place ready for the party. Friday was a bit brighter but as they have had rain for 4 months the place was a complete mess with mud absolutely everywhere.

Saturday 21st July
Chill on the hill day. We finished off most of the preparation and unbelievably the ground had started to dry very quickly. When Billy, Bruce's life long friend arrived we put up the marquee. Well almost. Bruce being the super efficient chap that he is, did not think to place the mini bungees that hold the tent together with the tent. After an hours search it was sorted and all the guests started to arrive. It now had the makings of a good BBQ, which it turned out to be.
Karen and a few others decided to get stuck into the champagne very early on and it was not long before they were all pole dancing around the marquee poles. This was obviously a sign of what was to follow. When the BBQ was fired up Karen was happily dancing on one of the tables and I was wondering how long it would take an ambulance to get here. Fortunately I managed to video the whole affair, including the unceremonious get down/fall off the table. Unfortunately she has told me she will kill me if I publish it and I have to sleep sometime.
The whole night was thoroughly enjoyable and all the guests (except us) were husky dog racers as is Bruce. The bonfire was lit with the usual boy scout method of a 3 foot long blow lamp.

Bruce (in white) and Lynn (in red) at the Chill on the Hill bonfire.

All was well until Billy decided to burn a couple of beds having bought them 200 miles just for the purpose. At around 11 a small shower of rain persuaded everyone to retire to their tents and caravans for a drunken sleep but not before I managed to get a snap of Karen attempting to wake the dead with her karaoke singing. (She has always said that she would never do karaoke !)

And this is a capture of 'Karen, I don't do Karaoke'

Sunday 22nd July
Lynn with help from Karen and others cooked up a full English (Welsh !) breakfast for 34 people and then it was down with the marquee and all the guests slowly departed. At about 4pm Bruce announced that we were going to the seaside for the evening. We threw 4 of the 40 odd dogs in the back of his van and set off for the seaside just North of Aberystwith. We had a great evening and even had a Chinese take away on the way home.

Chillin out at the beach after the Chill on the Hill.

Monday 23rd July
Gromit was in need of a service having completed 6000 miles in just 3 months driving around Scotland. So I went out and got the bits and got on with the job.

Tuesday 24th July
My Birthday....
Karen and I went off to Aberystwith for the day and although we set off late and had to be back by 6 we had a great time in what is a dying seaside town.

Aberystwith's Welsh speaking university.

We spent a lot of time on the twin 'shoot em up' games which I am sad to say Karen won. We got back at 6 sharp and then set off back to the same (almost) seaside for a meal. After a very long and tiring day we just hit the sack.

The girls getting on it early on MY birthday !

Wednesday 25th July
We said our goodbyes to Bruce and Lynn who set off for work early and then we moved on too. We set off South through Wales and headed for another small seaside town called New Quay. On the way there we came across this place. Nuff said.

A local said that the town elders got together with a scrabble set, binned all the vowels and picked the rest at random !

On arrival at New Quay we realised that we had been here previously with Bruce and Lynn. Age is a cruel thing. We walked along the beach for a while and tried to get cut off by the incoming tide before hitting the fish and chip shop.

New Quay harbour

We later found a small campsite just outside town with only 3 other campers on it. Unfortunately, between them they had 5 dogs. This did not bother Leon too much, he just waved at them with his stump. They on the other hand took exception to this and would not stop barking (especially a bloody horrible little Jack Russel) when he was in sight.Needless to say we kept him in most of the time but he did make us laugh with his haughty antics.

Cat speak for 'Up your doggies'.

Thursday 26th July
A slow start and then it was off to St Davids City. This sounds rather grand but it is the smallest city in the UK and is only really a village but it does have a cathedral - or two.

The old and new cathedrals.

It is a lovely little place and we decided to book yet another boat trip for tomorrow morning to see if we could see the elusive big fish fins that have avoided us so well. As a stroke of luck, the boat owners own a small camping field near to the harbour so we got to stay overnight for free.   

St Davids centre.

 

114 Newcastle upon Tyne

Saturday 30th June
We spent the day visiting the land of the Geordies, Newcastle upon Tyne.
We had decide the previous day to get on one of those hop on hop off tour buses. We liked these as you get to see most things that ordinarily you would miss.
So we did a bit of internet research and found a parking place near one of the drop offs at about 1pm. It was at the Gateshead Sage music centre (Gateshead is basically part of Newcastle but on the south side of the Tyne.) The bus came almost immediately and we were off listening to an almost unintelligible language called Geordi and driving over the famous (for Geordies !) Tyne bridge.

The famous Tyne bridge. Complete with waste of money decorations.

A memorial to Queen Victoria.

One of the remaining towers of the castle.

George Stephenson and his sons. All famous engineers of which George invented 'Stephensons Rocket', a steam train that was seriously advanced for its age and set the scene for the golden age of steam trains.

We were on the bus for about 10 minutes and the commentary announced the stop for China Town.

There is one in every city. Including the Irish bar creeping in on the right.

Nice we thought, and got off for a Chinese meal. After about another 10 minutes wandering about we found a buffet menu and heartily chewed into as much Chinese nosh as we could eat without embarrassing ourselves too much.
Then it was back on the street and into 'Rosies Bar', about 5 doors along the street. It was a pub with a history that got its name from an Irish girl (Rosie !) who with a sugar daddy set up a very profitable and famous brothel at the venue. The sugar daddy died suddenly and Rosie went into depression. She was last seen briefly singing on the dockside of a ship about to part for New York in 1874.

Rosies Broth....er...Bar

These heads move sporadically and just enough to catch your eye and then stop. Its weird as when you look properly all is still. Makes you think you are even more mad that you give yourself credit for.

The gents toilet inside was a bit of an education. I suppose it did used to be a brothel after all.
 

Before you ask....No I didn't

But I can't say I didn't think about it.

By now it was about 3:20 and we decided to continue our bus ride. We went back to the stop and waited for the bus. We then noticed a timetable for the tour bus and saw that the last bus had gone about 15 minutes before. We had just paid £8 each for a 10 minute bus ride. Doh!
So it was now on foot for the rest of the tour.

George Gray. The outline designer of the city centre and an ex Liberal Prime minister. He is credited with civil reform and gaining extra rights for peasant farmers. He also had a hand in abolishing slavery and giving his name to a particularly foul smelling tea - Earl Grey.

Newcastle was a very friendly place and we did not at any time feel uneasy as you do in many cities. Our one criticism is that when new buildings had been erected they were soulless and made the place look clinical and dead. All in all though we liked the place.

This is the pedestrian Millennium Bridge. It hinges up to allow tall ships to pass. The deck is curved like the support beam - weird.

We then walked back to the dock area where Gromit was parked opposite and found a very lively bar on the quayside , the Pitcher and Piano. It was kickin man! Very busy with about 200 customers but again, all very friendly. I like Geordies, just wish I understood what they said.
At about 6pm, we crossed the Tyne, found Gromit and drove back to our campsite.

Sunday 1st July 2012.
Halfway through the year already. Where has the last 6 months gone ?
After the usual battle of "Pinch Punch first day of the month" which I lost, we decided to chill out for the day and watched the bike racing all day.

113 Tynemouth and Whitley Bay

Friday 29th June

After a restful night in the hotel and breakfast, we managed to get Leon talking to us after his night of abandonment.  We were looking to visit Whitely Bay, see the seaside, then book into one of the coastal campsites that boasted fantastic sea views and seaside town entertainment.  We reached Tynemouth first and on parking up, the beach was lovely, the sun was shinning and no one would believe that yesterday's weather had happened, well apart from the working people who couldn't get the train or got stuck in traffic jams where the road was still littered with debris!
Where we parked up was an aquarium called "Bluereef", so we decided to visit.  After paying and being stamped with black ink on our hands for the privilege, (apparently this was so we could enter and leave and re-enter at will), we had a wander round.  We were beaten back by classes of 6 year olds' having school trips, so we walked round a bit sharpish.  It was enjoyable, small, but every effort made to make it interesting.  It also had a couple of otters, 4 seals and some monkeys.  All very cute. 

Just some of the examples of species

Check out the teeth on this!

Anyone brave enough to burst his bubble?

I'm beautiful, so why the down in the mouth look?

Err Hello, I don't do water.  Give me another grape.

Whitely Bay, was also small, but the beach was beautiful again.  Unfortunately, like everything else in this country at the moment, lots of businesses were shut down and it was very quiet.  We did the seaside thingy of fish and chips, and then went into one of the amusement arcades and became excited 10 year old's for 20 minutes. 

First time I've seen electric  points in a car park, Ray just had to recharge his batteries!

Whitely Bay

We had spent some time searching out possible campsites, and drove to two of them.  The first one couldn't take us as it was all static holiday homes, and the second one was much the same, but very expensive for one wee tent on a land rover.  Plan B.  We went inland and found one in the middle of nowhere on a farm, but after all the rain, even we would have struggled to get out. We finally found one called Derwent Holiday Park, near...........  We have been told it is only 10 minutes to Newcastle, but it took us nearly 2 hours to get here again from south Newcastle.

We did pass The Angel of the North, and weirdly enough it is in the middle of several major roads near a housing estate, I thought it was in the middle of nowhere.

Anyway we have booked in here for the next 3 days.  After rather a fraught time with the campsite little Hitler, and reading the 8 pages of don't s we have decided to be out all day and only come back when everyone else is asleep......