Southwold and Gunton Warren
Norfolk has a lot to offer. Its seaside walks show stunning views, where quite often you can simply walk to the cliff face and look down and out, peaceful countryside, and if you need more excitement, Norwich is a reasonably-sized city with plenty going on. Jen and I set off early on Friday morning, stopping off in Southwold in Suffolk on our way to our air bnb in Norwich. We weren’t there for very long – Southwold is not a large town by any means, but it is beautiful, with lovely sandy beaches, rustic pie shops, and the Adnams brewery, which I certainly wouldn’t mind getting to know better if I ever got the opportunity. We also stopped by Gunton Warren – a little nature reserve right on the coast, with rolling sand dunes and broken jetties, it certainly wasn’t busy when we were there, perhaps due to the cold wind coming in off the sea, but this tucked away little patch of peacefulness must surely be a great hit with the locals in warmer weather.
Air BnB
After our stroll around the Warren we drove to our Air Bnb and checked in. We were staying in this little basement level flat, below the main house that our hosts lived in. It was really well located, about a 15-20 minute walk to the centre of town, and was very well decorated and super clean. The bed was a bit weird, in that it was essentially the top half of a bunk bed, with the wardrobe and chest of drawers below. Because it was a basement flat, the ceilings were not very high, so when I was lying flat on the bed I could touch the ceiling with a bent arm! But the bed was very comfortable, and when our host came round to visit us he told us he had recently bought a new proper mattress for it to replace the previous foam mattress, and we would be the first to use it, which was a nice little bonus!
Friday evening out
For our first evening in Norwich we decided to go into town and explore a little bit. One of the things that I noticed was that the streets were extremely clean, which was definitely a big mark in Norwich’s favour. Although it was Friday night, the streets themselves were fairly quiet, a few people out and about but nothing raucous or unfriendly that we noticed. We went for a drink at Gonzo’s Tea Room – although the main bar had been hired out for an event, we could go up to the rooftop bar for a drink there. We were told by the barman that it was the first night that the rooftop bar had been open that year, and so the drink options were a bit limited, but it was really nicely decorated and had some heat lamps to help protect from the evening chill, so is definitely somewhere I would recommend. We also went for dinner at Namaste India, a small fully-vegetarian restaurant where we were glad we’d booked a table, as it was extremely busy. The layout of the restaurant definitely wasn’t ideal, as the kitchen was up a full flight of stairs, so the staff had to keep bringing full trays of food down the stairs to serve to the diners – not a task for the faint hearted or clumsy! I would have probably dropped a full tray of food twice a day if I’d worked there. I quite liked the food but I don’t think Jen was as keen, as a lot of it was quite spicy. I also had terrible gas in the night, which I know Jen was not so keen on. After our dinner we slowly made our way back to the Air Bnb, stopping off for a drink in the Black Horse, which was just around the corner. This is also somewhere I would recommend to anyone in the Norwich area, the drinks we had were really good and not too expensive, and the barman was even kind enough to bring them over to our table for us, as we’d ordered cocktails and he didn’t want to keep us waiting standing at the bar.
Horsey Beach
An unfortunate truth of me and Jen going away together is that it’s pretty rare for us not to forget something. The casualty left back in London this time was our walking boots, which was pretty unfortunate as we had lots of exploring we wanted to do on our only full day in the area. It was probably my fault – I thought about our walking boots while we were packing up the car. “Jen’s such a marvel” I thought to myself – “I can’t believe she managed to fit our boots into this little case, even after we’d put all our clothes in it! She must have packed them when I wasn’t looking.” Of course, this was not the case, and our boots were left sitting there forlornly for us to discover when we got back. Jen was fine, as she’d packed some old trainers she didn’t mind getting dirty, but I was wearing some smart-ish trainers that I didn’t really want to get sand, mud, or anything else all over, so we had to make a brief stop-off in town to get some more rough-and-ready trainers. Mission accomplished, we headed out to Horsey Beach, which is another lovely beach just outside of Norwich. Like the Gunton Warren, there are no facilities or cafes or anything, so you can only eat or drink what you bring with you, but it’s a beautiful spot with lovely soft sand, and also, if you’re lucky enough to spot them, plenty of seals! The best time to see them is late Autumn through to Spring, as they come to Horsey Beach to have their pups, but when we went in late March there were still plenty there – I counted about fifty lying on the beach at one point, and loads more visible swimming in the sea. Generally speaking they don’t do much – although one adventurous pup did shimmy quite a distance up the beach towards the people – but it’s still such a wonderful experience to see them so close, and in such large numbers, and Jen was thrilled that they were there, as she was worried they would have left for the year by the time we got there. It was particularly funny to see one seal rest its flipper on another, only for the other one to wriggle in obvious discomfort, and expend quite a bit of energy to shuffle away. They are certainly not the most graceful of land movers.
Happisburgh walks
After a pub lunch at the Nelson Head (another recommendation, their prices are pretty cheap and their portion sizes are enormous!) we set off for a circular walk in the countryside, which was meant to be centered around the lighthouse in Happisburgh. This is yet another English name where the spelling and the pronunciation are very different, as the name should apparently be pronounced "Haze-bruh" - obvious, when you look at it really! (I hope you can sense the sarcasm.) Unfortunately, the walk took longer than we were anticipating it would, so we had to cut some of the ending short, including the bit that would have taken us around the lighthouse, although we did make time at the end to actually visit the lighthouse to see what the fuss was all about, as we were parked nearby. The walk itself was very picturesque, but also a bit eerie in places. The cliff side near Happisburgh is extremely prone to erosion, which has caused the people who live/come on holiday many problems, as lots of houses that were built closer to the edge had to be abandoned when they became unsafe. There was a plaque all about this towards the end of the walk, which was very educational as I actually had no idea about it whatsoever. But near the start of the walk we went through a plot of land set aside for motor homes and trailers and that sort of thing – most of the trailers were gone, and the land itself had a very abandoned feel to it, as there were pipes and stuff jutting out of the “trailer patches”, and a large pipe sticking out of the cliff to let waste flow into the sea. The edge of the cliff was clearly not safe to walk on – there were large patches where the cliff face had eroded below the surface, so that the turf and soil were still clinging on to the mainland, but there was nothing supporting it from beneath. However, there was no guard rail or anything, just one sign near the start of our walk advising us to stay away from the cliff edge. There were very few people around, one cyclist going the other way, and one jogger as well, but we didn’t see anyone else other than that, and the isolation added to the feeling of desolation. But the view was stunning, with the ocean spreading for miles to the right of us, and because the land was so flat we could see huge distances inland to the left of us as well. After a quick trip to take some photos of the lighthouse, we went back to the Airbnb, tired out from all the fresh air.
Boat Trip on Norfolk Broads
On our last morning in Norwich we decided to do a boat trip around the Norfolk Broads. Although it was quite sunny, there was a chill wind which made it feel absolutely freezing, especially once we were out on the water. The Broads themselves were very interesting, a large warren of narrow waterways occasionally opening up onto much wider lakes. As the tour guide explained to us all, the broads were also extremely important nesting sites for various different waterfowl, so they’re now quite highly protected, and you can’t go tearing up and down them in speedboats or anything. We saw quite a few different species of birds, some nesting, some just pottering around, and also some beautiful houses that people had built on the area. I felt quite a pang of jealousy as we slowly cruised by, thinking how nice it would be to be able to look out on the water from the comfort of your own home.
Overall, I was very impressed with Norwich and Norfolk. With wide open spaces and plenty of opportunities for getting out and exploring in the countryside, it hardly feels like a city area at all, but the city centre itself is very nice, with loads to do, but is also very clean, which always leaves a nice impression. I would be happy to go back to Norwich again.
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