Having arrived in sunshine last Friday lunchtime and having spent the following four days in sunny, if slightly windy conditions, today dawned with a grey overcast. The noticeable easterly wind was still with us and and has seemed to be something of a feature here. I consulted the weather forecast for the following few days: grey with the risk of some showers. I’d had a very pleasant, probably better than could reasonably be expected at the beginning of October, 5-night stay. I’d pretty much done the things on my to-do list.

For the remainder of the week, the grey skies weren’t going to suit any landscape photography. More cycling around the lanes would have been enjoyable but less so in the prevailing stiff breeze. I checked the forecast at home: worse, if anything, but by leaving today, I should be able to get Guillaume parked in his home field without getting soaked.

Decision made. Guillaume and I packed up and returned home for a slightly early bath, carefully avoiding the current travel nightmare that is the A11 around Thetford.

The Norfolk Broads is a network of waterways based upon three main rivers: the Yare flowing mainly east-west between Norwich and Great Yarmouth, the Bure to the north and the Waveney to the south. I’m somewhat familiar with the first two but have never investigated the Waveney. The forecast today was average, dry with cloud and sunny intervals, so I thought I’d try somewhere on the Waveney.

On my newly acquired OS map, I spotted a parking area in something called Waveney Forest, just outside the village of Fritton on a bend in the river Waveney. I found it, parked and went off on foot. Dull! That’s “Dull” with a capital “D”. I think it had capital “U”, “L” and “L” as well. This was a managed conifer plantation with a muddy bog for access to teh river upon which there seemed to be nothing happening. The most interesting thing I spotted was a Tesco Extra on the way there but it was too early in the day to go shopping for perishables. Time for plan-B.

On our June trip here, we’d missed out on one of the main dragonfly attraction spots, the RSPB’s Strumpshaw Fen reserve. [Being a sick puppy, I can’t help but turn that title into The Strumpshaw Redemption. Great movie!] The weather turned out to be considerably better than forecast, clear and bright, though still a little windy; Strumpshaw would do. I left DULL with a capital D-U-L-L as swiftly as I legally could.

Originally, I had been looking forward to some walking up here but the OS map for this neck of the woods shows few footpaths, certainly few that can be linked together into a circular walk. Strumpshaw Fen, however, provided just what was missing. I paused at the hide near the reception to snap a Grey Heron indulging in some fishing, then went off on the 5 kms or so circuit. To be honest, I saw little else of interest, other than the usual dragonflies of the late season, but it was a very pleasant saunter in some peaceful countryside.

The last part of the circuit takes the walker across a used railway line with, of course, dire warnings about, “stop, look, listen” before you attemp to cross lest you get ploughed down by the 3:15 to Norwich. I couldn’t help risking life and limb by standing in the tracks and snapping a shot along the lines, just because it was a rare opportunity in our over-protected society.

I needed food supplies and wasn’t far from Tesco at Sprowston so that was my next port of call. A day off cooking appealed but all I could reasonably find were some coked king prawn, just the ticket with some aioli. I fancied something more exciting with it, though. Ah, I’d be returning through Wroxham where the famous Roys sells dressed crab. Plan-C, dressed crab with king prawns and aioli, swung into action. After securing my dressed crab, with the waterfront bathed in late afternoon sunlight, I thought I’d better snap it for posterity.

I was also forced to snap this sign outside a local butchers shop. I realize that butchers usually have a highly developed sense of humour/cheek but I guess this could be serious. If it is serious, it begs the question, “how do they know, though?”

Dinner beckons: dressed crab and prawns with aioli, all washed down with a cold bottle of Viognier – just the ticket!

Lazy for me, that is. It was somewhat less lazy for my friend of many years, recently retired [congratulations], who rode his motorcycle up from Suffolk to visit me during my stay in Norfolk. I spent a casual morning on camp duties preparing Guillaume for a visitor and carefully avoiding breakfast since we planned to have lunch together.

We were reunited at 11:00 AM and, after the obligatory catch-up natter, sauntered down to Ludham Bridge to enjoy the local scenery. [This is an evening shot rather than midday, to get better light quality, but it gives you the idea.]

Then the worms were biting so we drove the five miles or so into Horning in search of a favourable hostelry. Bingo! Not only was there one with tables beside the river but it also sold both Adnams Bitter (for the motorcyclist) and Adnams Broadside, which is one of my personal great favourites. The curly kale accompanying my fish pie was decidedly cool but, hey, I was eating out in the sun on the last day of September and it was one of my five-a-day. 😀

Our afternoon entertainment was a return (for me) to Thurne to see the classic Norfolk scenery of boats and windmills/pumps. We also were entertained by a pair of tourists attempting to dock one of the many rental bath tubs pleasure boats.

Mr Tourist was at the helm (is that the correct term?) while Mrs Tourist sat on the bow armed with the bow line. Mrs Tourist was, shall we say, a little lumpy and seemed incapable of jumping onto shore in order to tie off the bow line. Ever the gentleman, I offered to take the bow line for her, for which she seemed very grateful, as she proceeded literally to crawl off the bow of the boat and onto shore on her hands and knees. She struggled to her feet and eventually wrapped the line around a mooring post but, I think, didn’t allow enough slack. Assisted by the wind which was blowing off-shore, with Mrs Tourist pulling the rounded bow into shore, the stern made its way back out into the middle of the river despite Mr Tourist fighting gamely to correct the situation employing copious quantities of  throttle and rudder.

Great fun! I’m not sure how Mr & Mrs Tourist will survive the week. I stopped watching for while. Eventually they did get docked ‘cos I did spot Mr Tourist clambering ashore with the stern line. And [artistic license – beginning a sentence with a conjunction] I certainly couldn’t embarrass Mr & Mrs Tourist further by taking a photograph. Instead, here’s another take of one of the two wind thingies at Thurne.

The temperature must have dropped; the fridge had frozen my spring onions and mushrooms intended for my evening meal of Coq au Caravan. Drat! I made do.

Another beautiful day dawned and, after Guillaume and I arose in an unhurried fashion, I pedalled off into Ludham to the local shop to secure a few more cans of beer and some nibbles during their Sunday morning opening hours. Three of Guillaume’s immediate neighbours packed up and left but unfortunately not the two small, irritatingly yappy dogs two pitches to his right. Pity. One of the wardens wandered around collecting pitch marker pegs. 🙁

By the time I’d made myself a sandwich for lunch on my day’s travels, it was darn nearly midday so I thought I might as well just eat it in situ and keep Guillaume company in the sun. I spotted one of the resident Migrant Hawkers (Aeshna mixta) flitting about near the hedge beside Guillaume. It hung-up. I grabbed camera, monopod and caravan step for added elevation and snapped away, temporarily ignoring my half eaten sandwich. This was a male. Then, just two feet to its right, I spotted a female Migrant Hawker also hung-up. I shifted the caravan step two feet right and snapped away again. Back in June, Guillaume had a Norfolk Hawker (Aeshna isosceles) hung-up in the bushes of his pitch, now he had a pair of Migrant Hawkers. Lucky Guillaume!

In June, Francine and I had made an unsuccessful attempt at finding Odos in the Winterton Dunes Nature Reserve. Acting on sketchy information, we had made our assault through the sands from the north, eventually retiring fed-up. Today, armed with more accurate information from a fellow fan, I thought I try again by attacking through the sands from the south. I trudged two miles north and found what I thought must have been the pool of main interest. I say “have been” because there wasn’t a great deal of water left. Neither could I discern any signs of  Odonata life. I’d scared up Common Darters (Sympetrum striolatum) en route but that was it. Wrong time of the season, I guess. I retired fed-up and trudged two miles back south scaring up the self same Common Darters again. Not too bad a walk, I suppose, the sand was a little firmer from the south.

The time was now 2:30 PM so I didn’t want to go too far afield. However, the Upton Fen and Marshes Norfolk Wildlife Trust nature reserve was just 20 minutes away so I gave that  try. As luck would have it, clouds decided to roll in at about 3:00 PM suppressing much in the way of activity. All I did was scare up a few of the usual seasonal suspects with no photo opportunities.

Heading back intent on one of my newly acquired beers with Guillaume, I acted on a whim and diverted to Thurne. Good decision; here I found a small marina and not one but two iconic Norfolk windmills – actually, I think they are wind pumps for managing water levels in the marshes, but windmill always seem to sound more natural. – one of which was in the company of an attractive sailing boat. [I’ve given this a rudimentary monochrome treatment to try and get over the rather dull sky.]

So, with two more blanks at nature reserves today, I’ve done rather better on the campsite beside Guillaume. Fear not, I remain a great fan of nature reserves. Here in Norfolk, the combined forces of the RSPB and the Norfolk Wildlife Trust are doing a wonderful job preserving wildlife habitat which, of course, is the very reason there are Odos beside Guillaume in his campsite. 😉

For a few years following my father’s retirement, my parents lived in Norfolk. They moved to the strangely named village, historically two villages, of Repps with Bastwick, as seen on the modern road sign, or, as can still be seen on the village sign using the much more intriguing Latin, Repps cum Bastwick. Until this year, when we popped up in June mainly in search of a localized dragonfly, the Norfolk Hawker (Aeshna isosceles), I hadn’t visited Norfolk for over 20 years. In addition to finding the specialized wildlife, renewing our acquaintance with the picturesque Norfolk Broads was great. I suspected we’d be back.

We have recently returned from a 2-week walking trip in Tuscany, which was also our first visit to Italy in more than 20 years. Having been back at home for just five days, Francine turned right around and went straight back to Italy in the company of her mother to give the 91-year-old a treat. Actually, I think Francine really wanted to continue gelato comparisons in a newly begun effort to find the best Italian ice cream maker.

So, yours truly was to be left home on his Jack Jones. With the year now dying, the offer of redecorating the kitchen was unappealing and, interesting though 2013 has been in regards to pastures new (Singapore/Cambodia, Spain in summer, Tuscany), I had a couple of withdrawal symptoms brewing (France, New Forest). The idea of a solo trip in Guillaume formed; Guillaume would keep me company; we’d have a sort of male bonding trip. 🙂 I checked the weather forecasts and it seemed set to collapse both in the New Forest and in France. Curses! However, the poor weather looked to be arriving a little later in points further north and east, Norfolk looked good. I booked back into the Caravan Club site near Ludham.

This morning the alarm went at 4:30 AM. Franco-no-mates was booked to take Francine over to the aforementioned 91-year-old mother to board their 6:40 AM coach back to Italy. This time, they were to visit Lake Maggiore. Duty done, I returned home, loaded the car with a few essentials including my bicycle and, this time, a key to unlock it from the carrier :D, and prepared to set off. Norfolk should be about 2½ hours away but I also needed a fuel stop before collecting Guillaume. With a check-in time of 12:00 noon, I hit the road at 9:00 AM.

Sometimes, the simplest of things seem difficult. I headed for Asda about 10 miles away ‘cos it usually has the cheapest fuel around. Making a special journey there is a false economy ‘cos you use all the saving getting there and back. However, in this case, it was en route so made sense. The queues however, did not. Half the pumps were out of action and the remaining few had the diesel nozzles covered. I went on to a couple of nearby Shell stations where I found more covered-up diesel nozzles. Yikes! What gives? Back to Tesco near to my original Asda port of call. Phew! Not only was diesel available but, unusually, it was a little cheaper than Asda. However, at this point I really didn’t care what I paid for it. Much relieved with a brim full tank, I went to get Guillaume and we hit the road at 10:00 AM.

We sailed along nicely until we hit road works widening the A11 around Thetford when we began to crawl along nicely and very slowly, in between complete stops, that is. I’m sure the end result will be worth it but it’s causing complete havoc in both directions. Guillaume and I finally checked-in at Ludham at 1:00 PM. The good news is that the weather was great and our favourite pitch, on grass tucked away in a corner, was free so I snagged it and we got installed. Guillaume was absolutely delighted.

A late afternoon/early evening saunter along the River Ant from Ludham Bridge proved a very pleasant way to unwind from the frustrations of the journey. I took the wildlife lens along. There were lots of uncooperative Migrant Hawkers (Aeshna mixta) and slightly more cooperative female Common Darters (Sympetrum striolatum) but nothing else with a heartbeat.

The evening light was wonderful. I even took a shine to a plant’s seed pods in it. If my botanist were here, I might know what the plant is. 🙂 I would have been better taking a landscape lens so let’s hope I get a repeat opportunity to correct my error.

[Francine and mater are spending night #1 at Saarbrücken in Germany. I hope they are comfortable.]