A Traumatic Move to Kessingland & the Boys Join Us - 26th Aug ‘19

Another moving day ... another scorcher!

The pack up went quickly and smoothly. The pitch was a bit of a disaster- I think a case of over confidence kicked in? I will expand later...

We left Seacroft Cromer at 11 and arrived at White House Beach Kessingland at about 12.45. Pros and cons of Seacroft will follow but firstly the tale of woh ...
1) I didn’t plan the trip (again!) so the postcode on the sat nav took us to a housing estate! We had to a couple of very tight turns to get out and then climb into the van to get the site book to get the correct directions!
2) We had lots of pitches to chose from but for some unexplained reason I panicked and just took the first one we came to!
3) I tried to back Brunnehilda on, failed dismally so had to motor move her. I had her stuck in the middle of the road with a guy waiting to get by and I couldn’t engage the mover for ages!
4) Once I got her moved, I placed her too close to a tree - Isabella wouldn’t fit in - so I had to put the corner stays back up and move her over a few inches.
5) Turns out I should have moved her over a couple more inches as the porch is now rubbing on a branch and the next door neighbour is going to struggle to get his electric hook up out as Isabella is right on top of his wires!

Laura arrived with the boys at about 6 pm just as I was putting the finishing touches to Isabella - pegging her out and putting down the carpet. Earlier we had to take a break from putting her up in the sizzling heat for me to take dip in the sea to cool down. This site is right on the beach - literally across the road. About 5 mins from door to water.

                         

The beach was very atmospheric - I think the heat was causing a bit of a heat haze effect? The water was about perfect although I would have personally preferred sand than Suffolk pebbles buy hey, you can’t gave everything!

Once we got the beds ready in Isabella, we headed out to Southwold for the evening. I took the Twinnies to the beach while fish and chips were purchased from the same chip shop we went to last week. The Twinnies built up an appetite by pebble chucking. Of course they managed to get their feet wet which grandad got the blame for!?

We ate the chips overlooking the sea with the Southwold lighthouse lightening the sky. Finishing quickly to enable us to get an ice cream from H&J’s before they shut at 9 - and a bloody nice one it was too. Kim had Mango which was very special.

Back to Brunnehilda for the beds up, jarmers on and to bed routine. Kim and I are in Isabella, Laura and Harry in the main bed with Charlie and Finners in the dinette bed.

As promised, pros and cons from Seacroft Club Site, Cromer:
Pros:
1) Great position for walking to Cromer (15 mins) and East Runton beach (10 mins)
2) Superb facilities. Perfect loos and showers and even a swimming pool - although we didn’t use it!
3) Good 4G
Cons:
1) Price - the most expensive one so far
2) Not very friendly folks around us. I have a theory which I will expand on some time soon
3) Busy road to pull out onto - especially if turning right
4) Pitch didn’t allow awning

A Delightful Day in Dunwich - 18th Aug ‘19

A similar day to yesterday - not that that’s a bad thing. Yesterday was fab and ...so was today!
Lots of walking, plenty of sea air and a generous amount of sunshine.

We started the day of with breakfast out at the nearby Emmerdale Farm Shop cafe - the Red Poll Tearooms. Lovely people but at best a 5 out of 10 for the breakfast. The heavens opened for about an hour so, when we arrived at Dunwich Beach car park we were forced to read for a bit until it stopped. The sun obligingly came out at about 1pm and it stayed out until sunset.

After the deluge we walked along the very quiet shingle beach towards Sizewell. I managed to get a swim at a particularly secluded part of the beach - no access due to a dangerous looking cliff. The water was a little prickly when getting in but, like all sea swims, was absolutely gorgeous after 30 seconds of flapping about like a lunatic. I have also rather alarmingly noticed that I tend to have a bout of turrets when I plunge myself into cold water. The language,  I seem to uncontrollably use, is colourful to say the least!! I was then stung by a wasp while drying off - he probably heard the foul language earlier and was taking revenge!

We walked even further (southwards?) until we got to a cliff top campsite (Cliff House Holiday Park) and were able to use their cliff stairs to clamber up to the road. Dunwich Heath is National Trust land so we were able to find a very pleasant footpath through some wonderful countryside back to the fascinating village of Dunwich.

In medieval times Dunwich was the 6th biggest port in England with a population of over 5k. It is now no more than a hamlet of about 50 houses. The rest of it literally fell into the sea over the centuries. We got a healthy dose of history by visiting the informative village museum and the very evocative ruins on the hill of Greyfriars Abbey. To put the icing on the cake of a very enjoyable afternoon, Kim star spotted someone outside the village pub. After a lot of Google research she confirmed the siting as Donald Sumpter. He’s been in loads of things - including Game of Thrones. Turns out he was born in Brixworth!? It’s a funny old world?

We fancied fish and chips so we travelled the 9 miles into Southwold. We travelled it very gingerly as it turns out the Volvo has a slow puncture which necessitates a daily visit to the tyre pressure machine at the local garage! We consulted Trip Advisor and ended up at the Little Fish and Chip Shop on East street. It was good but not memorable. The homemade curry sauce was worthy of mention but the Haddock was at best average.

More walking. This time to the pier and then all the way from the pier to the town on the lower promenade looking at the hundreds of colourful beach huts. 60k each seemed to be the going price but some of them looked worth every penny! Southwold beach with the tide out is a great place for sand castles and some dads had been really busy - including one enterprising chap who had built a scale model of the Coliseum ... very impressive. I really can’t think why I didn’t take a bloody picture of it! Sorry!

Home to Brunnehilda for another evening of reading and blogging. Oh, and Kim beat me at a game of Canasta - unsurprisingly she had all the good cards and I had all the dross!

I really must get that puncture fixed tomorrow!