Indian Summer Breeze.

Because we'd had such an action-packed first day and because Moon had a long drive back to Newbury in the mid-afternoon (but also because Kirstin and I stayed up until 3am yapping), we opted for rounding our little Norfolk weekender off with a relaxed walk along Old Hunstanton beach. Just a short walk from Dan's parent's home, it was pretty ideal and even though we weren't quite prepared for the blustery sandstorm that awaited us, it was so nice to see the sun shine and breathe in the sea air.





Not quite sure how this photo came to be but I definitely commend Moon's photography skills pretty highly for it.









I think this was my favourite photo-spot of the weekend - after the seals of course - I always find that the weather makes such a difference and the bright blue sky made for such great lines and layers.




My best Steve Zissou impression.



I guess the wind and the wonderful sun were signs of the supposed storm, but it was hard to tell as Norfolk is apparently usually windy thanks to it's flatness. I got sand in my eyes and embedded into my tights but watching the sand floating across the beach was pretty mesmerising and it was very easy to get some shelter just by climbing over the dunes.

In other sand-related news, I accidentally filled one of my pockets with sand due to overenthusiastic shell-collecting.

Norfolk has certainly done the job with motivating me a bit more, I'm not sure if it's down to the place or just getting away generally but I feel like I'm full of ideas at the moment(!!!)

A Load of Holkham.

To round up our first afternoon in Norfolk we ended up having a long walk along Holkham Beach. I found it completely different from any other beach I've been to before, the sand goes on for miles and we had to walk through woodland on both sides of our circuit.




The main attraction for Holkham Bay has to be the impressive amount of beach hunts, which come in all shapes and sizes - it's so fun to see how different people have done them up, or how they've neglected them...






The beach café was a great pitstop and perfect for eyeing up cute dogs, and they sell lemon Fanta, which is easily the mark of somewhere good.



The walk we did was a little bit longer than I had expected but it's definitely got me hungry for me - we did so much walking last autumn but that seemed to be overtaken by other things once summer rolled around. I definitely think autumn and winter are best for walks anyway, there are few things better than coming in from the cold and having a cup of tea or hot chocolate.




What do you think of chilly autumnal walks, do you have any that you would recommend?

Seeing Seals.

First up on our whistle-stop tour of Norfolk was seal watching. I was reminded of a trip to Cornwall a couple of years ago when we visited the National Seal Sanctuary in Gweek. With the involvement of a boat and the actual sea, and after seeing one of Kirstin's photos from her last trip, it's safe to say I was pretty excited, especially to see seals in their natural environment.





There are quite a few different operators at Morston Bay to choose from but we went with Bean's Boat Trips on the recommendation of Dan's mum - they were pretty good at making sure everyone got a fair view of the seals and their branding and uniform matched so neatly with Moon's outfit that day. ♥


The Beaniest passenger.











Even though it got a little drizzley, it was just as great to see the seals as I had anticipated and we were even allowed to get off the boat and have a (damp) walk around Blakeney Point to get a proper look at the pretty Lifeboat House and have a walk along along the tiny beach there.

















I'd definitely recommend the whole trip, it was such good value for money at just £10 each, especially since seal watching seems to be one of the 'things to do' when visiting the area. I kind of regret not bringing my longer lens because I think I could have got a few better ones if I had - I thought I'd not brought it but found it at the bottom of my holdall once we got in /facepalm/. That said, I'm still pretty pleased with what I did get and it was a refreshing way to start the day, great for clearing the head.