We are now just a “two plus doggo”, for the remainder of our little trip down here, but we made the very most of the day with our friends in the best way we all wanted to.
We all slept well. We all had a lie-in. We all just chilled out and had a “picky breakfast” of stuff we could eat that we had in the fridge or ‘to hand’.
That meant Italian cured meats, smoked and blue cheeses, wild strawberry jam, toast, grapes & yoghurts. With a good cup of tea!
The dogs were fed (dog food as well as bits of a continental cheesy, yoghurt-liddy treat), and our friends packed, and we loaded up the van for our day trip out, as our friends packed for a return home.
It’s only a 15 minute easy drive into Cromer, so to make the most of the day, we parked up at the long stay parking at the top of the cliffs and then all walked down to the pier & beach front.
When we left the pier after a mooch about, I was pleased to survive given I’d read the wallboard history timeline and is doesn’t suggest longevity! I did find out that it was the same pier that was used in the closing act of ‘Alan Partridge Alpha Papa’.
We then meandered up into the narrow streets of the little town, stopping at art galleries, craft shops and the Wildcraft Brewery Tap (which has a dog-friendly menu, btw, so kudos for that!).
We found Davies Fish Shop and bought 4 dressed (I wasn’t expecting them to be dressed as clowns, tbf) Cromer crabs and a pot of fresh mussels, before nipping back down the road to get a couple of bags of chips and parking ourselves up on benches in front of the very grandiose 1830s Hotel De Paris, designed by the “Gaudi of Norwich”, George Skipper.
Good food was had, more nattering and laughing (a more or less constant whenever we meet), before it was time to wander back up to the car park and say goodbye to our wonderful friends & their absolutely gorgeous doggo, Archie.
Our parking time was up as well so we decided to head west along the coast and reacquaint ourselves with the area. We were last here on hols back about 16 years ago (based on Lurchio being definitely about 3 or 4 years old at the time).
We stopped and had a walk around Sheringham before moving further along the coast and all the way though Weybourne, Salthouse, Cley by the Sea and Blakeney, before turning around and heading back to find somewhere to have a stroll over the Cley and Salthouse Marshes & see if we could spot any decent birdlife.
A little lay-by was found and we fed Toby, before heading along a die-straight walkway towards the beach with our posh binoculars (thanks to Jane’s dad, we have some fancy Zeiss 10x40s and some Leica pocket ‘spotters’).
We shouldn’t have worried about spotting anything, as we had birdlife galore! By the time we got to the bird hide, we had already seen Little Egrets, Pied Avocets, lapwings, swallows, terns, shelduck, redshank and swans, so to see Egyptian Geese and an actively hunting Western Marsh Harrier on our way back was an absolute Brucey-bonus!
We headed back to the van and it was about time for some tea (food, eaten circa 5-7pm, to be clear).
On the way back we called in to The Ship Inn in Weybourne which looked lovely and has great reviews. Sadly they didn’t have a table so we headed towards home via the coast road, before spotting ‘The Village Inn’ in West Runton.
We headed inside and this time our luck was in as there was a table for two next to the bar, and we were 30 minutes away from last food orders.
Jane was delighted to find out that the ‘Soup du Jour’ was cauliflower, fennel & apple, with Cauliflower being one of her favourite veggies. So her order was easy – that with skinny chips. I went for the Korean style chicken burger, with kimchi, salt & pepper chips.
We finished up a very enjoyable meal & headed the shortish journey back to our accommodation in The Boat House, where Jane, Toby and I all just crashed out, albeit only after we realised my head and face were so sunburned, I looked like ‘Jerry The Berry’!
Ay well! Another great day was had! So now on, to tomorrows adventure!
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