8th - 15th October 2011
Based just inland from
Cromer and
Sherringham.
On the Sunday afternoon, went into Cromer, to see the Geology gallery at the museum, then the cliffs. Nearer the town, soft, unconsolidated Pliocene and early Pleistocene deposits (Crag Deposit) overlain with boulder clay, leftover from the Anglian Glaciation, about 480,000 years ago. A bit further west along the beach, the Chalk appeared. This underlies the whole of Norfolk, an extension of the Chalk line from the Chiltern Hills. Inland Norfolk, away from the saltmarshes along the coast, wasn't flat, though the hills were diminutive, all under 100m. This was probably due to ice action during the Anglian Glaciation.
On Monday - walked along the coast between Cley-next-the-Sea and Blakeney. Views of Cley windmill. Three art galleries: The Flint and Quay galleries in Blakeney. Then, on the way back, the Birdscapes Gallery at Glandford: Society of Wildlife Artists Printmakers.
Tuesday - Bus from Holkham to Burnham Deepdale. First half of the walk good, interesting view of saltmarsh and, where the land had been drained and cultivated on the other side of the embankment path, fields and drainage ditches lined with bullrushes. Flocks of birds taking periodically from the fields added interest. Grey cloud coming in over the sea / from the NW. Made for striking lighting as we walked to Burnham Overy Staithes. But then, as we left B-O-S in the early afternoon, it turned to drizzly, but persistent rain. This spoilt the second half of the walk along the estuary, over the sand dunes and along the Holkham Sands.
Thursday - Hunstanton - some unusual Chalk cliffs.
Friday - Walked from Wells-next-the-Sea to Burnham Overy Staithes. Dry and bright, best day weatherwise. Good to see the Holkham Sands in the sunshine.
Weather very mixed; better towards the end, though the wet day during the middle of the week was useful for doing some more thorough artwork at the cottage, after lunch in Holt. Downer was, when it was cloudy, there was that
Novemberish feeling of the light going and things generally winding down in the afternoon.
A very birdy area. Certainly added interest to the coast, and the artwork we saw. Not so sure about the pheasants near the cottage: scared one in the garden one morning and CC.Eng narrowly avoided hitting one as we began heading home on the Saturday.
