Flat and then too steep for Vincent
So on Friday July 10th we drove to our next site - a camping and caravan club certified site. These are small private sites which usually only take a few motorhomes or caravans. The site was sited a short walk from Walcott, on the north Norfolk coast. When we had booked the site we had asked if we could bring a tent so that Charlotte and Ollie could join us but no tents are allowed. So Charlotte decided to come on her own and sleep in the living area of Vincent with the dogs. The site was basically a garden of a bungalow! It was lovely and quiet except for the peacock and guinea fowl in the smallholding next door. Most of the time we were joined by only one other set of campers.
Before Charlotte arrived Mike and I had a lovely walk along the beach plus a Mr Whippy ice cream. Luna loves running up and down the beach and will get her feet wet whilst Mitzi keeps well away from the smelly sea.
On Saturday we had a lovely walk to the lighthouse at Happisburgh. The village has been subject to significant erosion and during the last century the parish has shrank by 0.2 sq km by the falling away of the cliffs. The breakwaters look a long way out at sea and we saw what looked like an old stone chimney on the beach.
From there we walked back to Walcott for another Mr Whippy before heading home to a fantastic supper of roasted BBQ lamb with homemade sourdough flatbreads (Charlotte had bought Mikes sourdough starter with her). We woke up to sunshine on Sunday morning so we drove to the beach at 8am and Charlotte and I had a swim in the north sea! We were the only ones in - can't think why! We came back to a cooked breakfast before Charlotte headed home to spend the afternoon with Ollie. We then sat in the sun! We had planned a cycle but decided it was too hot to leave the dogs in Vincent so eventaully we headed out at 4pm for a lovely cycle of the local lanes.
On Monday we packed up and left Norfolk for the Peak District. Not sure why I booked our second week so far away but we have definitely gone from one extreme to another. We arrived at our site - another certified site at half past 2 after an easy journey (I actually drove half the way). We then spent two hours trying to work out how we could get Vincent level in a sloping field! At one point we had the two neighbouring caravaners (in their 80s) plus the farmer and his wife helping. They provided large metal ramps which Mike tried to get Vincent up onto, without doing any damage, but this nearly ended in disaster as one shot out hitting the farm truck! Thankfully no one was standing in front of Vincent.
Eventually we decided that we could not get Vincent level so had to quickly call neighbouring sites. Eventually, after buying some home made lamb burgers from the farmers wife, we moved to a site 5 mins away. It has a much bigger field but the same number of caravans/motorhomes and only £1 more per night. After parking we all needed to stretch our legs so walked over the fields to the village of Tissington. This is a beautiful old village centered round Tissington Hall, which has been owned by the FitzHerbert family for over 400 years. we walked out of the village down the avenue of lime trees. The young cows at the end thought Mitzi and Luna were very interesting - the interest was not returned!
