Crazy Bird Time At Breydon

So much for my plan to go nightwalking ........

Just after five this morning, we stepped out the back door of the pub. Blimey, the stars may have been out and the moon almost full, but it was still inky dark and kind of lovely.

First stop was Tesco, to get a torch. Hilarious. This pair of would be explorers couldn't get the torch out of the plastic moulding. And then guess what - the batteries inside, were also hermetically sealed. So a slight hold on adventure as we borrow scissors.

However, just a few minutes later we were at the start of the Angles Way at Burgh Castle. Stepping through the woods into this new luminous world was thrilling. For a moment, we stood still in the spooky, pre-dawn morn watching moonlight spill across the water.


As we walked, the day rushed to greet us. All too quickly. Soon the outline of cows and hedgerows developed like film before our eyes. From a ditch at our feet, an owl rose up before flying off. And then came something special: something fantastical.

To our left, not hundreds, but thousands of wading birds were flying towards us, following the course of the river. Skimming just above the water, this dawn flight continued for a good ten minutes. Ever seen that weird sequence with the birds in "The Notebook." Now imagine it in the semi-dark, but with more birds.

At just after seven, the sun rose revealing blue skies and the Yarmouth skyline. Feeling energised and somewhat reckless, we added a frisson of danger to the day's events by taking the underpass into Cobholm. Ah such fond memories.

Oh yes, the torch. Never switched it on. Didn't need to. But it'll be there for when we do a proper, middle-of-the-night, jet black, don't look back, night-walk. Stay tuned.

Location:The Street,Lowestoft,United Kingdom

Reedham Sorbet

It's Friday, October 31st and another beautiful warm day, even if it is almost two o'clock before the sun has its hat fully on. Surely this must be the end of Summer.

Today we're in Reedham, a place I visit every couple of years, just to check nothing has changed. And it hasn't. It's still isolated, still consists of high roads and low roads and it's still unfashionable. So a good place to visit then.



Today we start by ditching the hikers' handbook and breaking with convention. How? Well, immediately on arrival at the quay, we find a sunny bench and get stuck into the picnic. Five minutes in and it's all over. Yes I know, you're supposed to go for a walk first. But damn it, we were hungry.

Ten minutes later and we're heading out past the swing bridge and onto the Wherryman's Way, where Sue is highly entertained by some particularly dumb sheep, playing follow the leader. For me though, it's more about the sounds of the countryside. You know: trains, planes and tractors.

Next it's country lanes and quiet conversation, well up to the point Lloyds Bank call me for the hundredth time because I've almost certainly been mis-sold PBI and they just can't wait to hand over thousands of pounds. Bemused by the phone call, we follow the old railway cutting, back to the quay.

Confident that I have money coming my way, we shall out the £4.00 for the ferry in an attempt to inject some excitement into a what's been, frankly a slow day. OK, it's not quite the last chopper out of Saigon, but it's worth it, just to disembark at a place called Norton Subcourse. Here, we are finally presented with a real challenge: namely that of driving blind into the setting sunshine. However it's worth it, because soon we are out on the marshes, where the sun sinks below the skyline like a giant, mango sorbet.

Location:Snake's Lane,Lowestoft,United Kingdom