A Beach Hut at Old Hunstanton

An account of the NAS West Norfolk day at the beach hut.

INTRODUCTION

I am taking a one-post break from my series about my holiday in Scotland to cover last Sunday’s NAS West Norfolk activities centred on the Mencap beach hut at Old Hunstanton which we had for the day.

GETTING THERE

Having checked on google maps to remind myself of the distance between Hunstanton and Old Hunstanton I decided to get the bus to Hunstanton and walk from there. Having a choice between Stagecoach and a local operator (Lynx) I naturally decided in favour of the local operator. This decision was rewarded with a fare that was less than I would have paid on Stagecoach:

For a sunny Sunday in June the traffic was quite light, and the bus reached Hunstanton pretty much on schedule. I then set off on the walk to Old Hunstanton. I have stated before on this blog that the shortest route is not always the best on my reckoning, and this was another situation where my chief criterion was not shortness. For reasons that I will not insult the intelligence of my readers by elucidating my sole criterion for choosing my route was to stay as near the sea as possible.

Old Hunstanton Beach. I initially failed to identify the correct beach hut, but after a few minutes scouting I was noticed by one of the others.

PRE-LUNCH – THE LIFEBOATS

Having got to know the beach hut some of us took the RNLI up on their kind offer of a tour as they explained about what they do, their boat and their hovercraft. This latter is one of only four in the whole country. The boat has to be towed into the water by tractor, and anyone familiar with north Norfolk beaches at low tide will therefore have little difficulty in understanding why the hovercraft which is an amphibious vehicle is sometimes necessary.

Propellers — I took these first few pictures before the initial tour – the building was open and no one attempted to stop people from looking.

beach friendly wheelchair — One of the bits of equipment the beach hut have – a wheelchair specially adapted for going to the beach (btw it did get used as we had someone who uses a wheelchair in our group).

Ancient Mariner1 — Identifying a lunch spot.

Layer 1 - warmth — The first layer of a lifeboat person’s gear – this one is for warmth

Layer 2 - waterproofing — this wetsuit with built-in wellington boots goes on next to ensure that you don;t get absolutely soaked.

The helmet and lifejacket complete the outfitting — The ensemble is completed with a helmet that has a ;protective visor and a lifejacket with a few extras.

tractor cab — The cab of the tractor – it has two steering wheels and multiple openings.

TS1 — This tractor has particularly large wheels – that is me standing next to one of them.

LUNCH

I went to the Ancient Mariner for lunch, and it was quite excellent. I also had an outside table, which meant opportunities for taking photos.

Cliff formation from Old Hunstanton Beach — Cliff face viewed from Old Hunstanton beach

A pint of Adnams Ghostship – excellent for a sunny day in June

P1020094 — These are a subject of some controversy – personally I find this view, which shows humans at long last attempting to take care of their planet to be a lovely one.

Scotland – Applecross to Plockton

The final stages of the Wednesday of my holiday in Scotland.

INTRODUCTION

Welcome to the latest post in my series about my holiday in Scotland. This post concludes Wednesday’s activities with some photos of the journey back from Applecross to Plockton which we did by a different route from the one we had taken there and an account of my birthday meal in Plockton.

THE JOURNEY

Other than a brief stop at Lochcarron we went from Applecross to Plockton without stopping. I will let the pictures tell the story…

THE BIRTHDAY MEAL

The food at the Plockton Inn proved to be every bit as excellent as we had been led to expect and there was an excellent locally brewed beer on tap as well (Plockton Ring Dong for the record). This was an excellent way to round off a splendid day.

Scotland – Applecross

An account of then time spent in Applecross on my recent Scottish holiday.

INTRODUCTION

Welcome to the latest post in my series about my Scottish holiday. This post deals with the village of Applecross.

LUNCH AND A WALK

We ate our sandwich lunches right by the water before setting off on a walk round the bay on which Applecross sits.

The Saint's Burial Place — :Possibly the spot where St Maelrubha was buried.

THE SECOND HALF OF THE WALK

The Heritage Centre was closed due to a funeral, so we turned back after a while in the churchyard.

Beetle — Earnest theologian to renowned biologist J B S Haldane “what have your studies of nature told you about god?” Haldane’s response: “that he is inordinately fond of beetles!”

919 — Outside table at a coffee shop we visited just before leaving applecross

The 2018 Wall Calendar – Oglach’s Selections

Oglach’s nominations for the 2018 wall calendar.

INTRODUCTION

Welcome to this special post in my series about my Scottish holiday. In the first post of this series I wrote about my now established tradition of producing a photographic wall calendar and invited readers to nominate pictures for consideration. Oglach, whose blog can be found here, has risen to the challenge by making some suggestions in response to my post about the ascent to the Bealach Na Va viewpoint.

OGLACH’S PICKS

Here, if I have followed his comment correctly are the pictures Oglach deemed worthy of further consideration:

AFTERWORD – HOW THESE
PICTURES WERE TAKEN

All of these pictures bar the last one were taken from the back seat of a moving campervan and carefully edited to bring out/ preserve their best points. I will certainly give careful consideration to including some of these in the calendar, and I end this little post by reiterating my invitation to my readers to nominate pictures for the calendar as and when they see them. If you put your nominations in a post on your own blog I will reblog it.

Scotland – A Very Scenic Journey 3: The Descent to Applecross

The final stages of the journey from Plockton to Applecross.

INTRODUCTION

Welcome to the latest post in my Scottish series. In this post we conclude the journey to Applecross with the final descent from the viewpoint where the last post concluded.

DOWNHILL ALL THE WAY

Here are the photos from this section of the journey:

Scotland – A Very Scenic Journey Part 2: Strome Castle to Bealach Na Va Viewpoint

Continuing the account of the super scenic journey from Plockton to Applecross, reaching the Bealnach Na Va Viewpoint.

INTRODUCTION

Welcome to the latest installment in my series of posts about my holiday in Scotland. This post continues the scenic journey from Plockton to Applecross, reaching the highest point of the road through the mountains.

PASSING PLACES

This section of the journey involved a road that was mainly single-lane, with signposted Passing Places where space permitted. The rule about Passing Places is: if it is on your left side you pull in to let the other vehicle through, while if it is on your right it is the other vehicle’s responsibility to make way for you.

INTO THE MOUNTAINS

Here is a photographic account of the ascent to the viewpoint:

Scotland – A Scenic Journey 1: Plockton to Strome Castle

Continuing the account my Scottish holiday – this post covers Plockton to Castle Strome.

INTRODUCTION

We are continuing with stuff from the Wednesday of my Scottish holiday. The second part of our itinerary for the day involved visiting the village of Applecross, which entailed a very scenic journey that I have split into two parts, using the brief diversion to Strome Castle as a natural divider.

ON THE ROAD

The road out from Plockton follows the shore of Loch Carron pretty closely for the first part of the journey. Loch Carron, like Loch Alsh is a sea loch (readers familiar with Norway should think ‘fjord’ – the Scottish sea lochs were created by the same geological phenomenon as the fjords). Not withstanding the limitations imposed by having to shoot through the window of a moving vehicle I kept the camera busy:

The end of the road — This road won’t be extended any time soon!

STROME CASTLE

This ruined castle is well worth the detour if you are heading towards Applecross. Here are the pictures:

Scotland – Wednesday Part 1: Plockton

The latest post ion my series about my Scottish Holiday, dealing with Plockton.

INTRODUCTION

We have reached the Wednesday in my series of posts about my holiday in Scotland, which astute readers will recall was the day of my birthday. For previous posts in this series please click here. There will be a number of posts about this day as we saw a lot of fantastic scenery.

PLOCKTON

Our first port of call was Plockton, where were hoping to book a table at the Plockton Inn (it is in the Good Food Guide). There were also a few other things to see in Plockton. Here are some early pictures:

We were lucky at the Inn – they did have a table, at 6PM, so we knew when we had to be back in Plockton. This sorted, it was time to explore Plockton:

Plockton Hotel — This ‘stone-look’ frontage is a fail as far I as am concerned.

Scotland: The Isle of Skye 4- Bridges and Departure

The final post about my day on Skye. Some remarkable river scenes.

INTRODUCTION

Welcome to my final post about the day on the Isle of Skye. This series of posts about my holiday in Scotland now runs to:

THE BRIDGES

I had identified a place for photo stop on the return journey while we were heading towards the Talisker distillery. It proved even better than I had expected, and in a few minutes I had taken a number of good pictures…

The Land of the Mountain and the Flood — Enter a caption

stone bridge 2 — At least one of these pictures will feature in the Calendar.

LEAVING SKYE

I got a few more pictures during the rest of the journey home…

Scotland: Isle of Skye 3 – Finding Somewhere For Lunch

A very brief post linking the one about the distillery tour to the last of my Skye posts.

INTRODUCTION

Welcome to the next installment of my series about my Scottish holiday. This post takes up the story from the end of our visit to the Talisker Distillery. My first post about Skye which contains links to all my pre-Skye posts can be found here.

FINDING SOMEWHERE FOR LUNCH

We found a place to have lunch at about 2:30PM (our tour had pushed us late). The food was good of its kind if somewhat overpriced. Here are the photographs from this section of the trip:

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INTRODUCTION

GETTING THERE

PRE-LUNCH – THE LIFEBOATS

LUNCH

INTRODUCTION

THE JOURNEY

THE BIRTHDAY MEAL

INTRODUCTION

LUNCH AND A WALK

THE SECOND HALF OF THE WALK

INTRODUCTION

OGLACH’S PICKS

AFTERWORD – HOW THESE PICTURES WERE TAKEN

INTRODUCTION

DOWNHILL ALL THE WAY

INTRODUCTION

PASSING PLACES

INTO THE MOUNTAINS

INTRODUCTION

ON THE ROAD

STROME CASTLE

INTRODUCTION

PLOCKTON

INTRODUCTION

THE BRIDGES

LEAVING SKYE

INTRODUCTION

FINDING SOMEWHERE FOR LUNCH

AFTERWORD – HOW THESE
PICTURES WERE TAKEN