The weather forecast spoke of a dry day - clouds and 13 degrees but no rain which in our books is enough to warrant a trip to the beach. It’s over an hour’s drive away from us but worth every minute. The journey itself is beautiful, along roads that wind through field upon field, past rivers where cows drink and take their rest and birds wheel across the large open skies above. We cross from Cambridge up into Norfolk, heading for the North-Norfolk coastline. The land is flat here and the eye can see far and wide as the landscape stretches out, out to the horizon line. The occasional forest breaks up the sight but otherwise there are no interruptions and so the skies are cathedral like in their vastness. There is an abundance of light - even on a gloomy Winter’s day there is more light here than elsewhere and so of course it has always drawn the attention of artists and now photographers.
The journey takes longer than usual - it’s not unusual to get caught behind a tractor on the roads but today it’s just another car driver going slowly along. Eventually though we are on the beach road and heading into the Georgian town. The roads pass closely by the houses and the streets are still sized for horse and cart rather than modern traffic. It creates a closeness, not claustrophobic but familiar - it takes little time to learn each street and the houses and shops that sit along them.
We wind our way through the town and out again, heading further down the road towards the beach car park which is rapidly filling up. Over the many times we’ve come here with the kids we’ve been working out routines that work - beach shoes get changed into that can easily be kicked off on warm dry sand and shoved back on again to tackle the sharp seashells and stones if you want to get down to the water’s edge. A spare pair of clothes for the kids is a must so that they can get as sandy, wet and mucky on the beach as they like and then change afterwards. Layers of clothes - a thick jumper to keep the sea breeze away and a t-shirt for when you warm up post digging holes and building castles. Drinks and snacks along with high factor sun-cream are thrown in a bag and this time we had four camping chairs slung on our shoulders along with buckets and spades.
The path to the beach goes through the pine forest and up and over a dune. The estate owners have been developing this area over time and the path is now wooden cladded - I love walking along it in bare feet during summer if you can catch it when there’s no one else on it. The wood feels cool and textured beneath your feet under the dappled light from the forest and the gap in the trees holds all the promise of the beach and those big blue skies ahead.
The beach was perfect today - warm enough to sit comfortably with bare feet or to play in the sand but not so hot that you’re turning lobster red and retreating in search of shade. We did a lot of digging - where the water is so far away from most of the beach it doesn’t always lend itself well to building castles. That never seems to put people off though - everyone digs holes. I thought it was just an odd quirk of my husband’s family but over the years I’ve realised that loads of people do it - just sit on the beach and spend a few hours digging a hole. The estate owners have to send the beach wardens round in the more tourist months to go and fill them all in at the end of the day! Some of the sand was a little wetter today so we managed to build a castle and then the boys dug a lot of holes (which we did fill in before we left). I also found some time to do this ink drawing of one of my favourite views:
What I really love about this place though is the disconnect from technology. There’s obviously no wi-fi and I don’t have enough data or signal to use the internet so it’s a few hours of escape from all the noise. It’s the type of place where you can just sit and stare and let your thoughts float along.
Beautiful photographs Laura and I loved the little peek into your sketchbook 💚