We recently visited the beautiful county of Norfolk, on the
North West corner of East Anglia. We
stayed near the Wash, which is one of the largest estuaries in the UK and includes
mud flats, lagoons and salt marshes.
The area is a wonderful wildlife haven for nature lovers – it’s
recognised as being an important area for a variety of bird species, including
pink-footed geese, shelduck, oystercatcher, lapwing, curlew, sanderling, dunlin
and turnstone; and it has the largest colony of common seals in the UK – 7% of
the UK population.
It’s also the location of the Royal Society for the
Protection of Birds (RSPB) Snettisham Reserve, which is famous for two
spectacular bird displays: the flight of thousands of waders during the highest
of tides and the dawn flight of pink-footed geese leaving their winter roosts.
The beaches are spectacular, especially Brancaster with its
miles of golden sands and the long sweeping beach at the historic and beautiful
Wells-next-the-Sea with its sand dunes, pine woodland and coloured beach huts. While
we were walking on the beach their we were lucky enough to see a small group of
seals with their pups on the shoreline – a truly magical moment.
On the eastern side of the Wash there are low chalk cliffs
and the famous stratum of red chalk at the delightful town of Hunstanton. The
town is mentioned in the Domesday Book and its motto is ‘it is our pleasure to
please others.’ It is the only east coast resort that faces west across the
Wash and has spectacular sunsets – which is probably why the locals call it
Sunny Hunny.
On the beach at Hunstanton we explored the rock pools for
crabs, collected shells and watched the wading birds on the shoreline. I was
particularly pleased to see curlews and oystercatchers for the first time. There
is even a shipwreck (part of the metal hull survives) on the beach, a trawler
called the Sheraton, which was used as a patrol vessel in World War 2 and
wrecked in 1947.
Finally, King John of England is said to have lost his crown
jewels at the Wash in 1216. Apparently, the horse-drawn wagons moved too slowly
on the incoming tide and some were lost. Stories vary as to whether they were
really lost – but it’s an interesting historical tale all the same!
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