Exploring :: The New Year in Norfolk #3 ... Holkham

Hi there everyone 😀

After a lovely day out and late night celebrating bringing in the New Year, Jackie and Phil were up and out for a very long walk on the beach on New Year's Day. Martin and I ... not so much 😂😂😂. We opted for a very lazy morning, though were very impressed when we saw how far Jackie and Phil had walked. It seemed like the Norfolk beaches are very popular for a New Year's Day wander.

We didn't do that much on the 2nd either. Jackie and Phil were heading back home and we just had another really lazy day.

We did manage to get ourselves into gear on the 3rd though and had a pretty full day out exploring Holkham. It had been somewhere we'd driven past a few times whilst we'd been away and definitely wanted to have a closer look.

The car park on the beach side of the main road was totally full so we ended up heading up into the village, where you can park in the car park at the top of the village for two hours for free. We couldn't see ourselves being longer than this so it seemed like a great option.

We didn't really know what to expect or what we would find and we started with a wander back down through the village towards the main road. It really is a pretty little village, with plenty of 'chocolate box' cottages ...

We crossed the main road and decided we would have a wander down the lane opposite to see what we could find ... we knew it led to the beach, but had no idea of how far it might be. We did see people walking towards us with takeaway coffees, so we thought we may be treated to a cafe of some description, so kept on going ...

It was a fair old walk, but it was a glorious day and the views in either direction were fabulous, with plenty of birds and wildlife to spot amongst the reeds and marshland ...

Eventually we found ourselves at The Lookout, where we had very welcome sausage sandwiches and a breather ... 

Now we had a decision to make ... it was a fair walk back, uphill ... and we only had two hours on the car park. But we'd come so far ... could we really go back without seeing the beach? We decided not and headed along the boardwalk into the trees ... surely it couldn't be far ...

As we came out of the trees we could see we weren't really prepared for the shortest walk to Holkham beach ... wellies were definitely the order of the day ...

What we could see from here was stunning ... and it appeared you could opt for a 'non-welly' route to get to the sea ...

We decided to give it a go and headed left ...

It wasn't long before we were starting to get a bit concerned about the time we had and it was hard going for Martin, so he decided to start to head back but I didn't want to give up ... we'd come so far. It was a really lovely spot, but I was flagging and decided to head into the dunes for the shortest route to the sea ...

Finally ...

It is another wide and vast Norfolk beach. I wish I'd had more time to explore, but I pretty much took a few photos, did an about turn and headed back ...

I took a much more direct route back ... deciding I was just going to walk through the mud, rather than take the drier route, as I really was running out of time ...

I soon caught up with Martin and we hightailed it back up the lane and made it back to the car just in time. We were both shattered. It had been a lovely walk, but frustrating that we were so tight on time and had needed to rush back. If I were to visit again, I wouldn't park in the village, as it added a fair distance to our walk.

We weren't quite ready to head back just yet so carried on up the lane and into the grounds of Holkham Hall, where we had further refreshments ...

The Hall wasn't actually open for the season, but we did manage to have a good wander around the outside and take plenty of photos over and through the wall ...

By now, we'd walked far further than either of us had intended and we were more than ready to head back for our last night in Norfolk ... with packing ready for the off the next morning still to do.

It had been lovely to spend some time on the Norfolk coast, exploring new places, and being away for the New Year. We were heading for home refreshed and ready to take on 2022 ... with absolutely no idea of what that first few months would bring 💙💛💙💛💙💛

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