Sheringham Park and Blakeney Point.

The weather continuing fine we were able to enjoy a range of outdoor activities.  Near the seaside town of Sheringham lies the National Trust property, Sheringham Park.  However, here the house is tenanted and not open to the public.  Instead it is the wooded parkland laid out by Humphrey Repton, on of the great landscape designers, that is the draw.

We walked out across the park and climbed up to a wooded rise topped by a Gazebo.  We had no idea what to expect, but it certainly was not what we found.  The trees at the top of the rise are mature oak trees.  The gazebo is a structure of oak and metal, with flights of stairs up to a viewing platform above the tree canopy, a most peculiar experience.

We were just surveying the view when we heard the unmistakable hooting of the steam train.  A moment later and it hove into view, crossing the landscape in front of us.  We could not have timed it better if we had planned it. 

The following day we set out in some trepidation for Blakeney Point.  This is a nature reserve at the end of a long - very long - shingle spit.  With the tide in we would have to walk on the shingle bank,

every footstep taking double the effort.

As luck would have it, the tide was out, exposing the firm sand of the beach, a quite different proposition.  

It was still a lengthy and unvarying trek, but the sun was out and the wind was in our favour for the return journey. In the dunes at the far end is a disused lifeboat station, now a visitor centre and field studies base.

At some distance, basking seals

So then we walked the four miles back along the beach for tea in Blakeney itself.