Holiblogs 🏖️ adventures in Norfolk

When Ed and I were on our little holiday last week (staycation??), we got addicted to saying "holibobs" all the time. So Ed came up with the genius title for this post 😂 

On Saturday morning, after dropping Juniper off at a cattery for the week, we set off driving pretty much alll day to get to Gorlston-on-Sea where we met up with Ed's parents. We took turns driving and the journey went smoothly, with a long playlist and plenty of snacks! I love road trips so sometimes I'm even a bit disappointed when we arrive at the destination, even if that destination is a holiday lol.

Stretching our legs at a random service station en route.

Here is the beach at Gorleston 👇 I took this pic whilst we were eating our picnic lunch on Sunday, I was slightly wary of the circling seagulls (not pictured) but they kept their distance which was a relief, I didn't fancy sharing my sausage roll. 

Hearing the noisy seagulls squawking at all hours of the day and night was one of the things I actually quite liked about staying here, it reminded me of being back in Falmouth where I used to watch the seagull nests from my attic bedroom window! However we also heard rowdy football fans from the pub across the road which wasn't so fun in the early hours of the morning when we were trying to sleep 😆 makes for some funny memories though!

Our room for the week 😌

On Monday we drove into Norwich and discovered the Plantation Garden which was very peaceful and so pretty, a hidden gem not far away from the city centre. We liked it so much we came back later in the day to sit down and have a cup of tea.

Spot the tadpoles!

You can walk up this amazing stone terrace, made up of a mosaic of different bricks and decorative rocks, to get a view of the whole garden from the top! There are jays living in the trees and when you sit still for a while you can notice them flying around which is pretty special.

There was lots to see in Norwich Cathedral, I especially liked these modern stained glass windows with the light hitting them:

On Tuesday morning we had breakfast at a little cafe called Margo's Lounge, I enjoyed some waffles and the delightfully mismatched crockery:

We spent a sunny day wandering around Great Yarmouth which was, let's say, very colourful, very loud and very busy! Not quite our scene but it was fun nonetheless and once you battled through the crowded tourist area they actually had some decent charity shops which was a win! And we ate our lunch in a nice park with a gentle breeze and lots of open space which was much appreciated.

It was the perfect temperature for lying on the beach:

We decided to make the most of being on holibobs and have a ride on the big wheel 😄🎡 -

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On Wednesday we went to a zoo! Thrigby Hall Wildlife Gardens...

Spot the sleeping red panda!

It's quite a small zoo which was nice because you could see everything in one visit without rushing around and being overwhelmed by it all! The setting is lovely too, lots of trees everywhere so it felt very natural and not zoo-like, the enclosures felt like part of the environment. There were lots of good picnic spots too.

This adorable leopard cat woke up and yawned right in front of us 😆

Inside the Willow Pattern Garden:

Some of our favourite animals to see were the snow leopards! They were all snuggled up and sleeping their way through the day, it reminded us of Juniper of course! We kept thinking of her throughout the week and wondering how she was getting on on her own holiday.

After leaving the zoo we made a spontaneous stop and sat on benches overlooking the Norfolk Broads, watching dragonflies flitting about and spotting a great crested grebe through the binoculars:

Sidenote: my trusty sunhat came in handy on this very sunny holiday, but only after I did a bit of a DIY job, ripping the ribbon off the rim and reattaching it to tie under my chin to stop it flying off in the wind 😆🌀 -

Our final stop before heading home for the day was Caister Beach. It was quite windy and the grey sea didn't look very inviting for a swim so we sat on the dunes instead. Just as we were talking about ice creams we heard the music from an ice cream van arriving so that was good timing! Plus we saw a muntjac deer sprinting along the beach which was very random but cool.

On Thursday afternoon Ed and I discovered a very unusual place...Fritton Plant Centre, Indoor Flea Market, and Owl Sanctuary (yes all three in one!) -

It felt quite surreal, wandering around this place that had an almost abandoned feel as it was a mizzly, grey afternoon and there were hardly another other people there! Definitely worth a visit though as it combined 3 of my favourite things: plants, animals, and junk 😄 We started off looking at the plants. In the big nursery greenhouse they had lots of colourful begonias which I would have been tempted by if we were closer to home! 

Now onto the flea market (we were very excited to find it because we had originally planned to go to a car boot sale that morning but it had been cancelled due to the heavy rain!) 🐸 It was certainly a sight to behold, crammed absolutely full of STUFF to root through. 

I think the money all went towards the owl sanctuary, and completely unintentionally, both things I bought had an owl theme to them haha:

We loved seeing the owls, they are so beautiful up close! There were so many different species and each enclosure had a sign telling you the bird's name and about their personality which was sweet! We happened to be there at feeding time and it was quite amazing watching one small owl swallow a whole chick in one go 😯

On Friday it rained non-stop and was quite chilly, which was such a contrast to the blazing sun at the beginning of the week. But it didn't stop us from enjoying our boat trip on the Norfolk Broads! I didn't get many photos because the windows were covered in raindrops but I like this one of a little, thatched cottage by the river, how idyllic! We strained our eyes looking for kingfishers along the riverbanks but didn't have any luck, they were probably all sheltering somewhere dry! But we did see more grebes, lots of swans and different types of geese, plus a few herons.

This last photo is from Friday night, after our last meal we walked back to the sea and saw a much emptier, more drizzly scene than the one we saw at the beginning of our trip! Full bellies, bittersweet end-of-holiday feelings, but also very much looking forward to going home and being reunited with our cat! We had such a nice, relaxing week and it was great to catch up with Ed's parents as we hadn't seen them in person since September.

We left Gorleston at 7.30am the next morning, ready for another day's travelling. The journey went just as smoothly as last time, except with a bit more traffic. When we picked up Juniper just before 4pm, her initial displeasure at being put into the carrier soon turned to happy purring as I think she realised we were going home 😊

More on Juniper next time! I hope you enjoyed seeing what we got up to on our holibobs 🌞🚙⛱🐥🐊☕🌷🌲🎡🌾