Norfolk is a beautiful and diverse county, with a long coastline, the unique wetland environment of the Broads, market towns and the city of Norwich. Halcyon sits surrounded by nature reserves, the River Thurne and the Broads, which gives you something new to see every time you visit. We have spent much of our time watching the world go by on the river and seeing the seasons change. That’s not to say that you can only find the quiet of that natural world - there are plenty of different and diverse attractions within reach and here is a list of our favourites!
Watery Action
We first saw the bungalows on the Thurne from a sailing boat called Coriander and totally fell in love with them. Having a house on the river gives the perfect opportunity to have fun on the water then hop into the house when the wind gets a bit high or the rain comes down. Lots of options include water, try all of them!
- Hire an electric day boat. Hickling Broad, Horsey Mere and Martham Broad are very close and beautiful nature reserves. The silence of the water calms to the bone and the electric boats don’t startle the wildlife the way diesel engines do.
- Hire canoes and paddle into the wind. A number of the yards will hire open canoes for 2 to 4 people, along with buoyancy aids. If you hire, it’s best to set off into the wind, if you can, because it is much harder on the way back!
- Stand Up Paddle boards are also available and a great option for beginners and experienced paddlers. There is even a board big enough for 8!
- Go on Ross’s Wildlife Boat Tours. Ross pilots the Lady Ann across Horsey Mere and out toward Hickling Broad. He has a huge knowledge of the history of the Broads, the maintenance of the reed beds and the work done to the area by the Broads Authority as well as the National Trust and the local landowners. His main point of expertise is the wildlife though, and he will point out all the bird and insect species that show themselves. Book ahead!
- Take a sailing lesson with Martham Boats. There are several places offering sailing tuition on the Broads and Hickling always has a great breeze across it. Outside Halcyon, the bungalows impact the wind direction and make the Thurne a tricky sail.
Walking on the Beaches
The sort of place you want to keep secret but is too good to hide is Winterton beach. This is probably the nearest beach to Halcyon and is a place where we can spend whole days playing. The beach itself is a mix of shingle and sand so great for sandcastles, skimming stones, stone balancing, paddling, beach games and swimming.
In the shed at Halcyon, there’s a shrimping net. Just push the net along sand in the shallows to get a bucket load of shrimp for a seaside tea. You cannot get fresher!
Not just Winterton, but Horsey beach too, there are thousands of seals to see. Don’t go too close, they can be aggressive and stink; they can also leave their young if too agitated by human contact, We often see a seal head bobbing in the water whatever time of year but in spring there are hundreds of babies on the beach too.
Behind the beach and reaching from Great Yarmouth to Sea Palling and beyond are dunes. In the Winterton dunes, you can find old look out stations from WWII and an array of plant and wildlife particular to the dune environment. We like it for kite flying. Look out, too, for the sweet, thatched cabins of Hermanus holiday resort.
Winterton has an excellent beachside cafe; Dunes. It does a wonderful line of breakfast baguettes and has some great specials on the board usually. Hearty soups when it’s cold and delicious locally caught crab salads for the warmer days. Big cakes as well as drinks and ice creams. Even the dogs are looked after with lots of water bowls. Seating inside is limited but there’s a beach for take aways (take your rubbish, obviously). The cafe and the car park at Winterton work together to keep the toilets open so make good use of all the facilities!
A little behind the beach, back towards Somerton, there are the ruins of a church. Turn right along Manor Farm Road and the ruins are on the left. This can also be found on the footpath back from Winterton. It’s a derelict and deconsecrated stone chapel, probably owned by the manor so something of a curiosity.
It’s not all about Winterton! Head round the coast to West Runton to find fossilised sea creatures, maybe even a mammoth! There is a huge belemnite bed, rockpools and a beautiful beach. We found lots of anemones and tiny beach crabs in the pools as well as some fantastic conch shells. A soft cliff includes a seam of fossilised remains but the side is particularly unstable so looking but not touching is advised. The village of West Runton must be raging at the tiny roads to the cliff side parking but once there, it is spacious and reasonably priced. There is also a small cafe for beachside wares too.
Another expanse of beach can be found in Gorleston, on the other side of the mouth of the River Yare from Great Yarmouth. The beach is beautiful and monitored by the coastguards so safe for swimming but the key attraction is the high harbour walls where families come with crab nets and chopped bacon to pull the pincered crustaceans from the sea. There is a simpler bucket shaped crab net where the shelled carnivores just walk in but the skill lies in the bagged traps where you need to pull them up the wall while they cling on. All too often they plop disappointingly back into the water.
- While there, the imposing Pier Hotel on the quayside is a top lunch spot. It is also where Danny Boyle called upon the people of Gorleston to party to the music of Himesh Patel in the BritCom, Yesterday.
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