The weather really has been very un-Bank Holiday like this weekend, and so before the predicted rains come again tomorrow, we made the best of the sunny skies today, and buzzed up to Lowestoft, to see Mum and Ean.
We’ve not been for a while, and so made an early start, arriving as a table-filling buffet lunch was being prepared. We’ve all not had one of those for years, and as the quartered sandwiches were brought to the table, memories of early Sunday evening buffet teas came flooding back.
Everything was there, from sandwiches to sausage rolls, from crisps to crackers to crusty bread. It certainly gave us a pre-lunch appetite, especially after we’d planted four small Hebe bushes, and had sat chatting. And, maybe a little too contented afterwards with what we had eaten, we set out to find an easterly geocache, flushed with the walk and travel bug liberation from Saturday’s stroll in Loves Green.
Mum even tagged along, too, adding another dimension to the walk across the lush green fields of Carlton Marshes. Stopping en-route to take a look at Britain’s most easterly point – Lowestoft Ness – we stood under ‘Gulliver’, which at 80 metres high, is the UK’s tallest onshore wind turbine. Obviously the most easterly, too, the sound of the blades scything through the blowy skies above the North Sea was eerie, yet comforting, the white points catching glints of sunlight as they went around, casting imposing shadows over the glittery rocks.
Smile! Nik shoots Gulliver
The Carlton Marsh geocache took us back to Oulton Broad, the sound of the Regatta Day powerboats carrying across from the nearby broads. It was in complete contrast to the trek across the rutted farm tracks and fields, though (made harder for those of us wearing open-toed sandals), with the silence only punctuated by the occasional moo from the fields of inquisitive Fresians, only a few months or weeks old.
Three’s cow-pany
Finding the actual treasure heralded a first. A pair of geeky-looking fellow geocachers had already found our reward, and wouldn’t move until we had done the same. It was the first time we’d ever stumbled across other treasure seekers, and after assuring us that they were in on the game, we decrypted an additional clue that led us to the bounty. After dropping off the travel bug we’d collected from Essex only two days before, we wrapped up and hid the treasure box back away from prying eyes, ready for someone else to come and find it.
It was in many ways, another enjoyable day like yesterday, full of family fun, good food, and very nice weather. All of which seem to be a reoccurring theme, for this weekend at least.