I first got to know about Benacre Broad when I read "The Big Bird Race" ...already featured on here as one of my favourite birding books ... even though every copy of it I've ever had has fallen to bits. I'd seen it on the map of course .... but.... What he doesn't do in the book is tell you how to get there. Over the years I've had a go at getting to it lots of time ... usually on baking hot days, when the little village of Covehithe has been bunged up to the gills with billions of parked cars leaving nowhere for me to park. [ In case you don't know, Norfolk in the summer months is always baking hot. If it does rain at all, it's a 5-minute thunderstorm, and the rain sinks through the sandy, dusty "soil" and disappears for ever. Norfolk even has plagues of biblical proportions ... I'll write about them sometime or other. They're impressive.! [ Exodus ch 9 v 14-16]] At other times I've tried to get in by other routes ... sometimes I've found stiles which might have led to it, but they've always been plastered with dozens of KEEP OUT signs .... truly. Plus they've always been in highly dangerous places to park. To sum it up, nothing worked. So eventually I got a bit fed up with the stupid thing and I I gave up. It became another " Snettisham" ... one of those place to which I "don't go" .... I've written all about them on here ... here's the link .. 11-places-i-dont-go.html And then I thought ... one more go. I made a plan .. you go early..... really early. You ignore all the signs ... you just go. So ... I did ... I went really early ... got there about 7am .... and amazingly there were still loads of cars and people there ..and some of them were coming back from ... wait for it ... Benacre Broad. Yes !! But I said ... what about that huge array of 7628¼ KEEP OUT signs ...and they said ... ignore them. Readers ... I ignored them. It was about a mile walk north and then there it was. Surely I must have taken some pictures, but if I did, I can't find them. I think one of them was a snap of the huge array of "Keep Out" signs. That was in the days of "rolls of film" and suchlike. It was a truly beautiful and tranquil place ... and the fact that very few people could find it probably helped. I met somebody who had got there by walking up the beach from Covehithe ... that's the way local people do it apparently. There weren't many birds there when I went ... but it was just the "having got there" that mattered to me. And it was just like the drawing ... a big pool behind the small shingle bank dividing it from the sea, and the woods in the background . It would be a great place to film Desert Island Discs ... that would be good. There was even a hide up some steps. For about 40 minutes I was the only one there. I seem to remember that it was rather large. And that was it ... my one and only visit. It's there right now, as you read this.... maybe someone is there watching Sand Martins whizzing around, or looking out to sea at the passing gannets, hoping for something more. Laurel Tucker did all the drawings for The Big Bird Race ...the one up at the top is hers ... they're absolutely stunning throughout. Look at this tiny detail from it so perfectly done... Now here's a very Norfolk thing ...a very philosophical song from The Singing Postman ..which I always thought was called "Ev'thing Go Along A'Summat" but apparently is really called "Come along a Me".... listen carefully, it's packed with wisdom.... ..he runs out of steam a bit when he gets to aeroplanes ...
" Air-planes go along a'nuthin". Well, in our little lives, don't we all ? Sadly, I don't think I'll be going there again. Too old, too knackered.
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AuthorThat's the author up there ... I was young and sprightly then. Archives
October 2022
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