Night fishing...

...or as they say in Norfolk, "noit fishun"....

The day got off to a lazy start and then Hanne Lene was keen for a good walk out to Blakeney Point to see the seals. Lovely bright day for it.
We drove down through Kelling Heath and on along the coast road turning right, down to the shingle beach at Cley. But as I am highly reluctant to pay for parking, I chose to pull off the road into a muddy passing place 100 yards short of the beach car park. Rather a mistake as the mud was slippery. I decided to pull out again. The front wheels spun. We did a bit of pushing and pulling, forward and reverse with the net effect that the wheels dug in deeper and deeper.
Some passers-by were reluctant to help and get their smart walking gear muddy.Someone suggested cutting reeds and working them in under the tyres. HL headed for the beach hoping to borrow a spade to dig the front wheel out. I started to pick reeds.
We improvised some resistance for the front wheels with a combination of pebbles, reeds and old sacking that Hanne Lene found down by the beach. However the two of us couldn't do it and it was just starting to wheelspin again when a couple of men on bicycles passed and asked if we would like some help. Five minutes later, with a bit of toing and froing, the wheels getting a little bit of traction and everyone heaving like billy-o, the Toyota slithered forward and back onto the tarmac. Much to my relief and gratitude...
And so, on down to the car park at the beach, where we discovered anyway that it was free parking. Ha ha. Hanne Lene had noticed this earlier while searching for a spade but had diplomatically refrained from pointing this out...
After this dramatic beginning we set off into the bright early afternoon sun and out along the shingle spit towards Blakeney Point. It's around four miles each way and we weren't sure we would have time to get there and back before dark but as it happened, the Point was cordoned off by the National Trust for the seals breeding season. We came upon a couple of NT Wardens and a large group of seals and their pups lolling about on the sand and shingle and sat down in the sun to have a picnic, accompanied by the plaintive calling of the seals.
There have been over 2,400 pups born there this year and we saw a handful that are still losing their white fluffy coat, the grey fur beneath just starting to show through.
On the way home, the sun was setting orange and crimson in a cloudless sky and the fishermen were settling in for a fine evening's beachcasting.