Sand storm in Brancaster…

First stop today is our favourite farm shop for more bottles of Sandringham apple juice – this time Worcester Pearmain and Discovery plus veggies and cake!  Then off to Brancaster Beach which has a ticket machine (£2) but really worth it for the fabulous stretch of unadulterated firm sand.  Lovely sunny day too but windy!

Alfie did his usual rushing around in absolute glee at being able to run round and round in large circles.

We walked east to see the shipwreck of the SS Vina which was used by the RAF for target practice before the Normandy landings prior to it accidentally sinking in 1944.  She was anchored further out to sea, but on the fateful date, she dragged her anchor in towards land and became stranded on one of the many sandbanks around this area.

The tides are too dangerous here to take a closer look so it has to be viewed from a distance unfortunately.

Now, this was all very well but it was a different story on the way back!  The sand was blowing down the beach but then became a positive blizzard and all at Alfie’s height!

Difficult to show moving sand on a still!

Worrying about his eyes, we turned around and trudged back and by the time I reached the carpark I was exhausted!

I felt like a mixture between Sylvia Syms and John Mills in Ice Cold in Alex – remember this famous still from the film after they had struggled through the sand storm?

Or perhaps Peter O’Toole in Lawrence of Arabia – both favourite films of mine…

Only slight exageration!  Anyway, I soon recovered and we checked Alfie’s eyes for sand but he was fine.

 

On our way to Brancaster Staithe we spotted a huge flock (?) of Pink Footed Geese – this is only half of them!

They landed on the fields…

They covered two fields!

Now it was time for cockles…

Delicious as usual

Lots of birds over the afternoon… Can you name them all?

Last of all, the many boats at anchor…

Such a varied and enjoyable day.