Snow fun

Last Thursday my wife and I travelled up to Old Hunstanton, Norfolk to our favourite hotel to spend a few days there to celebrate my 62nd birthday ... which happens to be today. On the way up we paid a flying visit to King's Lynn for lunch a little bit of retail therapy for my wife, and on the Friday we went to Fakenham and King's Lynn to do some serious shopping!

Despite the possibility of snowfall at some time during Saturday, we went out during the day to visit Burnham Market, Holkam, and Well-next-the-Sea before returning to Hunstanton ... where I finally gave in to temptation and bought the Airfix 'Sink the Bismarck' set of 1:1200th-scale models!

These model kits have so much potential for use in naval wargames that I can see myself buying several other sets just for the spare parts!

By seven o'clock in the evening, the predicted snow had not begun to fall, but within half an hour a very light covering of snow was covering the hotel car park. By the time we went to bed the snow was heavier, but not so heavy that we had any concerns about driving home on Sunday morning.

How wrong we were.

By Sunday morning not only had over 6"/15cm of snow fallen, but the wind from the North Sea had caused it to form drifts that were several feet deep in places. The hotel's car park was almost impassable, and the access road to the hotel had been blocked by fallen snow and the snow that had been displaced by the snow plough that had tried to clear the nearby main road. It was quickly obvious that going home on Sunday was going to be difficult ... and then the local traffic reports indicated that several of the roads we were going to have to use were blocked by snow and abandoned or broken down vehicles. In the face of this ... and the desire to get home safely ... we decided to stay on for an extra day ... so we did.

We did not, however, remain inactive all day. We actually managed to make it down to the beach ... and I must admit I did find it a bit odd to be standing on a beach covered in snow!

Here are some of the photographs I took:

Unlike other areas along the coast, beach huts at Old Hunstanton are not all built to the same design and are not all set out in neat, straight lines. They are also located within the sand dunes to protect them from the prevailing cold wind that blows from the North sea and across The Wash.

Some intrepid youngsters actually built a snowman on the beach ... and might fine it looked!

Hunstanton lighthouse (now disused as such) sits atop the famous white and red cliffs ... although they look rather more white than red in the snow!

The beach at Old Hunstanton looking eastwards towards Holme-next-the-Sea.

We finally drove home yesterday, but the journey was far from easy in places due to the weather, the driving conditions, and the poor driving of a few other drivers.

It was nice to go away ... but oh so nice to get home again!