We started off towards the end of July driving up to Norwich to the Norfolk Country Music Festival. Our friends Dave & Margaret came as well and stayed in the Premier Inn opposite the Norfolk Showground where we were camped. We met up with lots of other friends from all over the country there and enjoyed 4 days of music and dancing. Mostly the weather was good although we did get wet a couple of times. At the end we headed over to Lowestoft and spent a week on the Caravan Club site at Kessingland. It was not something we would normally do during August and school holidays, but we figured it was not worth driving all the way home just for a few days. We walked the beach, caught the bus to Southwold and Beccles, wandered around the shops in Lowestoft and generally chilled out. Sadly, the festival in Essex which would have followed was cancelled at the last minute, so we found ourselves a small CL Frogs Hall Camping at Eye in Suffolk. It was a beautiful quiet back garden of a site, with no facilities but just the birds and wildlife for company.
The weather was gorgeous for a few days and we spent our time either sitting under the awning or going for walks across the fields to the nearest pub. We also spent one whole morning with the town trail guide of Eye in our hands just wandering around and looking at all the lovely old houses.
From Lowestoft we drove to Houghton Mill and spent a few days on National Trust property there. It was quite interesting to go round the mill itself which is one of the few remaining working mills in the country. The site itself was pretty, but packed and constantly very busy. Lorna & Mike were now down from Scotland and pitched up not too far away at St. Neots, so they drove over and spent a day with us. It was fascinating standing on the bridge over the lock watching all the boats passing through.
The Quickdraw Festival near Northampton was our next port of call, so the 4 of us pitched up at Earl's Barton for 5 days and together with more musical friends gathered in the marquee morning, noon and night listening to the 14 bands and doing a bit of dancing.
Unfortunately on the Saturday Brian had collected some bites on his foot and by Sunday morning had a swollen rashy foot and felt most unwell. We decided to pull the plug on our next leg which would have been Blenheim and left Lorna & Mike to go there on their own whilst we made our way home in the hopes of getting a doctor's appointment on Monday morning. Luckily the doctor had seen quite a few bites this year and was able to prescribe anti-biotics to get rid of the infection. So Brian spent a few days lounging on the settee in his flip flops whilst the swelling gradually went down.
The end of August Bank Holiday we had got a festival booked at Burghclere with Lorna & Mike, so although he struggled to get a shoe on and was certainly not going to be dancing, we drove there from home on the Friday and once more had a good musical weekend. We travelled back home on Bank Holiday Monday after having been away 5 weeks.
I think the area around Houghton Mill is lovely and I too have spent some time watching the boats go through the lock. I didn't stay at the site though, I was a couple of miles along the road at Wyton Lakes, an adults only site which I can highly recommend if you're ever over that way again.
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