I decided it was about time I took off back to Norfolk. If you’ve never been you need to go to the north Norfolk coast, it’s just stunning. So I jumped in Vern and headed off to Salthouse, home of the amazing Cookies, a great BYOB fish cafe, just stunning. I didn’t go to the cafe but did drive up to the beach and take advantage of one of the only free beach car parks on the coast.

I now have a fishing rod but very little clue of what to do with it. I’d caught nothing but crabs, ooh er misses, while I was away on the Isle of Wight, so I was really chuffed when I pulled out my first mackerel after only a few minutes. I was the lone fisherman on the beach. Instead of taking it home for dinner I decided to cut it up and put it on the line as bait.

After probably 3-4 hours I caught another two so at least had enough for dinner. It was slightly overcast but I still came away with a very healthy glow. I’d not booked a camp site, I’d looked up where I could wild camp if the worst came to the worst. Our old haunt at Stiffkey came up trumps though and I was back on a site we haven’t been to in 4 or 5 years. It’s a great site right on the edge of the salt marsh. My mackerel dinner was great, two mackerel though is a bit much for just one person, especially with new potatoes and salad!

Day 2 of my fishing at Salthouse proved much less fruitful. There were quite a few other fishermen and not one of us pulled anything out of the sea other than seaweed tangled on our lines. The sun was out though and I’ve since read that’s not the best thing for fishing. I headed back home at a reasonable hour, after all it was the first Thirsty Thursday in a while. For those of you who don’t know a group of us lads tend to meet up and have a pint or two on a Thursday although it’s not unheard of for us to have a Wet Wednesday or a Firsty Friday. You get the picture I’m sure.

So this week we went local and headed for the Red Lion in Histon. Col brought his cousin who was visiting, Helena popped in for 1 and Mad Scientist Dave made it too. We actually got more than we had bargained for as the landlord announced a lock-in, the first I’ve ever had there. Needless to say by 2am we were all suitably lubricated. Both Col and Dave were asleep.

On Friday we headed off to St Margaret’s Bay near Dover, the venue for Paul and Emma’s wedding. We stayed on a campsite a couple of miles away, our first wedding in Vern. The wedding on Saturday was superb. Paul gave the most amazing speech, Emma looked stunning, the weather was perfect, the Pimms strong and the venue so fitting for such a great day. All in all a really lovely day.

On the Sunday morning we caught up with Mike, Carlos and Nicki and headed off for some caching - how sad is that? We ended up on the cliff tops overlooking the English channel sitting in the sun by a National Trust Lighthouse. Perfect. Following that we walked down to the beach in time to have a spot of lunch and watch Mr and Mrs Rogger and a few others don their wetsuits and go in for a swim. I wished I had brought my swimming kit, next time.

So that was pretty much week 23 with the exception of the sale of my Mum’s house falling through.

As I type this I’m already in week 24 and have made my way to a campsite just north of Dublin. You’ll have to wait for next week for the details though.