This blog finds yours truly sat on a train blogging away to my hearts content. I suspect that needs some explanation so this is what’s happened in the last week. Firstly I purchased a new but relatively basic laptop to use in conjunction with my desktop and also for presentations etc. I also purchased an all singing and all dancing printer to use with this laptop which has the eco-advantage of printing on both sides. Can I link one to the other – can I as hell like. I came very close yesterday to throwing the printer through the window with the laptop a nano-second behind. My wife calmly and showing great common sense retreated to a safe distance lest I actually exploded.
On top of all that I have purchased a cheap and cheerful pay as you go dongle to use with the laptop. Now those of you that know North Norfolk’s mobile coverage will know that I am unlikely to be able to connect in Brampton and you would be right to think that. The signal is so poor that I cannot even register things online or top the dongle up. Add to all that the fact that my car is so far over its service date that I daren’t let it go any further without some care and attention by my friendly “little man” in North Walsham. So there I was at a loose end 12 miles from home also wife is at work and can’t pick me up yet. So I did what I thought was the clever thing of getting a day rover ticket on the Bittern line and here I am riding back and forth between Sheringham and Norwich until my cars ready. This ticket I have to tell you is good value at £8-50 for all day travel (there I go again advertising Greater Anglia when they wouldn’t even give us the time of day). An hour in the buffet at Norwich with half reasonable mobile internet access allowed me to register things, top up the dongle and most importantly if all download open office. Trouble is I’m now watching the battery life like a hawk. I’m also fascinated by the up and down of the internet connectivity – we are, perhaps, not quite the desert I first thought.
A rare steam visitor to the Bittern Line – a perfect combination – copyright SW
The line from Norwich to Sheringham is, in my opinion, one of England’s finest and I’ve travelled nearly all the route mileage. It passes through Broadland serving Hoveton and Wroxham where if you are so minded you could also travel to on August 26th to visit our event at Coltishall. From here we are running a vintage coach service to the event site some 2 miles away for the very reasonable cost of £2 per adult head return. After leaving Hoveton and Wroxham the line progresses through wonderful North Norfolk’s non-flat rolling countryside to the coast at Cromer and then onward to Sheringham via West Runton which has to be in the top 5 list of well maintained and beautiful stations in the whole country, it is worth a visit for its own sake. Finally arriving at Sheringham which is a seaside resort full of charm and resplendent glory which is just as well because it’s Greater Anglia Station is an eyesore and blot on an otherwise fine town. Of course the real station is a short walk from this one and is the start of the North Norfolk Railway otherwise known as the Poppy line which is a preserved and mostly steam line running to Holt.
So you know what I’m doing today but apart from threatening murder to my laptop and printer last evening I was also attending the Aylsham Evening WI. This fine body of ladies now in their 90th year of existence have been contributing to the Aylsham Navigation Project in a unique and long lasting way. They have made an illustrated embroidered map of the Navigation which will sit in the Aylsham Heritage centre apart from a few days a year when it will be available to BNCT and the Norfolk Wherry Trust for fund raising purposes. The map was originally drawn in the 1980′s by Mike Sparkes of the Wherry Trust and he was there last night looking as pleased as punch at the way his creation had been adapted into an embroidery. The embroidery was presented to Eileen Springall, chairman of Aylsham Town Council who accepted the gift on behalf of the town Council. This is a lasting testament that will outlive all concerned and will also help keep the memory of this, our waterway, alive.
The embroidery with some of the ladies who made it
