Tuesday 6th June 2023

Dateline: Norfolk.

I woke at six, and looking out the window I saw endless cloud. And the thing about Swallowtail butterflies is they like sunshine. And light winds.

But the BBC suggested it should brighten up in the afternoon.

Here's hoping.

I have a shower and get dressed, then walk over to the garage to buy a huge coffee and a breakfast bap, d some stuff online before it was time to head to the meeting point, a supermarket car park a 20 minute drive away.

On the way, it began to drizzle, and in fact was very much like the last time I tried to snap the buggers.

We hung around until the other members of the tour came along, and then the two mini buses driven by the guides, and if anything they were even more downbeat about our chances than we were.

Sigh.

We said we would drive behind the buses, because if we struck out in the morning, we might leave for Kent early.

Gary and I were here because I got a surprise gift of two places from Jools, at short notice as they had spaces to fill, so Gary and I said we'd go.

And here we were, parked outside Strumpshaw Fen, gentle drizzle in the air and a temperature of just 13 degrees.

And there was a keen north easterly blowing.

Again.

We set off round the reserve, a walk of some 12,000 steps, to all the best sites for Swallowtails, and we saw none.

In fact we saw just one butterfly, a female Red Admiral sheltering in a bush, and an Azure Damselfly and that was pretty much all we had to show for a three ramble.

We saw several interesting plants, but that was it.

Back at the car park we decided to cut our losses, as the next site would be more exposed than this, so less chance of a butterfly.

That's life.

We bid them farewell, and we made our way back to the A47 then along to the top of the A11, and turned south.

We stopped at Thetford for lunch, but had light traffic pretty much the whole way, with Gary dropping me off home at five.

Just time to feed the fox and make a brew for when Jools came back, as we were off to the airport to stay at a hotel for the night, before our flight to Norway in the morning.

Jools had packed the cases, downloaded the documents, so all we had to do was load the cases into the car and drive.

We did go to the Water Sports centre for dinner, we had to eat, so had fish and chips whilst looking out over the harbour at the ferries coming and going.

This also meant that rush hour traffic would have died down, and we had a clear run up the M20 and along the M25 to the airport, arriving at the Premier Inn at half nine, just as darkness fell.

We checked in and that was it really, we were both pooped, and just wanted to get our heads down, as we were to be up at half four as our flight was half seven.