You'll see lots of caravans and motorhomes, at least you will if it's these woods.
Got away reasonably on time from West Runton, one thing with the campervan is that packing up to leave site isn't much more than putting everything away each day anyway. As I hadn't even put the mains hookup on the only extra job was to remove my pitch reservation sign. I took a moderately winding route to Bressingham Steam and Gardens. The place is a little run down these days, see below, but well worth a visit. Obviously for me it's the steam part that's of interest, they have 3 separate running narrow-gauge railways, although only 2 tend to be open midweek and quite a few static displays and locos that are either to be restored or have had cosmetic restorations.
One area is largely given over to Dad's Army, with various vehicles and items from either the series or the film on show. These include the van from the film, the dustcart and the car that Pike drives in one episode. Interestingly (or not) I was at the station used for the King's visit a couple of days ago on the North Norfolk line. More tomorrow as I'm planning on visiting the Dad's Army museum.
I took a trip on what they call The Nursery Line as it runs round the area that was Bressingham Blooms. This was a huge Nursery which closed down about 5 years ago. The plan is to clear the site and return it to natural habitat but it's a massive job and is being undertaken entirely by the volunteers. As is often the case I got talking to the guard on the train. Apparently last year was the first time the trust has had a surplus in 15 years. The problems stemmed from the attempted restoration of the Royal Scot. Costs spiralled out of control, the restoration was halted and they had to repay the Heritage Lottery Fund a substantial sum. The good thing is that they now do have a bit more money available so hopefully it will get even better.
The cafe was a bit of a disaster, nice food and coffee but a server who frankly didn't have a clue. Having had coffee and cake earlier I decided not to bother with lunch. The second railway that was open is the one around the gardens themselves - a great way to see them with minimal effort in my view, but then I'm not really into gardens. I'm sure for those that are they'd repay a walk around.
Putting my anorak on one of the highlights for me is the only Standard Gauge Beyer Garrat left in the world. It's a relatively small industrial loco, hopefully one day they'll actually do a steaming restoration on it. I just had a double check on the gauge of the one I saw in Queensland, although that is considerably larger overall it's only 3' 6" gauge. As with their other larger locos though it's just sat in a shed almost ignored. They are restoring one of these at the moment and hope to reopen the standard gauge track next year.
From there it was another winding route past Thetford to the caravan site, with a brief pause to visit Boots for more shower gel, not that I need it here as there are no facilities. I've found another pitch buried a bit into the woods, as with the previous site the first pitch I tried sloped the wrong way but this one is level. This area of the forest is where the 7th Armoured Division, better known as The Desert Rats, trained on the, then new, Cromwell Tanks before D-Day. There's a walk around the area with various interpretation boards and the Division Memorial, a Cromwell on a plinth, is at the site entrance. Those few months were the only time the Division spent in the UK during the war as they went from El Alamein to Berlin (via Italy and France).
I've got a bit of working out to do for the next couple of days, I'm starting off tomorrow in and around Thetford but there's also a railway to visit and I don't want to be too late to the next site. I'll shortly be consulting the map and satnav to work out the best options. I'll also need bread and fresh stuff at some point.
Later update - you can't do everything! I'll still aim to do the Dad's Army museum but unless I'm very quick there I shall leave the Charles Burrell for another day. The other option, dependimg how I feel tomorrow, is to leave both of them and come back another weekend. It's not a huge distance from home (under 2 hours drive) so it's an option.
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