Horsey Gap, St Benets Abbey and a Zoo
Thursday 3rd October
Thursday morning I visited a location that I had long wanted to see. About 2 miles beyond the Horsey wind pump is the coast and there is a car park and the gap in the Sand called the Horsey gap. This is well known as the home for a colony of seals which are to be found close to the gap in the dunes on the beach. On arrival I walked south along the edge of the beach and the seals ( about 60) were about a quarter of a mile along. They were approximately 30 people standing watching the seals. I walked beyond the seals so the Sun was behind me and walked down to the waters edge behind the breakwater so I was at least 2/3 hidden. I stayed for about an hour and a half and enjoyed watching and taking photographs of the seals. In about a month time they start to have their pups and as I understand it the speech area is off-limits at that time. The light was good, the hardest part of taking photographs was to simplify the image by not having too many seals make the picture look messy and complicated.
In the afternoon, I ventured towards the village of Ludham, and then headed south onto the Broads to visit what remains of Saint Benets Abbey. This is just the mediaeval Gatehouse, and unusually the brick remains of one of the earliest wind pumps built into the structure. The Abbey dates from mediaeval times and was the only Abbey not to be destroyed by Henry VIII. However, it fell into ruins in the 17th century. The weather was good the sun was out so a few pretty postcard images followed.
After this I visited a small zoo on the edge of the Broads near Yarmouth, I was one of the only people there it was mid afternoon from 3 pm onwards. Clearly it was end of season there were a lot of repairs underway but surprisingly they had a wonderful collection of leopards and a variety of monkeys. There was also a couple of indoor areas representing forest and swamp which were surprisingly good.
