My favourite festive tradition in the Mud and Nettles household is our annual Yuletide trip to the beach. We don’t live particularly near to the coast but I find it’s the perfect way to see in a fresh new year, blowing away the cobwebs and rolling walking off some of those extra Christmas stones pounds.

This year with a new phone in hand, one of the mudlings was keen to try her hand at catching a few Pokémon by the sea. For those of you who have ever attempted to use a mobile phone in Norfolk you will understand this narrowed down our potential destinations considerably. 

Factor in Mr muddy being in a bit of a grump and declaring everywhere too far away 🙄, I quickly suggested Felixstowe as a suitable option and even better I knew of a beachside cafe at the port where the dog was welcome so we could start our day with Bacon sandwiches and a Cappuccino by the sea. Deal.

Parking near the port we were soon fuelled and ready for a day of exploring the coast. 

The area around the port being a superb bustling, industrial environment mixed with a wild coastal landscape and a generous dash of military coastal defences for good measure.

This unique mix makes it a brilliant location to explore. A great place to just wander and  take in all that surrounds you whilst feeling the wind in your hair. Lovely. 

Even better with the beach to run on, pebbles to skim and defunct military defences to climb, Pokémon was quickly abandoned in favour of running free. Don’t you just love it when that happens? 

With no plans other than to just drift and enjoy the day, we took our time walking along the coast and getting getting increasingly braver with the waves – we all know how that one invariably ends right? 

So with slightly soggy children we made our way gradually to town, the crowds and kiss me quick hats. 

Whilst certainly a considerable distance for little legs I honestly don’t think they really noticed, with the odd burst of Pokémon excitement and all the seashells that you can fit in your pocket just waiting to be found. 

A stroll along the promenade and of course the obligatory Fish and Chips. Honestly it’s ok, we were all sick as dogs over Christmas – we had some catching up to do. 🐽

The day was quickly running away from us and with a fair trek back to the car we could hang about no more, much to the children’s dismay. Such mean parents. 😉

The walk back as the sun began to set was certainly no hardship.

The children having thoroughly enjoyed their day at the beach trying to make the most of every last moment of daylight. We even had one begging to stay and play longer.

With the final minutes of light we made it back to the nature reserve and Landguard fort near to the port, I knew there was a couple of nearby caches so decided I really should make the effort while I was there to at least find one.  Luckily with only a limited place to search and a helpful hint the nano cache was quickly found.

 

Signing the log and rolling it back up however, another thing entirely. Having been outside all day my fingers were frozen stiff and look at that for a serious case of cold sausage fingers. 

As darkness descended we crossed the final stretch of beach to the port.

The most curious welcoming committee back at the car park, having been deserted earlier in the day the car park now full of row upon row of people watching a ship receive its load. Not quite sure what that was all about, maybe all of their TVs were broken? 🤷🏻‍♀️

Do you have any outdoors festive traditions?