After leaving Fulbeck we found a wonderful little site in Austen Fen (which can only be described as a small settlement) near Louth. Actually we were told about it by a fellow camper in Fulbeck. And it was just perfect!
We stayed for 8 nights and only had company for 3 of those nights! There was even a resident Barn Owl that Calv was privileged to see twice – although he wasn’t able to get any photos unfortunately. I’m sure I heard it on the roof dragging it’s prey one night in the early hours!
On our 1st day here we popped up the coast to visit Cleethorpes. We were pleasantly surprised, it wasn’t what we were expecting at all! Sure it was a little old fashioned and tired in places, with lots of amusements and typical seaside resort attractions. However, it is really well kept and has a nice feel about it. The beach was lovely too with what seemed like miles of sand in sight 🙂 Again, not what we were expecting!
The following day we decided to visit some of the lesser known beaches of Lincolnshire, via the market town of Alford (which was a bit of a detour admittedly…) Although we didn’t stop in Alford it looked to be a very pleasant place. It has a working windmill that you can visit which, of course, includes a teashop.
From here the 1st beach we visited was Anderby Creek, just a little north of Chapel St Leonards. What a find! This is a little ‘resort’ with a car park for maybe 60 cars, public toilets and a beach café/shop – all quite old and tired but perfectly adequate. It has a quiet feel, despite a few caravan parks, as it has a preservation order which bans amusement arcades etc.
On the short walk down to the beach there is the ‘Cloud Bar’, an installation with mirrors that enables you to monitor clouds, and information boards helping you to identify what you’re looking at and giving you more details about what you’re seeing 🙂
Then we saw the beach and we were speechless. We wandered down to the shore and then sat on a dune for an hour or so, before popping to the café for a spot of lunch. We went back to the beach for a little while, and I went in for a quick paddle (very cold!)
From here we dribbled northwards briefly visiting Marsh Yard, Huttoft and Sandilands beaches. All with free car parks, toilets and walks. All quiet – although Huttoft was a bit busier with parking pretty much on the beach itself.
Then we came to Sutton on Sea which is a proper little resort, with beach huts (unfortunately most are not in the best state of repair), plenty of cafes and pubs and also a small paddling pool as well as the beach and the promenade of course. There was a car park on grass where you paid, but there were also plenty of free spaces available on the road.
Then came Theddlethorpe before we visited the nature reserve at Saltfleetby All Saints. We kept promising to go back to the nature reserve with the proper camera and explore properly, but never quite made it unfortunately.
On the way back to the van we found this Grade II listed church (I think it was at Saltfleetby St Clement), which is no longer in use and has been sold (gravestones and all) for residential or commercial use 😦
The next day we went for a long walk – I’ll tell you about this and our trip to Grimsby in my next post 🙂
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Debbie here – how exciting to see the moths in your photo, I saw the blue and red one (well certainly not the very same moth!), at work the other day, and looked it up when I got home, as I’d never seen one before! What a coincidence! X
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Hi Debs – I didn’t know they were moths! They were lots of them though 🙂
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