United Kingdom through my lens - Backpacking the UK - Watching Seals at Blakeney Point in Morston Quay!

Hello Steemians and first of all, merry Christmas and season's greetings to you all! I hope you have a good week ahead and go full Steem ahead for the new year!

In case you missed out my first post on this series, I would like to talk a little about it here before I start.

In the winter of 2014, I went on a month long backpacking trip across the United Kingdom. This was my first time in the UK and I was excited and looking forward to what the countries of England, Scotland and Wales had in store for me. Boarding the ferry from Rotterdam, I landed at Harwich on the eastern coast of England. This was where my adventure started!

After exploring the sweet little town of Norwich, I took a drive out towards the coast at Morston Quay and the Blakeney Point.

Panoramic view of the docks at Blakeney Point.

Blaekney Point is a nature reserve, situated on the north coast of Norfolk, near the villages of Blakeney, Morston and Cley Next the Sea. Blakeney point is a stretch of shingle and sand dunes, including salt marshes, tidal mudflats and reclaimed farmland. One of the main attractions of Blakeney Point is watching seals. After booking a boat tour with one of the many tour operators in the area, we took the boat out to the sea. We were still early in the morning and the sun was just coming up on the east, spreading a warm orange and yellow hue across the sky. The water reflected the colors, the image disturbed by the ripples on the surface and the wake left behind as our boat went past.

Blakeney Point is home to about 500 Harbour and Grey Seals, and they were what we were expecting to see on this cold winter morning.

Boats moored at Blakeney Point

The quietness of the morning was only disturbed by the buzz of the motor as the boat made its way across the water to one of the many little islands where the Seals were present. But soon, we could hear more sounds in the water. It was the sound of Seals coming up to the surface for air, before disappearing under the surface again. Some of them were quite curious of the boat and came a little close before diving into the depths of the waters.

Two Seals hanging out.

Sunrise at Blakeney Point.

A curious evesdropper.

Playful Seals in the water. Plover birds in the background.

A colony of Seals on the beach.

Hanging out.. Life's okay for these guys.

Back to shore after a successful seal watching trip.

Hello there, it is I...

The day that I visited Blakeney point, also was the Armistice Day (November 11). Many of the little towns that we passed by on our drive back from the coast had small celebrations happening.

The little roadtrip to the coast and back made me feel that the United Kingdom has quite a old world charm to it. The countryside, the little villages that we passed, the churches (including a dilapidated, crumbling structure) all made for a picture that is still fresh in my memory. What I realized that day is that the UK is pretty much everything I've expected of it. If there is a place that I would like to spend a long time in, it would definitely be in England. I am not sure which part of England though. I still need to travel more to find out.

---

In case you missed the first part, you can find it in the link below:

United Kingdom through my lens - Backpacking the UK - Part 1 - Norwich

Follow me for more on my backpacking trip across UK. I will have more stories to share of my adventures through Scandinavia, and South East Asia. For now, cheers!

---