Pulham Pigs – both us and the airships!

Ruby the Campervan is snuggled up on her lonesome, behind BritStop 243/17, a farm shop/cafe in Norfolk.  Despite being 20 miles from our front door we had no idea this place even existed until the new BritStop book arrived! How we have lived without this place in our lives, I will never know, but I worry that now that we do know about it, we may have to remortgage the house! LOL

This week has been one of the busiest I can remember work wise. On Friday, we hosted our very own ABRSM Music Exam day, which was a pretty big deal but thankfully went well, and so when we saw the forecast for the weekend showing no rain, we had no hesitation in having a flick through the BritStop bible.

On top of our already ridiculous week- on Wednesday, Ruby decided to throw her toys out of the pram! The central locking on the passenger side broke, leaving the passenger door stuck in deadlock- not ideal, but not immediately urgent- until we realised that the fuel light had just come on and you can’t open the fuel cap without opening the passenger door. Argh. Cue an emergency day off to get it sorted, which turned into Ruby being away for 2 days, and us being relegated to a tiny, TINY KA – amusing watching 6foot 4 Keith trying to get in and out of that let me tell you, and don’t get me started on fitting all our musical instruments in there…

 

 

Anyhow, by the time Saturday arrived we were chomping at the bit for a change of scenery.  It was also a good excuse for us to try out our new tow bar and tow bar fitted bike carrier, so Keith loaded them up whilst I threw some food bits into the fridge. Because obviously visiting a farm shop we wouldn’t find anything for dinner.. said no-one ever! We are chuffed to bits with the bike rack- its been a little bit of a headache finding a rack that would allow us to open the boot with the bikes still on, but this Atera bike rack ticks that box, and is amazing- its so easy to use.

We were on the road by midday and 30 mins later we were rolling onto the large car park. We introduced ourselves to the owner Stuart, who couldn’t have been nicer if he tried- and got busy taking a tour around the HUGE farm shop. If you are into eating/cooking local then this is the place for you. WOW. Meats, Cheeses, Pies, Dairy, Fresh Veg, Fudge, Ales, Wines, Whiskey, Gin… we managed to spend £40 but managed to get two juicy fillet steaks, sausages for breakfast, potatoes, cheese, mushrooms, 3 ales, a pack of fudge, sausage rolls, and a pork pie! We enjoyed the sausage roll and pork pie for lunch and set off on a little cycle ride round the local area.

We cycled through Pulham St Mary and Pulham Market, which were once home to an airbase that had several operating Airships, known locally as Pulham Pigs because of their shape.

The Church in Pulham St Mary was amazing, it had a unusual two story porch and lots of wooden medieval carvings inside.

We passed a fantastic old station that has been renovated into a house. The owner was tinkering in his garden so we had a nice chat with him. The station was a stop on the London to Lowestoft line and he’d done a marvellous job in restoring it including the original gates.

We carried on along quiet country lanes until we reached the pretty Pulham Market, and resisted the urge to stop for a pint.

We did a bit of geocaching on route and returned to Ruby after 11 miles in perfect time for Afternoon Tea – served with the fudge we had bought earlier and in our china of course. Nothing but the best in these parts!

The remainder of the afternoon was spent chilling- I did some knitting and Keith watched some crappy tv. Soon the farm shop closed, and we were locked in for the evening. We cracked open some drinks before cooking our fillet steaks. I knocked up some homemade chips and garlic mushrooms to accompany them and we also had some peppercorn sauce. Yum, yum, yum. It dawned on us that even though we had perhaps spent more than we intended, a meal like that in a pub would have been a lot more, and we could wear our Jim Jams! And of course, we had our accommodation for free. Win win.

After dinner we enjoyed a lovely cheese board before an hour or so of Saturday Night tv and an early night. It was so peaceful, we slept like logs. As the sun rose we were treated to a live version of the dawn chorus, including a tawny owl nearby. We were up relatively early and a made us a full english including the local sausages, which were delicious. We said thank you and goodbye to Stuart the owner, who seemed as thrilled as we did- we were his first Britstoppers and he insisted on taking a pic of us to celebrate! Before we left we had a walk around a nearby woodland, which was lovely- the rain stayed away and we did a couple more geocaches before heading home via Diss to do some errands.

A perfect escape from a crazy schedule- we’ve returned feeling ready to tackle next week!

Until Next Time

Lx