We used a free leaflet to guide us on a walking tour pointing out historical places of interest in King’s Lynn. The tour took us to St Nicholas’ church which was currently housing an art exhibition. One of the church guides told us we should not miss going to see the nearby exorcists house which we found to be quaint and highly unusual. Unfortunately, it being Monday, we weren’t able to visit the museums as they were closed. We stopped for elevenses in a very down to earth café near the bus station, where we enjoyed the friendly banter and chatter between the locals and staff.

Whilst on the walk I chatted to a lady who had seen me taking photos and she asked what I thought of King’s Lynn. I said I liked the historical parts of the town. She told me she had moved there from South Africa about a year ago to be closer to her son and that she loves the place.

We had lunch in the delightful Tipsy Teapot where we decadently had a glass of wine to accompany our fish goujons which came with vegetable crisps and salad. After we had eaten, we completed the history walk ending up back by our hotel.

We hopped in the car and drove to Gooderstone Water Gardens which was a lovely way to spend the afternoon. Due to the lack of rain we found that the water levels in parts of the garden were low, especially so near to the bird hide.

Before dining in the hotel restaurant we relaxed in our hotel room taking in the view over the River Great Ouse

At the beginning of March it was lovely to be able to chat to strangers as we enjoyed our walks before the world shifted into unfamiliar and surreal.

This is the tale of an encounter that happened on one of my local walks:

In the morning I waited in for a delivery that didn’t show up leading me to a window of opportunity after lunch for a local walk. I chose my direction and and one of my favourite benches was unusually vacant so I took my opportunity to sit and rest a while overlooking a pool watching the antics of the ducks and geese.

Just after I sat down I heard the exclamation ‘Oh! the bench is taken now’. A fisherman was walking along the path and settled his kit to the side of where I was perched on the bench.
I said I would move up so he could sit on the end of the bench. He protested but I moved anyway and he sat on the opposite end of the bench.

We got chatting and I asked if there were a lot of fish to be caught. He confirmed the were and some surprisingly big ones for a small pool. He showed me a picture (on his mobile phone) of him holding a large fish that he had caught recently.

As we were chatting the solitary white duck that frequents the pool was hovering around knowing that fishermen always have food. The fisherman fed the duck calling him Billy, My new found friend proceeded to tell me the story of how the duck arrived at the pool.

Apparently about 10 years ago a lady approached the pool with a shopping trolley from which she deposited three white ducks in the pool. Over the years two of the ducks met with unfortunate accidents (I will spare you the details) so now Billy was alone.

I was too busy chatting that I forgot to take photographs. The accompanying photographs are from walks that I took around the pool in 2019.

(written for a Country Walking #walk1000miles Challenge).