Touring Norfolk in a motorhome

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 Day 7: on the way to Norfolk via - a visit to the IWM Duxford and a quick detour to Grafton Lake

 

Where do you store things in your motorhome? We have one large external locker (below one of our side seats) and another far smaller ‘wet locker’ which really does get wet during any rain showers (see a previous post on this conundrum).

The large locker contains seats, EHU cable, water hoses, watering cans, fold down buckets for waste pipe, toolkit, cycle toolkit and large pump, cycle pannier bags, mud mats, assorted fittings for water hose pipe, wheel clamp, walking boots, foam roll mat (for when I need to crawl under Bryony) and a spare kitchen sink (no only kidding!).  The smaller wet locker (which really is wet most of the time – see a previous post about my frustration over this) contains the ramps, toilet fluids, toilet cassette cleaning materials, some wheel chocks and the 3m long waste water pipe.

The shower area serves as a temporary storage area as for the telescope and its associated bits and pieces. Everything else, from camera gear to clothing, books, electronic gear and food is stored within the cupboards within the habitation unit or behind the front seats.

We marvel every day at how things seem to ‘disappear’ into Bryony’s interior and mentally thank the inventor of ‘packing cubes’ most days.  

Today is an ‘out and about day’ in the motorhome and first port of call is the Imperial War Museum at Duxford, just 20 minutes down the road from our site.

 

Duxford is a simply ‘awe inspiring’ and an absolute must visit for ‘aviation geeks’. The sheer enormity of that first hanger with so many planes on the floor and suspended from the ceiling takes your breath away. I was genuinely shocked into silence at the sheer enormity of a Sunderland Flying boat. Crammed alongside it were a Concorde and a Vulcan Delta wing bomber! Don’t miss the first-floor walkway to get a better view of the suspended planes by the way. 

Down, along the old taxiing roads, we strolled to get to all the vast hangers further along. Restoration projects on display with planes stripped back to bare aluminium and bare frames; volunteer engineers poring over blueprints with furrowed brows. A B17, a B52 Stratosphere, a Typhoon and a Tornado – all in the same building! The ‘Memphis Belle’ out on the tarmac. A U2 spy plane, a Mosquito, a Buccaneer, the iconic Hurricane and several even more iconic Spitfires.  The list of planes is endless. A moving display of the Duxford ‘Control Ops Room as it was in WW2; then Sopworth Camels, Gipsy Moths and A Sea King helicopter.

Out on the runway, via www.ClassicFlights.co.uk   a Spitfire flew lazily in figure of eight circuits around the aerodrome along with a Gipsy Moth, giving tours to those who could afford them.

Visit Duxford, you really won’t regret it. You can find out more here at https://www.iwm.org.uk/visits/iwm-duxford

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fj0liRrn614

Don't forget to visit the 'conservation in action' hanger where you can see various planes stripped down and being repaired. Fascinating stuff even if you are a non engineer. 

As for Grafton lake? The idea was to take a walk around it to end the day but after arriving and paying for the car park ticket, we suddenly realised we were supposed to be taking part in a zoom conference later that afternoon. With intermittent internet signal at the Lake, we high tailed it back to Cambridge sharpish, making it just in time.

So we didn’t get to enjoy Grafton!