A weekend at Great Yarmouth: more power to your arm

Cattle grazing marsh pastures near Haddiscoe, Norfolk. Note the cut drains to allow pasture areas to recover from inundation of tidal water
The Golden Mile at Great Yarmouth, one of its attractions (?!)
The wind farm at Scroby Sands 2 miles off the seafront at Great Yarmouth, Norfolk

A weekend at an English seaside resort is something out of the nudge-nudge, wink-wink school of comedy. I planned to update my computer work, blog and photos but questionable wi-fi restricted that idea. The Norfolk sea coast is open and windswept and when the sun is out it is a great place to be, at least that is what people told me.

The impressive thing about agriculture in Norfolk is how much it resembles Australian conditions. Big travelling irrigators abound and regular windbreaks and drained coastal pastures are similar to acid-sulphate affected areas of NSW south and north coast. It is an area known for vegetable crops such as carrots, potatoes and onions, with cattle grazing the normal activity on the marsh pastures in the Broads (areas near marshes). The most striking feature is the absolute flatness of the landscape.

The presence of 30 wind generators in the middle distance off the seafront at Great Yarmouth is both surprising and reassuring. Located 2 miles off shore, the Scroby Sands wind farm has been operating since 2004, and can supply all power needs for the houses at Great Yarmouth. It is sited on a permanent sand bank and was one of the first farms established to supply base load power for the British grid. Owned and operated by a German company, E-ON, it could now be supplying considerably more power due to improvements in technology and efficiency. Many more sites are being established and developed further from the shore to overcome opposition to the mills.

I'm not sure how someone on an environmental education scholarship study tour could justify a weekend in Great Yarmouth unless they knew of the presence of alternative power sources close to their hotel. It is refreshing to see the "mainstreaming" of these sources.