Sunset Searchers

Ludham,Norfolk is a village lucky enough to have the broads running through it,so it makes for some great photo opportunities.Ive been trying to find new places for my photography and after speaking to a couple of friends they told me about this place.They had the honour (or misfortune) to come with me.Id promised them a grand sunset that night as id been checking the weather forecast the previous night but as i now know,the weather people don't have a bloody clue whats going on and now sense that they update there forecast by sticking there head out the window and putting down what its like at that moment in time! Needless to say i endured a barrage of jokes during the day about the state of the weather as it was dull and cloudy for the best part of it.Be warned tho,the roads around Ludham are crap,especially the one leading to St Benets Abbey which looks like it hadn't been seen too since the early ages of man.On to the Abbey itself,a nice building had it not been surrounded by 2 large metal fences and resembled more of a building site,complete with portaloo which looked like someone had spontaneous combusted in there! Still,the surrounding area was nice and the sun was trying to break through the wall of cloud before it.Trying to a climb a barb wire fence with a tripod and full equipment is like mission impossible which i found out as i managed to get one foot on the top of the fence then found my leg had developed a mind of its own when it decided to swivel side to side with a move that even Elvis would of been proud of.Unscathed i got over tho to the disappointment of my other 2 mates.Our next stop was just down the road at How Hill which id visited a couple of times before.By this time the sun was setting and finally we got the colour in the sky we had been searching for.The other main problem with dusk and being next to a waterway is that it was crawling (literally) with fly's and mosquitoes who looked at us as an all you can eat invitation when i looked at my arms later on that night.The night ended in an ill tempered swan blocking the path,but our friend Matt seemed undeterred and at one point i thought he may well wrestle this beast back into the water from where it came.It was a good night but really tested our skills to capture what we did with an indifferent weather not helping.A thank you to Simon and Matt who came along with me,i think their only disappointment was not seeing me fall flat on my face trying to get over that fence!