We’ve been away on holiday: Sutton-on-Sea, Lincolnshire- another part of the country we’d not been to together and not since childhood: I’m unable to remember when, and my better half visited sometime in the early 80s. I didn’t fancy the long drive to Scotland, as we’d been there once this year, so it was time to go east again, but a bit further north this time.

The drive is short in miles- around 130- but even in good conditions, it’s 3 hours, as a good proportion is single carriageway, you have to skirt several towns, and, at the far end, Lincolnshire’s minor roads become narrow and twisty, with plenty of hazards (horses, cyclists, pedestrians, big fuck-off tractors and caravans- of these, the last two seemingly regarding both sides of the road as usable), so pushing on is not an option.

Sutton itself is a small town, and fairly sleepy, but with a nice beach, wide prom that’s also a cycleway:

Just north lies Mabelthorpe, a bit larger, and further south the bright lights and caravan parks of Skegness, with it’s (sadly truncated, but still pleasant) pier.

While Skeggy’s pier is short at 118m:

Cleethorpes’ pier is even more so at 102m.

Both were once much longer, but WW2 and storms saw to that. While they look a bit sad as they were once very long (to accommodate the large tidal range), it was nice to get a couple more piers seen, particularly ones still open and in good nick.

We also managed a visit to Gumby Hall, and met Craig the Norwegian Forest Cat:

as well as some good food and drink.