We all have this place. A comforting place so special to us that it holds a unique spot in our hearts. A place that we go to in times of need, even if we’re across oceans and thousands of miles away. Mine is Norfolk. I’ve travelled a lot and through my escapades and misadventures, I’ve managed to injure myself in more ways than you could imagine and contract more tropical diseases than a medical dictionary! And every time I’ve broken a bone, needed a part of me removed or generally been in mind-altering pain (it seems to be an occupational hazard), I go to Norfolk in my mind. And there’s nowhere else quite like it.
Ben Garrod at NWT Ranworth Broad, photo by Rebecca Worsfold
For me, Norfolk is like an emotional weather vane, reflecting my feelings and moods across the seasons. From the gentle whisper of the breeze through the moonlit reeds to the crashing torment of thundering waves upon the foam-flecked sands, Norfolk seems to know me as well as I know myself. I’ve lived in Africa and Asia and worked in the frozen lands of Svalbard, the tropical reefs of Madagascar and amongst the grandeur of China but Norfolk is always there. When the seasons didn’t wax or wane in my Uganda forest home, I missed early morning Norfolk sunrises. When life in Sumatra was just too busy and overcrowded, I missed the quiet open spaces of the Norfolk Brecks and despite diving in crystal clear waters in the Caribbean, I missed the churning brown waters (honestly) of the Norfolk coast. It’s like an anchor that ties my heart to one place, keeping me grounded and close to my family and my home and my roots, wherever I am in the world.
I read once that Norfolk is so flat her people can never see the true horizons and therefore we never really think about what lies beyond those unseen borders. It’s not like that however and whoever said it had obviously not grown up in Norfolk. For instead, these immense skies and lands without horizons show us that there aren’t limits. It gives us a humility and sense of belonging to the land around us. A sense that we’re part of something bigger. There are a few places within the British Isles where the land affects its people in a similar way and in the Scottish highlands and across the Cornish moors, the people there often appear that little bit closer to the world around them too.
I’m a biologist, in love with the natural world around me and although you don’t need to connect with nature in this way to fully appreciate Norfolk, it certainly helps. I’ve said it a thousand times and I’ll say it again, Norfolk has all the wildlife you’ll ever need. I’ve seen huge male seals bathed in blood as they fight and majestic cranes awkwardly dancing in the wintry marshland mists. I’ve looked into the cold red stare of basking adders and marvelled at dew-soaked spider webs. Our imagination is fired by murderous shrikes, impaling their victims on blackthorn bushes with macabre relish and toxic toadstools, spotted and bright, littering forest floors like something from a fairy-tale.
Norfolk is like an emotional weather vane, reflecting my feelings and moods across the seasons
Ben Garrod
I think the beauty of Norfolk’s nature is that against such a broad canvas, the wildlife is often small and easy to overlook. It’s so easy to miss the sandwich tern shallow diving for sand eels or the tiny solitary bee making her nest in your garden wall. The sound of the TV can often drown out the cacophonous calls of foxes at night and the happy honking of migrating geese overhead can be missed in a heartbeat. But if you listen and don’t just hear and instead of looking, you really see, then all around you, you’ll be amongst a wild Norfolk. I’m not asking you to dedicate your lives to studying the natural world (you’d do me out of a job in no time) but make a connection with a small part of the world around you after reading this. Whether its watching how birds interact on your feeder in the garden, going to your local nature reserve, building an insect hotel (if you don’t know what this means then it’s worth looking them up on the internet) or even just looking at the leaves along the side of the road as you’re sat on the bus. Whatever it is, really think about what you're seeing or hearing or doing. How has that new hole you made in the garden fence helped local hedgehogs? Why do the roe deer at the golf course shed their antlers each year and how do they do it? What do conservationists need to do to manage huge swathes of the Broads so meticulously?
Hedgehog, Dave Kilbey
You might not like that spider in your bathroom but have you noticed the lack of flies there recently? The fussy buzzing of the bees may be annoying but grocery shopping would be a much sadder affair without their help and whilst a tree may just resemble a tired and jumbled old statue carved by nature, you just try breathing without them. You see, we’re all part of an interconnected world, where our failures and successes are interwoven with the lives of every animal, plant and fungus around us. This isn’t hippy mumbo-jumbo, it’s ecology. Our forebears lived within their means alongside their neighbours in nature. Now, we can speak to astronauts circling overhead on space stations and live in cities where we almost celebrate our dominion over nature but lets not forget, we’re part of something bigger. Norfolk is luckier than many places, because we can see this connection all around us. We see beautiful species every day, witness the power of the weather and experience our environment changing around us. We’re closer to nature in Norfolk. Go connect with Norfolk and remind yourself just how lucky we are to be part of something so naturally beautiful, special and fragile or maybe even discover for the first time why wild Norfolk is so special to you.
Ben Garrod is Ambassador for Norfolk Wildlife Trust. Follow him on twitter @Ben_Garrod