Martin Society reading party

What is a reading society I hear you ask? (I have supersonic hearing obviously). Well, because when you go to uni here you ‘read’ Geography (or whatever else it is that you study), when you go out in the field you go on reading parties (because we’re in groups and because it’s all a whole lot of fun). The geography society at St John’s is called the Martin Society and this year’s reading party was to Norfolk. We stayed in the most charming hotel in King’s Lynn’s industrial estate, just on the edge of the motorway. Very conducive towards convening with nature I’m sure. ..

The group consisted of 9 undergrads, 5 of us postgrads and 3 staff. We spent the first half day hearing about everyone’s research (mine is currently tentatively titled ‘Biofuels backlash? Evidence, politics and the EU Renewable Energy Directive’ - catchy eh...) and continued it on the morning of the third day. But, on the far more interesting second day we went out exploring and managed to cover most of Norfolk, as well as taking a look at parts of Suffolk and Cambridgeshire. Our two main destinations were the north Norfolk coast (with some incredibly (read, aggressive) ducks who ate biscuits out of my hand) and Wicken Fen. The fens are drained marshlands which contain 50% of the grade A1 soil in the UK over a comparatively pretty small area. Wicken Fen is a nature reserve that preserves the fens as they would have looked in medieval times, replete with reeds, lots of mud, and all sorts of birds. Having gone to an extra special effort to make sure I remembered to get my gumboots (or wellingtons as I should call them here) up to Norfolk, the joy in being able to sink down into all the lovely squelchy mud was brilliant!


Overall a very successful trip, particularly considering I could pack two visits to London around it (all the trains and motorway systems here fan out from London as a central radius, there’s pretty much no way to easily go across the country). I’ve got more photos here.