The UK’s best safari destination is not what you think
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I’ve been on many remarkable safaris: to Botswana, Tanzania, Rwanda, Kenya and Zambia… and Norfolk. Before becoming a journalist, I worked in the travel industry as a safari tour operator for a small London-based company. There, I scouted out the best wildlife spots in Africa, where elephants glow against orange sunsets and hyenas whoop into the night. It’s magic.
![[Rarely photographed melanistic Grey Seal, Halichoerus grypus, pup Horsey Norfolk Less than one in 400 pups born annually are melanistic, usually the pups are a creamy white in color]](https://metro.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/GettyImages-1189411287.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&w=646)
African safaris don’t come cheap, with trips starting from £5,000 per person for true wilderness experiences. But there’s a world-class wildlife experience on your doorstep for a fraction of the price, and the best season is still in full swing. A three-hour drive from London takes you to Winterton-on-Sea, a seaside village in Norfolk where animals congregate in their thousands.
Okay, they’re not elephants or lions. They’re seals: more seals than I could have ever anticipated. During my visit in November, the count was over 2,000 adult seals and 750 pups, all sprawled on a summer holiday hotspot that’s virtually deserted by humans in winter.
![[Seal Colony On Scroby Sands]](https://metro.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/GettyImages-1447166539.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&w=646)
From November to early February thousands of seals flop onto the Norfolk shores to breed. Looking closer, little white blobs were also visible. Monocular at the ready:they are pups. Hundreds of pups with labrador-esque doe eyes, looking around thinking: ‘This isn’t Africa.’ Not really. But that’s what I thought.
The dots kept on coming on the walk along Winterton Bay Beach, where seals had been birthing new life. The evidence was there, with subtle trails of blood and splats of placenta dotted around the little pups. It sounds gross, but that’s nature. And I was loving it.
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