Tortoise makes a great escape

Anthony CarrollA travel loving tortoise has been reunited with his owner after he made a great escape from his garden and travelled half a mile across Bradwell, near Great Yarmouth.Anthony Carroll

A travel loving tortoise has been reunited with his owner after he made a great escape from his garden and travelled half a mile across Bradwell, near Great Yarmouth.

Basil, who is thought to be 70 years old, managed to tunnel his way out of his garden and trundled his way slowly over a nearby building site.

After he disappeared, Basil's owner Jane Taylor launched a desperate search for the reptilian Houdini and was joined in her frantic quest by dog walkers and builders.

But as the search went on Basil, who is named after Basil Fawlty because of his strange looking jaw, was explor-ing a garden half a mile away.

On Friday, May 28 Basil was reunited with his delighted owner after his seven day disappearing trick after an appeal appeared in the Evening News' sister paper the Yarmouth Mercury.

He had been found in the garden half a mile way by Doll Humphries.

Ms Taylor said: 'I cried tears of joy when I saw him. I did not allow myself to hope I would find him again and there he was.'

It is not the first time Basil escaped as he was found along a tractor path in the 1970s and wandered by the A12 20 years ago.