Bedford River Festival 2012

The Bedford River Festival took place over a weekend recently and I decided to have a look on 21st July. I had been in previous year but this year there seemed to be a huge number of people, perhaps many more than before. Maybe this was caused by the fact that we have had a number of weeks of bad weather and suddenly it was lovely and people wanted to have a day out.

Almost every parking spot for miles round Bedford seemed to have been taken but I was lucky enough to find somewhere to the north of Russell Park. The park itself was full of people in the middle and had a large music stage and a variety of stalls round the edge..

A vast number of people packing Russell Park

There were a number of music stages with this one in Russell Park

One of the main purposes of the Festival is to provide a shop window for local clubs and societies.

The local Microlight Centre had a stand.

Lots of fitness clubs put on displays and were on the
lookout for new members

Food stalls, particularly foreign foods are a feature of the Festival so there is no need to go hungry at this event...

Naturally the river provides the centre of activities with things like Dragon Boat racing, boat parades and various canoe events.

A canoe coming down the high ramp.

Not a bad day out with a huge number of other side shows etc. I enjoyed the company of my friend Don at the event but I think that we probably both felt that this may not be one of our favourite types of show. I felt that although a lot of people put a huge amount of effort into organising stands to promote their particular interest it really lacked the content that would have made it of more interest to me personally.

Kent July 2012

We decided to make another visit to Kent (we went down in 2011) to the area where I spent my childhood. We travelled down on the 12th July and returned on 16th July. We stayed at the same caravan club CL in Halling as the previous year. Our trip coincided with a long period of very rainy weather. Luckily the site seems to drain well and we had no problem with getting on and off the site. We had three main objectives for this trip. The main one was to visit the Kent County Show, we also wanted to meet up with my cousin Trevor who was over from Cyprus and I also wanted to visit some of the burial places where my relations are laid to rest. The later purpose may seem a bit strange but I felt that I would like to see, for instance, the place where my father's ashes were scattered.

Also whilst we were in Kent we visited the churches at Meopham and Cuxton. I took a number of pictures of grave stones that referred to either my family or people that my family knew well. These were really only of interest to me personally so I haven't included them. I wasn't able to find the grave of my Auntie Florrie and it may be that her grave is unmarked, I intend to follow this up with the clerk that looks after the Meopham Church Yard

The people who own the caravan site also own a number of old coaches and buses that they were taking to the county show so we got a preview when they got them out ready for their journey..

The show was on for the Friday, Saturday and Sunday, we had decided that we would prefer to go on the Saturday which turned out to be very lucky as on the other days the car parks were closed early due to the condition of the ground. Another lucky thing was that the people who owned the caravan site were able to give us tickets for the show which saved us quite a large sum. We managed to get round virtually the whole show before the rain returned. The show had all the usual attraction and if the weather had been more agreeable it would have been brilliant.

One thing that I hadn't seen before was where there was a large pool of water and dogs were retrieving balls after taking flying leaps into the pool. The dogs certainly seemed to be enjoying themselves...

Another series of interesting exhibits were ones of handmade clocks including one where a ball bearing rolls along a track to keep the time... 

On the Friday we visited Allhallows where you can look out over the Thames Estuary towards Southend and see the shipping making it's way up and down the river...

Our next port of call was Upnor. Although having lived nearby for many years I don't remember ever having visited Upper Upnor before. Upper Upnor comprises a village street leading to Upnor Castle and has many houses displaying Kentish weatherboarding, as well as some terraced streets formerly used by the MOD. It is on Chatham Reach of the Medway directly opposite St Mary's Creek. It's a fascinating area and looks as if it may well have featured in films etc., as it's mainly unspoilt...

Later on Friday we went to Bluebell Hill where there is a lovely view over the Medway valley towrds Aylesford and it's paper mill...

Nearby is the Medway Crematorium. The crematorium covers 14 acres and is a mix of woodland, shrub beds, formal planting and grass beneath large and stately trees. This is where my father was cremated and his ashes were scattered in a quiet woodland glade.

On the Sunday we visited some local seaside places. The first was Sheerness, this turned out to be less than successful as there didn't seem to be an easy way to reach the sea from the main town. We did go past the town and found an area where you could look out over the estuary but gave up on the actual town. We then went to Leysdown which turned out to be a lively place with lots of amusement arcades. There was free side street parking and one slightly strange thing was that Burgers, Hot Dogs and Ice creams were all priced at a pound which seemed quite reasonable.

Our final seaside destination was the resort of Herne Bay a real traditional British seaside town. There used to be a huge pier at Herne Bay but the centre section of the pier was torn away by a storm in 1978 leaving the far end isolated in the sea. The landward section has recently had a lot of work done and looks very smart. It appears that various shows are held on the large area of tarmac now available. 

Herne Bay front from the northern end (where there is some free parking!)

There's a large 'bandstand' on the front and a harbour has been formed by the use of thousands of tons of rock. We enjoyed our short stay at Herne Bay and finished off the day with a tasty but reasonably priced roast dinner at a pub in the Whetherspoons chain.

Despite some of the weather this was another happy journey down memory lane and we look forward to visiting Kent again before too long.

Skegness 29th June 2012

Usually at this time of the year we go to the Norfolk Show but this year we wanted to do something different to celebrate Julie's birthday. We decided to go to the seaside but from where we live all the resorts are a long way away. Our usual trips are often to Great Yarmouth but this time we decided to have a look at Skegness. After a steady drive where we seemed to get behind numerous tractors and to find umpteen road works on our route, we arrived. We remembered that in the past we had found free parking at the south end of South Parade and once again we were lucky. Despite the weather on the journey being a bit grey and drizzly, as soon as we were out of the car we were greeted with sunshine and a lovely blue sky. The gardens seemed well tended..

As the weather had only just cheered up the beach, which was a lovely sweep of beautiful sand was pretty clear of people. The clear sky made the outline of the many wind turbines clear to see....

There's no shortage of rides on the pleasure beach and some are quite large.....

One of the side shows (that is accompanied by a very distinctive tune!) is one that is also found on a pier in Great Yarmouth and involves racing camels...

Julie is a bit of star player when it comes to the 2p machines that push coins off shelves. This one had a very nice tiny bear as a prize and Julie had her eye on this one. Luckily she is such a good player that she usually doesn't have to spend any money to get the prizes she plays for.....

There were some strange goings on on the streets of Skegness when we were there. There were some 'ladies' on what appeared to be Segways. Also some living statues. We also saw what appeared to be a Police incident, complete with police tape and posters asking for anyone who saw anything to report to them. I was totally taken in by this and was asking a security man what it was all about when he explained that it was just a publicity stunt for the Punch and Judy show, did I feel silly!! Luckily I didn't get any pictures of this last event :-).

We were very strong minded and didn't make use of the many food outlets including this rather pretty ice cream parlour...

However on the way back we stopped just to the north of Boston where we found a lovely pub called The Ball House ( http://www.theballhouseboston.co.uk ) where had a great meal that was a fitting end to a lovely day out and Julie's birthday.

The Broads June 2012

We had a holiday on the Norfolk Broads in 2011 and enjoyed it a lot so decided to go again in 2012. This time we went for 11 days (starting on June 11th) and were accompanied by Julies parents. We hired a boat called Sunray 2 from Richardsons yard in Stalham

Sunray 2 a well appointed boat from Richardsons

The journey up to Stalham had been made in fairly bad weather with quite a bit of rain, however as soon as we arrived the rain cleared up and we saw very little rain for the next 11 days. This was quite amazing as the rest of the country seemed to have nothing but heavy rain! There's a Tesco's near to the boat yard and we got some last minute provisions before going on to load the boat. We made our way down the River Ant and across Barton Broad. Our first brief stop was for a cup of tea at How Hill (we were to visit here later in the holiday to have a proper look round). Continuing on to the River Bure we noticed, whilst passing St Bennet's Abbey, that it was shrouded in scaffolding.

St Bennet's Abbey under repair.

We all had a go at driving and Julie had lost none of the skill she acquired the year before.

Julie at the wheel.

There was no room on the Stokesby mooring so we spent the night at Upton Dyke. Whilst there we made the walk up to the Pub and found that it was closed for food on a Monday! At least this meant that we didn't have to pay for the mooring as there was no one to collect the money :-)

On the 12th June we made an early start in order to get through Great Yarmouth when the tide was at the correct level. It's important to keep to the channel through Yarmouth and the boat we were following almost turned on the wrong side of the marker post, this would have almost certainly meant that he would have run aground, luckily he corrected himself at the last minute. The crossing of Breydon Water went well and we were soon on the River Yar. Julies mum had her first go at driving the boat and did well

We journeyed on past Reedham and the Reedham Chain Ferry

Reedham Chain Ferry

We had hoped to moor at Thorpe Green near Norwich so that we could have a meal at The Rush Cutters but our boat was 7 feet tall and the bridges that gave access to the moorings were only 6 feet 6 inches. Norwich was interesting but had a number of low bridges and navigation was a bit stressful. There were some moorings at the Yacht Station but they cost £12 a night which seems rather a lot for what could have been a rather noisy position. The river through Norwich was surrounded by newish flats and old warehouses. 

Lots of new building by the river in Norwich

We moored for the night at Whitlingham Country Park and had a pleasant walk round the park. The Broad there is used for all sorts of water sports.

On Wednesday 13th June we travelled back down the River Yar. The sun was out and we had the boat roof back to fully enjoy the lovely weather. We wanted to moor at Reedham to take on water but was a bit concerned after our near disaster there last year. There was a good space available and we went for it. Julie took the front rope and we made sure that we were approaching against the tide. The "Harbour Master" was there to take the rope from Julie and the mooring went well. We were also hoping to visit the shop that was up the hill but were told that this had closed. The Pub sold milk etc. but was not the cheapest place to get provisions! Departing from Reedham also went well and we felt that we had laid the ghost of our previous problems with the fast running tide etc. at Reedham. We travelled on along the Haddiscoe New Cut to join the River Waveney and eventually went onto Beccles. Once again a 6' 6" bridge would halt our progress. The moorings in Beccles were very busy and part was near a noisy road so we decided to head back down river to Worlingham Staithe. We spent a peaceful night there and heard our first Cuckoo, a sound that we were to hear virtually every day from then on.

On Thursday 14th June we sailed back across Breydon water and successfully turned into the River Bure and passing some dredging work arrived at Stokesby. The weather was once again beautiful. We found that you could moor up till 17:00 for free on the moorings past the pub. We bought some provision at the little shop, had a meal at the pub and decided to come back another day to sample the tea shop. We moored for the night at Boundary Farm taking a walk to Thurne Village where there was a very nice pub and a tiny shop.We also discovered that you could moor in Thurne Dyke for either £4 or £3.50 depending on which side you moored. It was very narrow though and turning whilst not impossible would be difficult. 

Friday the 15th June was Julie's mum's 70th birthday, she had her cards and then we set off towards Stalham to get a toilet pumpout and to top up with £25 worth of diesel. After leaving the boat yard we passed through a bit of a storm with thunder and lightning. The weather soon cleared and we moored at Ludham Bridge where there are shops, cafe and a pub (the pub is a few hundred yards walk away). We went to the pub to celebrate the birthday. It was still early when we got back to the boat so we had a look at South Walsham Broad 

Some of the attractive houses on South Walsham Broad.

We moored for the night at Thurne Mouth. We discovered that the walk to Thurne village was quite short from this mooring.

Saturday 16th June was our Wedding anniversary and we were looking forward to finding somewhere nice to have a meal later. We had a cruise up the River Bure as far as Wroxham. Places like Horning have some beautiful houses on the banks of the river.

The stretch of river from Horning to Wroxham is very busy with all types of pleasure craft. There are some fairly large boats that are often crowded with waving holiday makers.

One of the novelties up near Wroxham Broad is an Ice cream boat that sells some very tasty ice creams. We stopped and took advantage of this. 

Perhaps rather strangely we saw some Stag Parties on the river....

We moored for the night at South Walsham Broad where we walked to the village (one and half miles) to the pub for a very nice but rather expensive meal. A lovely end to a delightful day. 

On Sunday 17th June we decided to head down the Bure to Stokesby where we had a lunch in the cafe that is part of the shop. After that we went further down to Starcey Mill where there was a shop and a number of very friendly animals. We topped up our water but had to pay for the the privilege here.

We moored for the night once again at Boundary Farm.

Monday 18th June saw us go to How Hill where we had a look in the preserved Eel Catchers cottage ..

We were very pleased with the performance of the boat throughout the holiday and found it very comfortable too..

Sunray moored at How Hill.

We then moved on towards Dilham but a low bridge had us turning round to to have alook at Barton Broad and Barton Turf. We then returned to moor over night at Thurne Mouth.

On Tuesday 19th June we had a ride to Potter Heigham. On the way we went towards Ludham and moored at Womack Water. We walked to Ludham and found both Womack Water and Ludham very pretty places and Ludham had a good shop.

A cottage in Ludham

Potter Heigham is famous for it's low bridge  and this holiday the water level was too high for us to venture through it...

Potter Heighams infamous low bridge.

We didn't think that we were going to find any moorings at Potter Heigham but just as we were about to leave someone left and we were able to take their place. We had a good look round the shops and bought some fish and chips to eat on the boat, very nice they were too!After lunch we went back down the river to visit St Bennet's Abbey. As mentioned earlier this was covered with scaffolding and we couldn't really see it too well. We moored over night at Fleet Dyke and were treated to a wonderful display of flying by a barn owl.

On the 20th June we had clear blue skies and marvelous weather. We stopped at Salhouse Broad, filled up with water and enjoyed another ice cream from the ice cream man in a boat. We moved up towards Wroxham seeing masses of Ducks Geese and large passenger boats....

A Wherry on Wroxham Broad.

Julie took some great wild life pictures including this Heron

The weather didn't start too well on Thursday 21st June but cheered up later. We set off down to Stokesby and had lunch in the cafe. After this we travelled back to Stalham to pack our bags get ready to hand the boat back on the Friday morning. We had a late afternoon walk into Stalham village which is a nice busy little market town.

Another splendid holiday with great scenery and wonderful wild life, what a pity that we couldn't find a Kingfisher for Julie to see, maybe we'll have to go back again before too long?