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?