SwanR

If I could find a boat with the layout that we would want with Summercraft then I would go back to them. Hired once with them back in the 90s when we took our children on a boating holiday. Didn't come back to the Broads until 2012 but haven't had the chance to get back to this yard yet.

Welcome along. Sounds like a great idea. I'll be interested to take a look if we are ever in Norwich.

What she said! Great photography. :)

Loved reading your write up and will watch the video later. :)

Have a lovely time Helen. It's many years since we had a holiday longer than a week. However I am thinking that if we want to hire from the north and go south on the Broads then ten or eleven nights would be ideal. Maybe one year!

The roses seem to be doing really well this year. Ours have been in full bloom for some while now and thriving even in this Essex clay! Not everything does. The hydrangeas are also doing well but need a lot of watering.

Friday we stayed in Lowestoft ... went for a lovely walk over by South Beach and went for a browse around Cooks, one of the local stores. Whilst they sell furniture they also sell a lot of knick-knacks and little oddities. We've bought a number of things from there to put in the caravan - an ornamental lighthouse, some novelty signs and some beautiful cushions. We like to support local independent businesses whenever we can. http://www.cooksfurnishers.co.uk/giftwareornaments So that was our week about done. Saturday morning we drove home ... really only because there were things to get done before I went back to work on Monday. Oh and that little matter of ensuring that we weren't on the road for a certain football match on Sunday! It was the first full week that we have spent up there and I hadn't been sure if I would feel like I was on holiday given that we spend quite a lot of weekends up there. But it was great. Yes the weather helped but it was so nice to arrive and have our own things there. No stress at all. No booking in or checking out, arrive when we like and leave when we like ... and I could certainly have stayed longer. Was it the right decision to buy a caravan or should we have gone for a boat? For us it was the right thing to do but who knows what the future may hold. And in the meantime we have somewhere that is ours but that is close to so many of the places that we love. I am a very lucky lady indeed. :)

Wednesday we decided to stay around the caravan site, take a walk along the sea wall and have lunch in the Sparrow's Nest cafe over the road. It's very popular, the gardens are always busy and even midweek during the school term most tables were taken - good to see a local business thriving. The afternoon was spent relaxing on the deck outside our van, dozing in the warm afternoon sun. Thursday we went over to Somerleyton for a look around the gardens. Hubby got in free as an RHS member - worth knowing. I've heard other folk mention the house and gardens but we hadn't been before and I don't know if they are walking distance from the moorings on the Waveney at Somerleyton or Herringfleet. To see the house you have to book onto a guided tour so we gave that a miss.

You're doing a great job with the write up and it's lovely to see your pictures. Weather forecast looks like a brilliant week to be afloat. Have a good time. :)

That's a very good point Andrew. We tend to moor near a pub at lunchtime if we want to eat off the boat, and then move on to somewhere quieter for our overnight spot. We find that a much more relaxing way to do it. There are some great places to eat around the Broads but we prefer not to be near roads or anywhere noisy overnight.

Tuesday was the day that we had decided that we would take out a day boat. Hubby had a voucher for use at Barnes Brinkcraft and whilst it was a sizeable amount, they really don't have a cruiser that we want to hire this year so we decided on a day boat instead. We had thought that we might get under Wroxham Bridge and down to Coltishall but in the end events conspired against that. The forecast was for a dry day but in fact we arrived in a heavy shower and left the yard with the canopy up. I really couldn't see much out of that so was glad that the rain stopped before long and stayed away for the rest of the day. We had a lovely cruise down the Bure, through Wroxham Broad, through Horning and onto Ranworth where we moored on the Island for our picnic lunch. The sun had come out and we enjoyed relaxing there for about an hour. On leaving our mooring we took a cruise around the Broad before turning back onto the Bure where we carried on along past the River Ant, past St Benet's and turned into Fleet Dyke. A leisurely cruise right down to South Walsham Broad, around the Broad, back up Fleet Dyke and then all the way back to Wroxham. I made a detour via Salhouse Broad as there were some very slow boats ahead of us, and had been for a while. I wasn't in the mood to try to get past them so took a spin around the Broad to let them make some progress, and also to let the large river trip boats get ahead of us too as I could see them not far behind us. The sun was out and it was really hot. I was glad that I had remembered to put the sun cream in my bag. It was a strange feeling knowing that we had to get back to Wroxham, that we couldn't just moor up wherever we fancied and stay there for the night. We both really enjoyed it ... some places were quite busy and other stretches of river we had to ourselves. Here's a few pictures taken along the way ... before the sun decided to make an appearance!

There are a number of factors to this including whether you are staying north or south or both, how early you like to be away from your mooring and how many hours a day you like to cruise. I agree that March, May and October you can get in mostly wherever you like. My experience of mid to end June and early September would be this: Popular moorings on the north, like Ranworth Staithe, Womack Water and Fleet Dyke, will fill up quickly. People will start mooring for their favourite lunch spots by 11.30 to 12. Some will move on again around 2 to 3 but some will stay put for the day. My preference is to get on the move by 7.30 to 8 so as to enjoy the rivers at their quietest. We might then moor around 11 to 11.30, stay there for lunch, then move on again, mooring up by 3. But if you want to overnight at Ranworth Staithe then be prepared to be there by around 10.30 to 11, moor up and stay all day, taking advantage of the local area and facilities to have more of a non-cruising day! Have some change with you ... Ranworth Island and areas at Salhouse will often be free long after other places have filled up but you have to pay to stay overnight. Remember that if you are hiring and want to moor up later then you may get into the boatyards if their fleet is out. Alternatively, my experience on the southern broads was a few years ago now but none of the above applied and we mostly moored mid-June with no problem at all. Can't say if that would be different in July but Beccles, Oulton Broad, Waveney River Centre and one or two of the pubs will take advanced bookings for moorings, or so I am told.

Monday was a very interesting day ... not intended to be so but it gave us a number of things to consider. We decided to stay fairly local and just nip over to Oulton Broad. Always lovely to see the boats going in and out. And as I recall this turned into one of the very nice sunny days of the week. Having walked in the opposite direction than usual we ended up following the path that took us round by Tingdene's marina and into Broadlands, one of their holiday /residential parks in the area. Once we realised where we were, we were curious to take a look as we knew that someone from our site was moving their caravan over there. We also know the chap managing the site at present so after a wander round, a chat with a couple of residents, and a look at some new caravans, we found the manager and sat down to discuss the situation. Thing is that they have just finished setting up around 50 new pitches for caravans. Up until now this site has been villas and lodges only. We could potentially move over there, be near the Broad instead of on the coast, and have our pick of the pitches as there are very few sold. There were a number of factors that in the end meant that we have opted to stay where we are. It would be a lot of hassle to move, the costs to do so are high and we would then want to buy new decking to make the most of the views. We reckoned that all in all we would end up spending around £10,000 to move the van, switch site fee agreements, and buy everything that we would want in order to set the pitch up to our requirements and to make the most out of it. That's not worth it for us but if anyone is interested in knowing more about the site and what's involved to put your own caravan on there then by all means send me a message. For now let's get back to watching the boats ...

I thought that it might be nice to write something about the holiday I had this week even though not strictly speaking on the Broads. It's our second full season as the owners of a static caravan on the coast at Lowestoft. Pennies being a little tighter this year we are making use of the caravan not just for weekends away but also as a base for our holidays in the area. There is so much to see and do ... and I thought there might be folk who would find it interesting to read of places to enjoy on and off the water. It's a relatively short drive from Essex. We went up early on a Saturday morning, shopped at Morrison's on the way in, and were happily settled and unpacked by 10.30am. Let me set expectations on two fronts straight away ... the weather was changeable and I can't remember which were the grey days, the windy days or the hot and sunny days, my pictures will tell that story! And of course with the World Cup on, and England playing one evening, it was accepted that the football was going to be our tv viewing most evenings. Not to worry, with the long daylight hours there was plenty of time for a walk once the match had finished if we so desired. Sunday was the second day of the Great Yarmouth Air Show and we had planned to get ourselves along there. We drove into Great Yarmouth with no problem at all, no traffic holdups either going in or coming away later in the day. We got parked easily a short walk from the beach and the main viewing area. It was a fantastic day out. The flying started around 1pm and was almost done when we left about 4.30pm. The seafront was packed which I hope was good for local traders. There were many families enjoying being on the beach. And the highlight for many was the Red Arrows around 3pm. Hopefully any boaters moored at the Yacht Station were able to get themselves along for a look. The morning sunshine turned into very grey skies with an odd passing shower but mostly dry if a little breezy. Here's a few photos, as best as I could get given how fast some of them fly!!

We always enjoy a visit to a garden centre, whether we need anything or not. Happy Birthday to Marina ... hope you have a good week and get that trip in next weekend.

We've been in Lowestoft all week and the sea certainly looked rough at times ... high tide looked very high to me and it was a case of avoiding getting wet as it splashed high over the sea wall yesterday.

Update on the state of Haven Bridge. It may or may not be able to be opened on Sunday to get the old naval vessel out from Norwich. http://www.greatyarmouthmercury.co.uk/news/traffic-delays-caused-by-broken-bridge-affecting-gorleston-1-5573248

Update on the state of Haven Bridge. It may or may not be able to be opened on Sunday! http://www.greatyarmouthmercury.co.uk/news/traffic-delays-caused-by-broken-bridge-affecting-gorleston-1-5573248

We've managed to get on the staithe mostly out of season. Made our minds up last October that we would have a short cruise day leaving early from our previous mooring and arrive around 10.30 to 11 and then stay all day. It worked out really well but we still got one of the last spaces until people left after lunch.

"Liking" your post wouldn't have felt right Griff! That's certainly been a rough couple of days. We made the decision a few years ago to share one car instead of having the expense of two.

Wonderful write up. Thank you for sharing. Ranworth is certainly so popular that people will do all sorts of strange things to try to get moored there. Personally unless I am desperate for water or shopping I prefer the quiet of the Island to playing sardines at the staithe!

Would you like issues with apps reported in this forum? I noticed yesterday that on the iOS app the unread content feature seems to have stopped working. It tells me there is nothing to show. I definitely haven’t marked all as read. And if I load the forum on my iPhone on a browser and go to unread content it displays as usual. I don’t know whether anyone else can confirm the same problem.

Welcome to the forum GT51. I think a lot of members probably start the same way. I know that I found a lot of useful information here and then one day decided to join and share my own holiday tale. Looking forward to hearing about your trips out on the rivers through the summer ... if you can get down to Norfolk. That sounds like a long trip from Cumbria! :)

Link to a video ... all three birds have fledged. :) http://upp.hawkandowl.org/the-norwich-fledgings-video-2018/

Saw a short video on the Trust’s Facebook page yesterday of one of the birds taking flight.