YnysMon

So, catch up…left St Olaves yesterday after lunch to get through Yarmouth 3’ish. It was after 5 by the time we got to Acle, so although we were aiming for our home mooring in Horning we stopped at Acle instead. I didn’t think it would be good to try mooring up at our home berth whilst light was failing and I was feeling tired. This morning we set off from Acle early, as I had told the yard that we would be back on our home mooring by yesterday evening. We had an issue with our forward heads. It was leaking, and not leaking from the intake (if you take my meaning) so rather smelly. We went to Norwich by car today, to give the engineers free access to the boat. Whilst in Norwich market, Graham spotted a large dog bed for Pozzie, as the one we had bought him was pretty poor. Guess who claimed it…

Just returned from a very pleasant walk from the St Olave's (or as I accidentally posted earlier...St Loaves 🤣) moorings, skirting the Waveney Forest and then returning through the forest.

I regret giving away the fox fur jacket that one of my grandmother's customer's gave me (she was a seamstress and had a few valued customers that had become friends over the years). As Mark said, it was vintage, made long before the current anti fur views became accepted. And it was fox, not mink, so not from a caged animal.

I don't generally worry too much about tides much on the northern broads, but it can make a huge difference on the Waveney and Yare, more so the further downriver you are. Yesterday, I had set my revs to take me along at roughly 6mph once I came out of the New Cut. When I passed the turn off for Oulton Broad, I noticed that I gradually lost a bit of speed. By the time I passed North Cove I was almost down to 5mph on the same revs. I checked the tides again, but still had a rising tide behind me. The plan today is to leave Beccles around 9am aiming to head up north, with a walkies stop on the way, probably St Loaves or Burgh Castle. The earlier we leave, the longer the walk will be. Slack water at Yarmouth is 2.30'ish.

I felt too lazy to cook much this evening. Maybe the early start, reasonably long cruise (though Harry did helm through the New Cut), shopping trip into Beccles and then a decent walk had something to do with it. We didn’t want to spend much either. Luckily, Lidl isn’t that far away, and their pizzas are decent.

Definitely! I was surprised by the narrowing of the Chet, as it’s not that long since we had to negotiate dredgers and barges to get to Loddon. It looked to me (no expert) as if floodwater had broken up the reed bank and left clumps of reeds further out in the river. We had a very peaceful time on the staithe last night. No sign of any trouble. There were a few teenagers there when we arrived, one of whom was magnet fishing. Graham asked if he was looking for something in that particular spot, as we wanted to move closer to the electric point farthest from the road, and he switched his fishing spot without any complaint. We got to Beccles mid morning. My plan of leaving Loddon at 6am worked out perfectly, as we arrived at Beccles at the point of high tide. I had wanted to avoid slogging all the way up the Waveney against the tide.

Another early start this morning. We set off from Loddon at 6am. Currently traversing the New Cut on our way to Beccles. The Chet needs a bit of love and care. There are several sections of Pye's Mill that are marked off with hazard tape as the quay heading looks dodgy, and in the lower sections several bends where the reeds are growing out onto the river, narrowing it considerably.

We didn't go anywhere in Loddon, apart from Graham visiting the Co-op. We are trying to ration our pub visits. I had thought to visit the butchers, but we had half the haggis cottage pie left over from a few days ago, so I thought I'd best use that up before buying more food. The cottage pie helpings weren't going to be huge, so Graham bought a couple of sponge puds and custard from the Co-op for him and Harry and a dairy free option for me. Earlier today I drafted a post which I forgot to send and have just accidentally deleted. It was to comment that this BA barge passed us. Not sure if it was towing or suspending the boat alongside. Looked like it had been submerged for some time by the looks of it.

Arrived at Loddon. Just one other boat here at present.

You might've enjoyed Harry whistling the tune 'Pure Imagination' then, (the Willy Wonka song, which his band have been practising) as we were passing Cantley.

This morning at Rockland the Merlin app has identified a song thrush, willow warbler, chiffchaff and robin.

Nope, no sign of any activity in The New Inn. The walk up to Brundall through the fen was interesting, lots of buds on trees and bushes and lots of bird song. I used the Merlin App on my phone and it identified the bird song of the following birds: wren, blackbird, chaffinch, Robin, great tit, blue tit, greenfinch, wood pigeon. The evening we were at Somerlayton it identified a ring-necked pheasant, blackbird, Cetti’s warbler and song thrush. It’s a brilliant app, especially considering it’s free.

We didn’t make it as far as Norwich. As we were passing through Brundall it occurred to me that we could stop at Brundall Gardens and visit one of the Co-ops in Brundall instead of Morrison’s, so we did that. Just as well, as it probably have been after sunset by the time we got to Norwich, completed our shopping and turned back downriver. We are moored at Rockland St Mary this evening. Another exceptionally quiet mooring. There is a road alongside, but not a lot of traffic on it.

Me too, having grown up in hearing distance of a terminus. Lots of shunting noises. When I was little, must have been pre-school (pre-1965) my grandad used to take me to a bridge that overlooked the turntable so that I could see a steam engine being turned around.

Graham says Somerlayton wasn’t peaceful all night; he heard a couple of long freight trains cross the bridge during the early hours. I slept through that. Currently making our way up the Yare, having stopped off at Hardley Cross to make lunch and to wait for the flow to change direction.As usual, though on theory the tide had ‘turned’ earlier, the flow was still going out to sea an hour later. We need bread and other stuff, so are aiming to go to Norwich to visit Morrisons then back to Bramerton or Rockland. We’ll have to see how long it takes us to get to Norwich though. We might have to abandon that plan.

It's exposed to the west, so great for sunsets but not so good in a westerly wind. When the weather is calm it's really peaceful and perfect. Especially out of season. This evening we are the only boat here. You do get quite a bit of noise when trains go over the swing bridge, but the trains don't run overnight. There are two electric posts and lovely walks. Also, there's a 'gastro pub', The Duke's Head, just a short walk up the lane. I've been meaning to revisit since they've had new management, but an evening after lunch in The Copper Smokehouse isn't the time to go there. We've only had a sandwich this evening as we are still stuffed. The village looks nice, but doesn't have a shop nowadays.

I didn't eat all my Copper Smokehouse brisket lunchtime , so the dogs had a treat this evening.

So if summer is a washout it's your fault?

Somerlayton really is the place for sunsets.

The lunch at the Copper Smokehouse was super excellent. I recommend! I had their smoked brisket with the usual Sunday lunch accompaniments. Four large roasties, a humungus Yorkshire, mashed sweet potato, creamed leeks, roasted parsnips and carrots and a bowl of kale, broccoli and mange tout. Everything perfectly cooked and with smokey gravy to-die-for. How Graham managed a pud, I'll never know. I'll post some photos when I do the proper tale. We are now on our way to Somerlayton.

The pizza was good. They didn't have vegan cheese so Graham opted for their beetroot and goats cheese option (cows milk plays havoc with my hay fever this time of the year). Who knew that beetroot would be so good on pizza. The place is called Wood'n'Dough.

Nicely tucked up at the end of the pontoon at Oulton looking out onto the Broad. Graham and Harry have gone off in search of pizza as a new wood fired pizza joint has opened up close to the yacht station since we were last here. I've also booked a table for lunch tomorrow at The Copper Smokehouse. 😊

Lovely and sunny at present.

Actually it was pretty cloudy early on, so we didn't get much of a dawn. It started brightening up after 7. We've started on our way again, having stopped at Burgh Castle for a walk and breakfast.

Lots of photos of cake displays Liz. They looked pretty yummy!