kpnut

It was interesting that the report said something along the lines of keeping the banks clear of encroaching reeds is necessary to aid the proper flow of water. I agree. Quickest way to have a silted up river system turning into wetland carr is to slow the water down at the edges.

I think it’s sad to see 6 holes on the new grit quay heading at Neatishead, by the edge next to the wood. That’s just down one side, I didn’t go down the other. They were only find this spring. I say ‘I think’ as someone who knows the technicals of these things might be able to say it’s normal and all part of the settling process. But to me, it’s probably more like lack of proper consolidation when first laid.

Monday 18th December After missing the wonderful sunrise this morning and realising tomorrows weather was going to be decidedly worse than today, I decided on a good long day out exploring more of the countryside round here. Leaving the 5 fishermen who’d set up camp all around me, I took the dog on his new figure of 8 slip lead (a revelation, no more pulling!) past the White Horse and New Victory Hall (surprisingly busy), up to the other bit of Neatishead, turning right at the little crossroads by the primary school. Up that lane to a t junction where I went left and soon after found a footpath across a field. This obviously isn’t very well used as I had to fight through brambles by the footpath sign to get onto the field. This came out on the lane by Cangate and I crossed and went down the lovely green lane opposite. This is the path I used a while ago past Hill Farm I think it’s called and eventually out onto Long Lane behind Bewilderwood. Along there, where the flooding from last month has receded somewhat and onto the footpath leading to the crossroads at Ropes Hill at the top of Horning. The roadworks and very slow 4 way traffic lights are still on that crossroads but the gas men have move further down and are now working opposite the public carpark near the Swan. The staithe was the domain of the wildfowl, with just one boat. I had intended to go in the Swan but it was still a bit early for beer and I noticed that Tidings sell takeaway hot drinks. I had a tasty hot chocolate sitting at the staithe. Then on down Lower Street where I encountered the Southern Comfort dominating the scene. On past the boatyards. It was good to see the council had provided an extra skip for people to get rid of debris from the flooding. Up past the primary school and along to the crossroads where instead of going diagonally across the field to head towards the track that leads to Griff’s corner on the Ant, I turned left on the lane to come out onto the main road. About 100yards to the left and on the opposite side of the road next to the new radio mast, is a concrete track that services the sewage works. So down there, diagonally across some field paths, eventually coming out near the junction to ThreeHammer Common from the Radar museum road. I took that and could have walked back to Neatishead along the lanes but wanted Finlay to have more of a run, so chose numerous footpaths to thread my way back to come out at the back of the primary school again. It’s very noticeable that the footpaths have dried up a lot recently, apart from ones on arable fields where the soil is so compacted, a result of autumn cultivations and then endless rain. All that was left was a walk back down to the White Horse where I stopped for a while, meeting the most gorgeous Irish water spaniel and his friendly owner. On getting back to the boat, I was surprised but shouldn’t have been, to see 3 of the fishermen still sitting there. They must have been freezing! That was a walk of 8.5 miles, and for much of it I didn’t need to use the map, now I’m getting a feel of my whereabouts round this area. What I’ve learnt this year from all these walks is that you really don’t need to moor right near a pub to access one. At this time of year, it does sometimes mean a lunchtime stop so as not to run out of daylight. Lion at Thurne from Boundary Farm. White Horse at Upton and Maltsters at Ranworth from Fleet Dyke. Crown at Catfield from How Hill or Wood End staithe. White Horse at Neatishead from Irstead or Barton Turf. Kings Arms at Ludham from Ludham Bridge or How Hill. And the 3 pubs in Horning from The river Ant, and Horning church mooring.

I’ll look him up. I was going to edit my post to quote the ‘Red sky in the morning, Shepherds warning’ as it was certainly right today. I got wet, on and off, on my walk today.

As usual, as soon as there is a stunning sunrise that I’m actually awake for, I’m not on a mooring that’ll do it justice. I woke to a colourful glow coming through the curtains at Neatishead, but the trees and house next door got in the way. I should have quickly got up and taking the dog up to the field, but was too snug in bed!

I do remember the foot operated windscreen washer pump on the floor in my mini. Wish I still had it as the electric one in my BMax is playing up. I was pondering this the other day as I needed to tighten the belt on the domestic battery alternator on the boat, and sort of remembered how to do it. When you tie the stocking, how does the knot get round the flywheel? I asked the lad at Boulter’s about it when I was discussing what number belt I needed as a spare, but he was too young to know what I was on about 😂 We had a pale pink one in my parent’s Consul. It had a splodge of white paint on it and I HATED it! Made me feel sick even looking at it.

I love that little frog.

I took Neil up on his really kind offer as it meant being able to get back to LB with enough time to move on upstream. Steaming hot water will be on the cards. Thanks Neil. Before that, we had another walk down to St Benets in the sunshine. The swans seemed to be content. This time I turned right once at the farm near the end of the concrete track to follow the (muddy) grassy track that comes out further down Hall Common Lane towards Ludham. At the t junction, we turned left onto Staithe Road and eventually wandered down Horsefen Rd to Womack staithe. The staithe has been reclaimed from the high water and for info, the water is turned off. Something I’ve never noticed before is this memorial stone for Ludham Airfield. It’s in the corner of the green furthest from the bus shelter and was unveiled last year. Retracing our steps down Staithe Rd, I also noticed that you pass the end of the dyke that comes up from opposite Womack staithe and you can spy the staithe through the beech hedge. We turned off at Lovers Lane to follow the field track back past the renovated barns and onto Hall Rd again back to Johnson Street and along the road to Ludham Bridge. That was a lovely relaxing walk.

Have a super evening. Good things are done on a whim.

Saturday 16th December I returned to the scene of my previous mishap, mooring at Ludham Bridge in the exact spot I’d tried earlier in the week. More successful this time! It was turning out to be a glorious day so a walk down to St Benet’s seemed a good idea. The permissive path was in good shape and the views were lovely -one of those ‘big sky’ days, with golden coloured reeds. A boat had arrived at the moorings since I had gone past earlier but otherwise not a soul on the river. That couldn’t be said for the carpark at St Benet’s though, that looked pretty full and with two other cars parked along the concrete track. One man I spoke to said he was looking out for shorteared owls. This must be the cleanest track on the Broads at the moment! Soon after arriving back at the boat, another boat came in to moor. With the choice of the whole moorings, both sides, it moored right in front of me, but didn’t stay long and once again I was left holding the fort. The bus I intended to catch was at about 4.25pm. Long before that, a car pulled in and I recognised it as belonging to a mooring neighbour from Stalham. So we had a nice cup of tea onboard and a news catch up, and then I was very kindly offered a lift up to Stalham, just in time to catch a beautiful sunset. A quick trip to Tesco and on to Wroxham where I had just enough time for a browse in Roys toy shop. I’ve never been in there before and my bank account wishes I hadn’t gone in this time. I can’t resist wooden toys for my little granddaughter. So now I have enough presents squirrelled away to last till she’s 3. As long as I remember I’ve bought them! The City of Norwich Brass Band concert was excellent. Very Christmassy. Turnoar had told me they are very good. Well worth the effort of getting there. So today, I need to get the car back to Stalham before I can go anywhere in the boat, as I don’t want to leave it here till midweek.

Which dint did you put in her then?

Ooh, a matching pair. Would it get us home to Yorkshire?

Finlay is good at turning her different shades of brown/grey, depending on the ground conditions of the walks he goes on.

Gracie, she’s going in for a repaint in the new year and I think it’s going to make a few people happy that she’s staying orange😂

No one was around to ask this morning, so that’s for the future. Some planning to do today as I want to be in Wroxham this evening to listen to the City of Norwich Brass Band at Hoveton village hall. Mooring after Wroxham bridge is not on the cards unfortunately. It was suggested I moor on Granary Staithe, which I considered, but that means leaving Finlay in the boat. I don’t mind doing that, but maybe not in the middle of town where if he cries, someone might hear and decide the RSPCA needs to be called! So bus from somewhere to Stalham to collect the car and take it back tomorrow. Good choices are Horning, Ludham Bridge or Womack. Easy bus and easy parking.

Ah, but she’s a lovely little wooden boat that sort of fits in with their Moorhen, not a glaringly obvious orange bathtub!

If there’s someone around this morning before I leave, I’ll ask. It’s Saturday though, so probably quiet here. I normally like mooring at the river end as it’s such a nice view, but it’s still half submerged at the moment.

One other lucky thing about the other day was I didn’t have my phone in my pocket. I tend to keep it on a holder next to the helm when cruising. It’s normally only in my pocket if I’ve been on a mooring a while and going out or coming back from a walk. But serves as a reminder to have it in a waterproof pouch maybe? What a hassle that’d be.

I would think pontoons might work in some places, and would maybe relieve pressure on mooring space, if installed as extras at eg Ranworth, but wouldn’t they narrow the river channel too much in quite a few places? Probably ok (if suitable) at somewhere like at Benets as it’s plenty wide enough, but not so sure about somewhere like Horning. Mind you, if they were installed to get over the problem of surface erosion, Horning isn’t in that category as it’s tarmac. Always a joy to moor up there! (Once you’ve brushed any goose poo off the tarmac).

Lulu just told me too! Thanks for the photo.

Well done for following the idea through and now look, we’ve all learnt something useful.

Then on down to Upton dyke. I’d been enticed by the Nogs photo of mooring on the boatyard side, now the yachts are out of the water. I’ve never dared go down to the end before, so now was my chance to build my confidence. Checking their photo again to see if there are mooring posts on the far side, or whether I needed to get the rhond anchors ready, I ventured up there. Oh blow, the moorings are really muddy! I’m sure the yard wouldn’t mind me mooring on their side, but I didn’t like to, being a private boat rather than a hire boat able to tap into the yards’ agreements with each other. I found the most grassy, least muddy bit and we were soon off on our walk round Upton marsh. So down the north bank of the dyke, through the gate at the end, slipping and sliding along the muddy path for quite a way, before it dried up nicely. The man fitting the roof on the extension to Upton mill said the track down to the mill is now so rutted and muddy that he has to park his van at the far end and wheelbarrow all his tools down to the mill each day. That must be VERY hard work. I didn’t think till later about asking why he doesn’t use a boat. We turned inland across the marsh at the pumping station with the auto weed grabber. The drainage board has been doing a massive amount of ditching work on the main dyke that cuts right across the marsh. The concrete road wasn’t too muddy and we were soon at the end by the village. A quick check of the time told me I didn’t have time to go back to the boat to clean the dog off before a visit to the pub, so we went straight up the road to the shop/pub, my plan being to ask if they would mind a very black ditch-watery dog, or to just pop into the shop for something to nibble. More just to support the local business. The pub welcomed me and I did end up eating an early tea of a sandwich with a massive chunk of locally sourced ham. We got back to the boat at dusk and a quick swim sort of cleaned Finlay off. He’s now curled up asleep in his towelling coat, one contented dog!

Friday 15th December I feel cheated today as the BBC forecast was giant sunblobs today. But a cover of cloud has persisted all day. I even opened the curtains early to see the fabulous sunrise over Salhouse Broad, that didn’t then materialise. Oh well, there’s always another day! It’s still been a beautiful day as in a ‘Im on the boat, the rivers are quiet and the scenery is stunning’ sort of way. Things could be a lot worse and I feel very lucky to experience this on a regular basis. After a dog walk, I set off for Ranworth where I thought I’d stop and cook a late breakfast. I don’t often do this, so that was a treat. Bacon and egg sarnie! The men doing the water hoses didn’t take me up on my offer of testing out the hose length by trying to reach it to my boat, moored in the taxi rank. I didn’t actually need to fill up, but they confirmed the water is on again. It had been an issue with the stopcock that delayed the work. They thought the hose probably was too short to reach that corner and that was the only hose they had, so wouldn’t be able to replace it with a longer one anyway! In fact, the hose winder reel would be too small for any more hose. You can get a sense of size by comparing with the donation post next to it. It looks bigger on this photo than in reality. I’m sure with the cash raised by the controversial mooring fee, a larger diameter reel and longer hose wouldn’t break the bank. In fact, if the water pressure allowed, adding an extra water point on the side moorings would stop people dragging and stretching the hose from the front moorings. That was their suggestion, seconded by me.

I went past this morning. As expected there was no-one there, and the quay heading is visible. What is quite apparent is that a lot of the posts are taped off due to erosion of their footings. presumably this is due to the recent overtopping water. If the quay headings aren’t high enough to cope with high water levels, then perhaps there’s a better way of setting in the posts and making up the surfaces? I saw at Ranworth and on my previous trip, at Acle Bridge and Boundary Farm and I’m sure Potter Heigham will be the same once the water goes down, that the loose grit surface has been removed by the water. At Hoveton viaduct there are holes round the mooring posts being filled with gravel. And at Neatishead where the loose grit on the slope down from the carpark was gone and being replaced. Spending good money to replace when it’s bound to happen again seems inefficient. I haven’t a clue what other things could be used, but it seems the current system doesn’t last very long. And on a maintenance note, the men at Ranworth who were finishing off the water posts this morning told me the damaged quay heading in the corner is still due to be done, but the water level will have to fall before it can be done.

Just what a winters afternoon is made for.