kpnut

I'm afraid I won't be there tomorrow night - grand daughter having her first trip to our house

The last paragraph is superb. If that’s not a warning to get his house in order, I don’t know what is.

Well, yes, does anywhere spring to mind? Like the flood marshes of the Broads perhaps? But when that happens, we’re all in a frenzy about the Broads area having too much water.

I too was unable to open the letter (on the Reform the Broads Authority Facebook page) when trying to access it from my phone. But when I went on my home computer, I was able to open it. So I wonder if it’s something to do with the way our phones are set up, or something to do with how the pdf properties of the document have been set up. I have sent a letter. I was astounded when I read the Facebook post on ‘Reform the Broads authority’ about the allocation and expenditure of finances over the past few years. And also by the reasoning for the toll increase, all three options of it - to continue doing ‘their stuff’ as they wish, rather than looking at where savings can be made, like any other organisation would need to do.

You have a certain way of saying things Griff! Remember you need to take care of yourself too. It does sound like you have a good support network at your end too.

So sorry to hear all this Griff. Sometimes life just works like that, all at once, sent to test us I think, as much as we’d rather it didn’t. Sounds like you have a strong family that’ll pull through whatever comes together. Xx And as Biker says, the tunnel and fare are a long way down the list, however annoying.

Your photos are just lovely. That one of Pozzic resting his head in Graham’s lap makes my heart sing for his new life. I love the one of the swans on the marsh at Ranworth too.

I’m swayed by Simon’s point of view as benches etc made from recycled materials do seem to look new for ages and don’t seem to deteriorate in the same way as wood. But then Dom also points out about what might happen when they DO eventually deteriorate. I suppose the materials haven’t been used for long enough yet to know. So maybe a trial in one location would be appropriate. With some way of speeding up the wear and tear to investigate any particle release. Neatishead in particular seems an odd place to replace grit with grit when it washed away, as the bit that was replaced was on the slope down from the grass to the quay heading. I noticed the grit surface at both Boundary Farm and Acle Bridge had also been washed away in part. And somewhere I noticed where the grit had gone it had left the older dressing of more consolidated chunkier stuff intact.

Usually falls on deaf ears. What is that saying about a horse and water????

100%

What a lovely way to spend a sunny, even if as you say, chilly, day Ian. Gets you in the mood for C********

Thursday 16th November Today I planned to go to Salhouse to explore some new paths around there and go and see what the Bell Inn is like. But following various conversations with Tony back home over the past week, I decided he needed help after having a problem with a swollen hand that was getting worse rather than better, so decided to set off back to Stalham. Isn’t it odd that as soon as I’d made the decision, setting off and letting Tony know, I felt really sad and selfishly regretted it? Just shows how much the boating bug has got under my skin. But all good things must come to an end. On my way over Barton Broad, the boat somehow wandered towards Neatishead. So I moored up and walked along in the rain to the White Horse for a final sit in front of the fire with a glass of Tom Cat. I haven’t visited so many pubs in such a short space of time for years! I had a nice chat with MM who happened to walk in and recognise Finlay. On my return to the moorings I found two men from the BA resurfacing the grit path that had washed away in the rain. Surely it’d make more sense to use something more permanent as the path is on a slope so it’s inevitable that it’ll happen again sometime. Entering Barton Broad again and the boat turned back downstream. SR obviously doesn’t want to go home😂 I allowed the boat to go as far as Irstead, but someone was moored on the electric so I persuaded her to turn and go back to our home mooring. More enticing to spend a damp drizzly night on the electric at home rather than off grid in a beautiful location. Finlay was more than happy to arrive back to snuggle into his crate in the car, his most favourite place of all. Oscar came to visit his friend, knowing exactly where to look and making s beeline for the car boot but at that stage, Finlay was still in the boat. (They did get to play today instead). And so ends the most diverse and enjoyable trip I’ve experienced so far. I’ve learnt loads, but my feet will enjoy having a break from paddling about in wellies. Sorry the posts have been so long, just shows what the long dark nights do to you 🫤

Good on you Grendel. Lucky students.

Thanks for the map. Yes the path does do that and so I was partly prepared to have to turn back at the end of the path with a ‘private’ sign - fair enough. Although often an unfenced road marked through a yard will indicate a historical right of way or permissive path. But the path stopped well before that, it didn’t even go into the wood. A mystery, even to the lady I spoke to. She was very surprised to see a path on the map. The wood wasn’t marked private so I did go in following a faint path, but it just ended up at the side of the dyke. A lovely wood all the same!

Agreed. It caught me by surprise. And it was a cold wind too.

Not one of my brightest ideas!

Too right. It only came into my head because of the problem with not being able to get under the bridge at the moment and thus limited moorings. I’ve vowed ‘never again’. It took longer than by boat. (would be shorter if walking along the main road but what’s the fun in that). When I took the boat the other day, there was no room at Barnes and Hotel Wroxham wanted £10 between 10am and 4pm. I could have moored on the granary staithe I suppose, but it feels really cheeky to do that.

Wednesday 15th November What a strange day I’ve had. 1). At Boulters the wc pipe re-routing job was reassessed as needing more thought before launching into it. So that’s on hold. Saved me some money though. They are so helpful, lots of questions answered very cheerily. 2). Moored up on Horning staithe, to walk to Hoveton. After looking at the map I decided on a potential route and we set off. Up to Ropes Hill, across the field, along Long Lane, where I found a welcome permissive path behind Bewilderwood running alongside the road. Long Lane is a lovely lane, beech woods adjoining and quiet. A third of the way along Long Lane there’s a path running across a field of turnips, although most looked like overgrown radish! It then goes through a wood to pass Hill Farm. And on to Camgate Road. This is where it went pear shaped as I’d planned to take the next track, marked at Camgate, back south through a wood, across a meadow, past The Grange and back onto Long Lane. A long detour, just because!!! I’d thought earlier that if there was a flaw in my plan, this path would be it as experience tells me that a path skirting something that sounds ‘posh’ is often curiously missing, and this was the case. Clearly marked on the OS map, but non-existent and as I resigned myself to returning the way I came, I even asked a dog walker who’d lived on that track for over 30 years and she didn’t know of a path. Oh well. That was an hour ‘wasted’. 3). Once in the town, I realised there was nothing much to do, partly because I’d arrived an hour later than intended, so only had two hours before it got dark and my boat was in Horning. There are things to do of course, but either closed now or I didn’t have time. So I looked up the bus times for my return, they go hourly, and decided to have a wander at my leisure and catch whichever bus was there once finished. The park area is still very muddy and rundown, not really a very good advert for the ‘Capital of the Broads’. The NBD carpark area is now free of water. 4). Of course, I couldn’t then go for an indoor ‘window shop’ in Roys as I had Finlay with me. A young lady making a window display at the back of the shop fetched me a book I wanted and held Finlay while I went in to pay. 5). Then to the bus stop where I and another lady waited, and waited, and waited, till I re-read the timetable to see the awaited bus doesn’t run on school days. I’d been looking forward to a nice bus ride back to Horning via Stalham, Sutton, Catfield, Ludham and Ludham Bridge. Same price as the following bus which goes the other way round, visiting Horning first. So with an hour to wait for the next bus, I should have gone indoors somewhere, even McDonalds would have done me, but I’d bought a hot Turkey roll from ‘Oh Crumbs’ to eat on the bus, so couldn’t really go in anywhere to eat it. We sat on the bench outside Roys doing so and getting more and more cold with each passing minute. I took a couple of photos of the Christmas displays for Gracie and posted them on her ‘bring nice’ thread. I should have just walked back to Horning but the quick way along the main road would be too busy and I didn’t want to risk being along there once dark, with no path. 6). The bus came and this one was first stop Horning, or so we all thought. It went sailing over the two mini roundabouts, rather than turning right. A minute later a couple of ladies called to the driver that he was going the wrong way. He then had the last laugh by driving right round the big roundabout past the industrial estate where Boulter’s chandlery is located. He turned right round, not once, twice or even three times. He drove round that roundabout four times, asking if the ladies were feeling sick yet and leaving us all guessing which way he’d decide to go. It turns out, the ladies were all his regulars, one was his wife. Anyway, he turned back down towards Roys and turned left at the mini roundabouts, back on course. 7). I then proceeded to notice that there’s a good tarmac pavement all the way to Horning, so I could easily have walked back that short way in the time I’d been sitting getting frozen cold, and probably arrived about the same time as the bus. All in all, a day of not being on the boat and not achieving anything really. But we walked a good 6 miles so the dog is flaked out and full of turkey trimmings the man in ‘Oh Crumbs’ had given him. I won’t bother to walk from Horning to Hoveton again, although Long Lane really is rather nice.

Thankyou very much indeed for this. Fascinating and now I have somewhere else to go and explore.

Tuesday 14th November What a calm start after yesterday afternoon’s wind. I always find it strange how the wind can just stop within a few minutes. In this case, it was sometime between 9 and 10pm last night. Plan for the day was a good long cruise to top up batteries and hot water. And ending up in Horning. We set off towards Wroxham. Hardly any boat traffic apart from plenty of fishermen, more than I’ve seen on the river for a long while. Perhaps they like this stretch best. There was space to moor, had I so wished, at Horning staithe, and that would have fulfilled the battery and water job by plugging into the electric, but I did want to go up further. There was nothing moored at Salhouse as I went past, nor on the Wroxham Broad moorings. They are dry now (as in not flooded, I’m sure they are still soggy) but I could see where some of the bark has been washed away. I went up to the bridge, it was reading about 5’9”. At least you can see the number 6 on the gauge for the first time in more than a couple of weeks. I liked this garden as I went past, full of autumn colour And I love this decorative ironwork swan or goose sculpture. Perhaps Tony needs to start selling his swans in Wroxham, seeing as lots of folk seem to have ornaments of various sorts in their gardens. IMG_4199.MOV Sorry if I’ve put that on here before, can’t remember if I did. The video should show it going round if it doesn’t, keep clicking if and it will eventually. We pootled back to Salhouse, disturbing a very large flock of geese who have made the river their own. (This was about a third of them). We moored up all on our own and went for a good walk. Well, Finlay had a run! There was a surprising number of people doing just the same, and every one of the groups/couples had a dog. Dogs are good for your health, get you out and about! For information; the water is now off till the spring, the rubbish skips are still accessible, and there was no mooring charge. In fact the ranger’s hut has gone for the winter. All that was left was a cruise up to Horning to moor up at Boulter’s ready for an early morning date with the WC pipe being re-routed to remove the three S bends in it. And I managed to get in there -again with no disasters! Ferry Marina has now started pumping water back into the river. The pump wasn’t there a few hours earlier when I went upstream. In fact, the water in the pub carpark hadn’t shifted at all since last Wednesday. The shed door was still half underwater. IMG_4199.MOV

That’s a lot of food Helen. Do they do a doggy bag?

I don’t even know when they were done. The EA just very quietly for on with it it seems to me. In all their newfound splendour in the sunshine this morning.

Monday 13th November The next storm, Debi?, should be rolling in this morning, forcing me out of my bed earlier than I would have liked. The rain had woken me about 6am but although heavy in bursts, it seemed to stop in between. So in a lull, I let the dog out and went for a short walk up the dyke and back. Pnmy return, the wind was already picking up so I decided to leave soon ish, worrying that the wind would push the boat higher onto the grass. I had tied a spare fender to the mooring post in the middle of the boat to stop the short post jabbing in to the hull and wasn’t sure what might happen once I removed the fender. So without breakfast, I decided to be off before the wind got worse. I needn’t have worried unduly of course, but I did leave hurriedly, with rhond anchors still mixed up with mooring lines. The nice thing about there being no other boats on the river is that I could then bob along in the water for a minute or so while sorting out the lines. I only went round as far as South Walsham and chose the EA bend moorings, the Broad end of which I reckoned would be most sheltered. There was just one other boat at the other end. Keeping one post up from the willow tree (just in case!)! I had the immense pleasure of mooring up against a new, non slippy quay heading with the fenders already set in just the right places and able to do the job they’re designed for. What a luxury - first time in over two weeks! I then ate a leisurely breakfast before having a good look at the map to see where we could walk that would a) not entail walking round the marsh as I’d done that last week and b) would be somewhere new to me, at least in part. By this time, the forecast sun had also arrived and it was turning into a lovely day. Cold in the wind, but very warm in the sheltered spots. I decided to leave my waterproof coat behind, but had plenty of layers on against the wind. The wind had definitely reached the speed it was forecast, buffeting me about where there were gaps in the hedge that let it through. We headed down the moorings toward Fleet Lane and across the field on the path to the left opposite the carpark on the bend. Then right, up the lane and left along to the farm with the fishing ponds. The path around the back (it skirts Upton Broad NWT land, the reserve not allowing dogs) follows the edge of the wood and is always muddy. I resigned myself to it and just plodded through, with Finlay emerging at the end more black than white after going into a deep ditch at one point. Three quarters of the way along this path, not far after the footbridge, there is a non-distinct path leading straight on following a field margin, where the main path takes a sharp left turn. Having never been up there, we followed it and it soon came to the road. We turned left and at the crossroads soon after, we turned right up the nicely named Hanging Hill. Halfway along that lane, more or less opposite Upton church in the distance, is a track to the right. Making a mental note to visit Upton church on my next wander round the area, we took the track along to meet the road (from Acle to South Walsham). Having seen that it rather busy, I was relieved to not have to walk on it as there is also another quiet lane going to the right, marked ‘to the marshes’. It’s Mill Lane and I wanted to see the white smock mill that’s along there, hoping they be a signboard with information about the mill as there seems none on the internet. Unfortunately I had no luck. But I did remember to take a photo, the first one of my walk as it was too much bother taking any previously as I was wearing gloves to keep the windchill off. At the next junction, there’s a path going diagonally to the left across a couple of fields, emerging at Pilson Green. We walked down to the pond where I thought better of letting Finlay swim to clean himself up. it doesn’t seem the sort of pond that folk would appreciate dogs jumping into! Too ornamental and probably silty and filthy anyway. Instead of walking down the lane straight back to the Broad, we walked up past the bus shelter towards the school and across the field to the lane that leads to Kingfisher Lane behind the houses that surround the Broad. A swim at the rather choppy parish staithe to clean up did the job nicely and we made our way back to the boat. A good walk of about 4.5 miles. Relaxing in the boat later with a cup of tea, I realised just how sheltered this mooring is, as the wind that really was blowing very hard outside, and putting willow leaves all over the decks and wells, didn’t affect the movement of the boat at all. I did have a creaking fender overnight though. Grrh, and that was after the wind had dropped to a more acceptable speed by about 10pm.

It’s sheltered down the side dyke, but would be a totally different experience if on the frontage. The storm is due to blow itself out sometime in the next hour or so.

Extremely muddy along the first part of that lane, past the reedcutter’s storage barn. But it is a very lovely walk. Seren and Pozzick are enjoying a nosey round I see.