kpnut

They put a big pile of brash in there last winter to block them, but it inevitably got moved and used as firewood. Some of the existing trees look very charred. What a shame, they’ve always looked really nice and I’ve never managed to catch them free, but perhaps they’ve had ‘human waste issues’ like I read on another site about another nearby wild mooring. If that were the case, I just wish folk would respect places they are given permission, either overtly or indirectly, to use.

Subcontracting to local landowners is what’s done round here. Saves having to have a seasonal labour force. Yes, farmers make a bit of money on it, but employing people also costs money along with buying and maintaining machinery. Many of our farmers take a pride in ‘their patch’. We are a ‘walkers are welcome’ area, even the local pubs etc advertise as muddy boots welcome. In my opinion, where there’s a will there’s a way and it is not sufficient to ignore a statutory responsibility just because there are other things to spend money on. It becomes another ‘rural vs urban’ argument to say money is better spent on tarmac etc.

You’re right, but it screams at me if I do too much! I usually work through it, but just sometimes it pulls me up short. Consequence of years of not taking notice of ‘safe lifting’ techniques, with massive op in 2011 more of less sorting it out. One thing to rejoice over-one less day of hard graft on winemaking day. We usually have a nice day, with a harvest lunch etc but I must admit, it’s a long day. With the glut of fruit this season though, it’ll be wine of different varieties this year. Plum wine now on the go. And I’ll try a blend of apples for cider later too, always a bit hit and miss, depending on what proportions of different varieties I put in. Thanks too for your kind words Jean. A few weeks on the boat will be enough r+r to last a while!

A day of two happenings, one positive, one not so. The positive-we have a cunning plan to help overcome the energy price rises. A hard few days moving wood from the site of my better half’s hedgelaying work last winter. The field was inaccessible in the winter due to the crop so all the brash was piled into the ditch and headland. The farm has now harvested, and the lads have moved it all into the field. So poor old Tony is now having to sort it all out and chainsaw it up. Good wood too-hawthorn and ash. Two trailer loads a day with me in charge of stacking back home. Another 5 or 6 days of this should clear it, but think our storage capacity might fall short. We’ll have to stack some at the allotment. The wood won’t actually be used this winter as it needs to season, but our seasoned wood should see us through this winter with the woodburner keeping us snug. Then the not so positive -in between trailer loads of wood, I had to cut out all the mildewed grapes from my vines. I’ve lost about half the crop so far, but no doubt will lose it all as once it takes hold, it’s very difficult to get rid of. That’s about 70 bottles of wine!! I have religiously sprayed with organic sulphur (the only thing available to non-commercial users) all season, kept the rows tidy and trim to let the air get in, but it’s been so hot and dry that powdery mildew just loves it. My only hope is that they ripen earlier than normal and I can harvest them before it gets too much worse. But being at the boat for the rest of September might scupper that. Then to cap it all, all that work put my back into spasm, so co-codamol and a hot bath was required. Oh well, with the energy bill saving I’ll be able to afford a few bottles of wine to make up for my lost crop!

Could you lower yourselves in on the public moorings at Wayford bridge, not sure if it’s allowed. Someone will know. If it’s a special treat and your budget stretched, there’s the olde saddlery b+b at Neatishead and a lovely stretch of river there.

I said I'd put up a link to the Norfolk County Council 'report a problem' page. It's https://www.norfolk.gov.uk/roads-and-transport/roads/report-a-problem#prowicons scroll down to find the the public right of way and trail problems, choose the most suitable problem and complete the form with as much detail as possible, photos can be attached.

Thanks Tom, that is extremely helpful. I'll keep a copy of it on my boat for reference.

Sounds like a good’un. I’ll be there tonight. Many thanks.

That was lovely and atmospheric. I think it has one of the best views on the Broads.

Helen, in case this is of use, I have a list of numerical codes to use on the pc, press alt0251 for a u with hat, (holding the alt key down while doing the numbers) but don’t know how to get an ‘alt’ on the phone keypad.

Bien sur (don’t know how to put a hat on the u!), Biker. What an interesting thread.

Well done to your son Neil, always an anxious time for them as gcse results day looms. (And for their teachers too, I used to start sleeping badly for a few days beforehand even though you know it’s daft as out of your control). Enjoy your ‘solo’ cruising once again.

I like the sound of cryptic Broadland Steve, but sorry I can’t be there. Hopefully next week back to normal.

Wednesday 24th August Slightly more dull this early morning than forecast. I’d been sleeping with curtains and door open so I could see the river waking up, but nothing special this morning. The weather did cheer up by the time we left though and the rest of the day was decidedly hot and humid. Stopped for fuel at Ludham Bridge boatyard, at £1.80 /L might not be amongst the cheapest now, but they’ve lost a lot of revenue while waiting for required paperwork from HMRC to arrive since April so George tells me, and haven’t been able to stock it since then, so I thought I’d support them. Somewhere yesterday or today I spotted Hi-jinks who, on their thread had requested a wave so I willingly obliged. I do like to wave to other forum folk, partly cos it makes me feel part of a community, even if we don’t know each other in person. We called in at Neatishead for a lunch stop onboard, a trip to the fudge lady for Cath’s gifts to take home and a walk across the fields for Finlay. Poor thing, he has suffered slightly these last couple of weeks with guests on board with fewer and shorter walks. Kingfisher spotting down Lime Kiln dyke paid off with some very obliging birds. We arrived at Neatishead at about 11.45 I think and found just two boats in. A very few minutes later 7 boats all came along at once -5 large cruisers from H.W. who were all together, come to celebrate a birthday at the pub. At one point there was one boat just moored, 2 boats across the dyke turning, 2 more holding station down the dyke waiting to turn and 2 waiting to get in. They told me they were new to boating so did extremely well, but it looked chaotic. I did warn them for future reference that they’d been extremely lucky to find enough available space for the whole group to moor together, as I’d hate them to get the impression that space is no issue down there. Even before they’d all settled, more boats arrived and the dyke was full, all in about 15 minutes. We and the boat that had been in when we’d arrived both left by 2.45, and the spaces were taken immediately by 2 boats just turning up, lucky them! as plenty more had hopefully arrived during that time and been disappointed. Our destination for the final night was Dilham, spotting Robin and Trixie moored up along the way and Papaver again later. More kingfisher spotting, this time I actually managed a photo which I won’t post cos it’d be extremely fuzzy I fear. No space at Dilham and in turning, I must have grounded as it cut the engine dead. No problem as it started again immediately, but hopefully no damage and a shock to me I must say. We docked at the wild mooring on the V junction of Stalham and Sutton Broad and very nice too. I’ve wanted to moor there awhile but last season it was occupied for a good stretch of time. The ground actually goes back a long way, I thought it’d just be bog, so a good little training area in amongst scrubby bushes for the dog. Lovely sunset with a fairly friendly swan joining us, then I zipped the canopies down after reading the forecast, and sure enough, at 2.20 I was awoken to a massive flash of lightening and a rumble of thunder followed by a loud crack that shook the boat! This continued, not quite to the same extent for an hour or so, with intermittent rain, but as I write that, it’s calm. Forecast is for more of the same all day, but hey! I sign off the boat today so no worries for me. To have had no poor weather to speak of on my travels since I can’t remember when has been an absolute joy. Pump out and boat cleaning await me this morning before the off. Thanks for reading, happy adventures to all.

They’ve covered some miles today then, we saw them at Neatishead at about quarter to two.

Put a ‘ha ha’ but not sure it’s a laughing matter if what Smoggy says was to come to fruition. Tuesday 23rd August After my morning ‘arise’ call from the sea scouts, I gave Finlay a run along the riverbank before setting off for Horning direction. More boats than I expected were out and about and the nearer we got to Horning, the more frequent the day boats became. In one view that would have been a photo shot if the phone had been handy, I would have fitted 7 day boats and a cruiser in. Cath was at the helm from near Ranworth to past Horning, partly because she had to take over when I firstly realised I’d forgotten to feed the dog, and secondly realised the fridge had packed up/had a warning light on and had defrosted itself. The instruction manual said to do the equivalent of ‘turn off/turn on again’ on the PC, but It did say disconnect fully. Well, to do that involves emptying the contents and pulling the fridge out, so I wondered in my simple way if taking out the fuse from the fuse box would achieve the same thing. It did, and bingo, it’s been working fine since then. How it got its knickers in a twist I don’t know! The only thing I can think of was plugging into the 32amp socket at Acle Bridge on the ‘reducer adapter’ , switching the fridge to 240 for a couple of hours to use up a bit of free electric I found, then putting it back on 12v. Would that confuse the fridge? It’s always fine running on normal 16amp supply and switching to 12v when underway. You can see by this that I don’t really understand physics!! I called a hello to Doug and Hellie on Papaver at Horning staithe but not sure if they recognised me and we carried on to the Hoveton Great Broad nature trail. I could set up camp there, the number of times I’ve visited this season. I think it’s 5, or maybe 6 times now. I can recommend it as a good educational introduction to the wetland habitat, but my goodness, I have come across a couple of quite officious volunteers - the paid staff are very cheerful and helpful though. We cut across to Salhouse to fill up with water and go for a wander in the woods, sort rubbish etc. Finlay asked to go for a swim but then faffed about in the increasingly black mud on the beach area, so had to have a proper dousing with a bucket of water before being allowed on the boat. On passing back through Horning again, I spied Ranworth Breeze for the first time. Our next and final stop of the day was at St Benedict’s church mooring, with a late lunch, then a walk to Horning and a glass of cider at the Swan Inn garden, and picking the remaining 300g of blackberries needed for my gin on the way back, following a rummage in a wheelbarrow of old tools that had been left at the end of someone’s drive during a house clearance. I was looking for anything remotely useful in imperial sizes and found a sort of socket spanner that seems to fit from 1/4 to 3/4” by an ingenious set of retractable pins inside. Whether it’s as effective as it looks is anyones guess, but worth a punt. Tony had bought me a whole Draper set for the boat on eBay the other day, so this isn’t really needed but I was intrigued. Cath found an unopened set of two door handles that match ones in her house that her husband had been unsuccessfully searching for online recently. We’d been joined on the mooring by a family on their hols staying in Hickling and revisiting old haunts. They were fishing and left after an hour or so. Curry for tea and I remembered to feed the dog too this time.

Was serenaded to a rendition of campfire type songs at 7am as 3 canadian canoes or similar of sea cadets came paddling up the Bure. I do really love seeing youngsters pursuing outdoor activities with no adults in tow (or not visibly anyway, I’m well aware of ‘remote supervision’ as have done it many times with DofE groups). As I write this an hour later, another 2 canoe loads have just passed. Hopefully passing boats will give them the space they should.

Monday 22nd August More house price research as we went past the black mill on the way down to Acle. I hadn’t noticed before, but it has a ‘for sale’ sign outside. £600,000 for partially renovated, planning permission for extension, materials (oak?) already purchased for sails, fan wheel, gantry etc etc, longish stretch of moorings, outside facilities to be able to offer log cabin holiday let or similar etc. Someone will like a project, may not be to everyone’s taste for development but if it saves another mill, then good in my book. Scrolling through we were then shocked to see we could purchase Thurne Mill for £200,000, (always assuming we had the money of course!) including a 30ft mooring. The wind energy museum and a cottage along there make up another two lots that can go separately or be combined in one deal with the mill. I hope someone takes these icons on sympathetically and the wind energy museum can be developed into a really thoughtful resource. I digress. Our day comprised a leaisurely start with a couple of short walks for Finlay along Womack dyke again, then motoring along to Stokesby. I hadn’t realised the pub and farm moorings were free during the day, (£8 overnight for info), and back to Acle bridge. We gave Finlay another run along past the pub and farm moorings to Acle Dyke and carried along the footpath for a while till it crossed the main road. From there you can do a big circular walk that leads to the bank opposite the Ferry Inn at Stokesby and back up, but we didn’t fancy that with Cath’s sore foot. A coffee stop at the riverside Dunes Cafe at the bridge, a long chat with a couple from Scotland who love coming to the broads for a fortnight each year and off we went, back up the Bure and along towards fleet dyke to a wild mooring where we could access the nice blackberry bush on the marsh that I’d mentioned the previous week. We walked about halfway across the marsh with the Tupperware boxes before turning back and picking the remaining berries within our reach. I’m still 300g short of the amount required for a full demijohn of blackberry gin! All the other ingredients are now in though, so that’s Christmas presents sorted for another year! The river and sky looked totally wonderful as we went to bed and I think it’s Venus up there shining bright, low on the horizon.

Sunday 21st August What a lovely day to be out on the river, a real late summer feel to the light. We pottered down the Ant where there were more boats in both directions than of late, but plenty of wild moorings available if we’d so wished. St Benets was busy too, but plenty of space at Thurne Dyke as we turned onto the Thurne. I heard later that there was a sailing race on, but we must have been too early for it. I was tempted to moor on the river end by the windpump, but carried on to Womack Dyke as I wanted to check the riverside path round to Potter Heigham, seeing as someone had said it was pretty overgrown a while back and it was one of those I reported on the NCC website. The man on the next boat said it was cut about 3weeks ago, so maybe that did coincide with my online form filling exercise? I’d like to think so, but doubt it! Anyway, we had no problems walking down from the moorings to Toad Cottage/Hall at Womack dyke end, and along to the start of Potter Heigham. We spent a while watching the river traffic on the private quay heading there before going over the little bridge and turning up the track. I commented that the little cottage there would be a wonderful place to live, flooding excepted. It was so funny watching Finlay crossing the metal bridge as it’s like a square grating and he sort of crouched down and ran across with knees bent, that I called him back and he had to do it again. Mean, but then new experiences are what makes them confident when working. Following the track round to the left where it branches and before long we were back at Hunters Yard and back to the boat. We set to and baked mini quiches for lunch as the sweet potato pastry cases that Cath had brought with her needed using up. The poor man on the next boat told me they smelt quite delicious, I felt quite bad not to have offered him one. Another walk up to the village late afternoon, via the footpath that branches west off the top of Horsefen Road, reaching a lane that you turn left onto, then crossing the busy road between Ludham and P.H. Along another lane, turning left at the junction, another left at a t junction later and it brings you out in the village. We stopped in at Throwers to get plasters as Cath had cut her foot on the walk and a drink stop in the Kings Arms, which was heaving. We’d seen a couple of ‘for sale’ boards along the way, so as usual, as I’m very nosey, rightmove’ came to my rescue. I was amazed that there were 23 properties in Ludham listed (most marked as sold I might add). And the cottage I’d mentioned earlier on the walk was one of them, but at £850,000 for a two bed property it’s way above even my wildest dreams! Interestingly, it stated that the 200ft long quay heading was leased from the EA for a peppercorn rent. Back to the boat for soup and a bean stew. A still evening, very few boats coming up looking for a hopeful mooring and neither any sailie boats coming into Hunters. Lots of birdsong if you can the noise geese make as ‘song’ and a beautiful sunset rounded off a very relaxing day.

Yes, Grendel. I did curse when I was fitting a new plug and the little metal thing that goes into the holes in the plug fell out down the plug hole - twice I had to buy new plugs, all of 50p each in the diy shop in Stalham.

I only found out yesterday Helen. £10 a night, book direct with boatyard. I described the position of it on my springers retreat thread yesterday.

My basins and kitchen sink don’t have u bends and they aren’t half draughty in the winter. I keep the plugs in!

Sounds just the sort of nan I want to be to mine if they ever come along! How wonderful Helen. I don’t really watch films either Peter, it probably shows when doing the quiz-ha ha. The TV on the boat wouldn’t turn on one day cos the old inverter it uses (all the richardsons hire boats have one inverter, exclusive for the tv, and then some have another for 240v sockets) was making a very strange noise. On a long winded investigation, it turned out to be the DVD player had gone pop. Once that was disconnected from the wiring, the inverter and the TV were fine again. (sorry, I can’t get rid of that extra thing below!

Saturday 20th August cont. Lots of housework getting ready for Cath. Tony found his belongings put out on the quay, awaiting his lift home with our friends. Cath reported that Sutton Bridge had big tailbacks due to an accident and there was a road round Hubberts Bridge near Boston shut, with diversion in place for Tony. Glad I was going nowhere! All I could report was that Tesco in Stalham was busy and their fuel station is now up and running again and busy. Nicholsons down on the back road to Sutton was the same price, so I went there. We set off about 3pm to join a queue of hire boats leaving the yard, but our destination was Sutton Staithe for a pump out. While waiting temporarily for space on their quay, I noticed a sign saying you can reserve a mooring there for £10 a night. I wouldn’t need it but good for those who like Sutton Staithe and would prefer not to moor down the narrow bit, especially on the BA 2 moorings, it might be worth a try. It’s side-on, just at the entrance to the private moorings, with a nice patch of grass and a bench. To get to the pub, you just walk through the boatyard. As I’ve already said, we moored on the Ant above Barton Broad and NeilB came past in his dinghy earlier on his way back to his boat on the opposite bank. A lovely starry night by the looks of it when I put the dog out an hour ago.

Me neither to be honest. Maybe in the winter, or when I’m on my home mooring after a day’s DIY, but the aerial gets put in the cupboard all summer. And I’ve just discovered iPad jigsaws; a bit addictive.