Pete

I believe you can find Grass Snakes throughout much of the Broads system, I've seen them on Barton Broad for instance. I may have a photo or two at home.

A nice site, my camera got a good review, http://www.ephotozine.com/article/Samsung-L210

Some great photos there. I've heard of several stories of kayakers being met by seals, and as far as I know they've ended happily. They jsut seem to be very inquisitive, although I'd stay well clear of them around the breeding season (around this sort of time of the year). Here's an amazing video of a seal and some sea kayakers. http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=mb8Elj_tiRk

I've seen some reviews of SLR's on here, but none on Point and Shoot cameras. Could we perhaps create a sticky, with links to both reviews of SLR's and P+S cameras? That way someone interested in a camera would just be able to look at a single thread to find links to all the relevant reviews. Here's my review of my Samsung L210, I'll probably edit it a little bit over the next couple of days to neaten it up. Over summer, in the process of tidying up the kitchen, my camera ended up in the washing machine, needless to say it didn't last very long after that. With a holiday to Canada and Alaska coming up I was in urgent need of a new camera. My requirements are probably typical of many amateur/casual photographers like myself, they were as follows: [*:1bts0ijv]Small enough to fit in my trouser pocket [*:1bts0ijv]Decent photo quality [*:1bts0ijv]Large/expandable capacity (I took about 6GB's of photos in a 2 week period) [*:1bts0ijv]Reasonably cheap (I was a poor student at the time) My parents had the Samsung L70, which I had always liked, so decided to try and get something from the same range. Having searched many reviews and looked at many sample photos I plumped for the L210. The specs for the camera can be found here. In summary, it is 10.2MPixels, 3x optical screen and a bright 2.5" screen. It has all of the standard features you find on point and click cameras nowadays, red-eye reduction, face detection, image stabilization and auto contrast balance. What I particularly like is the ease of use (true point and click), but at the same time, it has a number of modes that lets you set a much wider range of settings. In conclusion, it does everything that I wanted from it, so for £99 think it was a good deal. Here's a sample photo: More photos taken by this camera on my Canada and Alaska trip can be found at: http://gallery.me.com/peteelawrence#100024 (some photos were taken from inside a coach, hence why there's a lot of reflection on some of them)

It's not the size that matters, it's what you do with it.

In front of Hunters Yard? The shape of the building looks familiar

Try Norfolk Country Cottages (http://www.norfolkcottages.co.uk) they have a range of properties across Norfolk, including quite a few on/near the Broads, some of which have moorings. As great as it is being on the water, I think it's definately worth getting out and exploring some of the other parts of Norfolk such as the many coastal towns (Blakeney etc) at some point, and a cottage tends to give you the benefits of the Broads, and the ability to travel further afield. (and it's cheaper )

Pah, I'd be happy with those photos. Here's my entry. It should've been a photo of the heron with it's wings outstretched, heading straight towards me, just before it touched down. Unfortunately I was a fraction of a second too slow, so ended up with this photo, including the bow of some boat.

Do you not have seperate batteries for the starter motor and domestic? Starter motor batteries tend to be designed specially for starter motors (high current), whilst domestic batteries use considerably less current.

I'm in the same boat (excuse the pun) as Happy Jax, I love my iPod and Itunes. I previously used last.fm to look for new music based on what I've been listening to, but the genius feature in iTunes does that for me now.

When did you take these photos out of interest? Don't remember it being as nice as it is in the photos for quite a while, and it's been a while since our boats been cleaned as we've been upto other things, yet it still looks surprisingly shiny.

On our boat aswell! Some great photos there!

Something those of you who want to get under Potter Heigham may want to try: rather than hire a boat for the whole week, hire a larger boat for 5 days, and then spend another two days on a smaller weekend boat. Whether or not Herbert Woods (or other boatyards based near PH) would be co-operative in facilitating this is a different matter, but surely it's a good compromise? You get the space of a larger boat for the majority of the week, and the ability to get under Potter Heigham at the same time.

I've reuploaded those photos, as the compression to the first set didn't do them justice

Something I have to add to the SLR v's compact debate: Whilst SLR's do produce amazing photos (when in the right hands), they are very bulky, so you can't carry them with you all the time, whereas with a compact camera you can, giving you opportunities to take photos of scenes that you might not necessarily be able to take with an SLR. Attached are a couple of photos I took a few weeks ago with my compact camera - a 10.2MP Samsung L210 - in my opinion a great little camera - and reasonably affordable at £116. One last thing: always make sure you've got enough space on your memory stick and your battery is charged before going out, there's nothing worse than seeing a perfect photo opportunity, only to find out your battery is dead. Hope you all have a good time!

Hi Steve, Public showers are quite hard to find from my expererience. You shouldn't need to get a toilet pump out if you're only going for a week, if for some reason you do, most boatyards do pumpouts. As for water, it's available at most of the BA's public moorings, and again at most boatyards. Remember to top up with water every day, as you'd be amazed at how quickly it goes, and take care to rinse off the end of the hose before using it, as you don't know where it has been. Hope this helps.

Congratulations, what a lovely story! Hope you have a great many more adventures together on the broads!

Is it on the steam boat at the Stalham Staithe museum? Looks like the staithe restaurant in the background.

Sounds like a great idea, sadly I'm not going to be in Broadland for much longer this summer, despite living here, so will probably be unable to attend.

It's true that in Scotland you get some things paid for which you don't in the rest of the UK, however you need to be Scottish (living in Scotland for 3+ years) to qualify. For example, I've just finished my degree in Scotland, and had to pay tuition fees for the first 3 years whilst Scottish students didn't have to pay a penny. As for pubs having to close, I don't believe the effect of the smoking ban has been as disastarous as some people have claimed. Smoking was banned in Scotland at the beginning of 2006, and two and a half years on I've yet to seen a pub close in the town that I lived in up there. If a small town with 17 pubs in can all stay open 2 1/2 years into the smoking ban with none of them having to close, I don't believe the situtation can be that bad. Obviously this may not be the same across the country, but this is my personal experience. As for fuel prices, I'm off to Stalham today, so will take a look and see how much diesel is selling for up there.

From the sounds of their website, all of their boats should pass under Potter Heigham, except following heavy rain. (http://www.whisperingreeds.net/holidays.htm)

Good luck, look forward to seeing it on the water.

I'll post the photos as I get them, unfortunately the weather isn't great at the moment, so havn't had many decent opportunities lately. I have the whole of the summer ahead of me, so will get out either on my boat, or my kayak to get some more.

Well, I went out today, but due to the weather I only made it as far as How Hill, so saw nothing but a few very dodgy attempts at mooring.

Weather permitting, I'll be out taking more photos tomorrow, so stay tuned for some more. Just got to decide where to go, any suggestions?