Great Holiday - Should Do Better !

[YnysMon]

Never worry about too many pics. I’ve split a day’s tale into two before now, just to accommodate all the pics. 

[MotorBoater]

July 14th. - Absolute Heaven

We dropped the pilot off on the left bank on a large expanse of tarmac. Off we go.

The pictures simply do not do the trip justice. We trundled along, for the most part in silence, and the only disappointment was that I still had not found any Kingfishers, nor did I for the whole holiday as it happens.

As half expected we found the whole stretch quite magical, I hope the residents realise how lucky they are, I'm sure they do, how could they not ?

The weeds in places were quite bad, especially the last half mile to the lock but somebody was obviously on the ball because on the way back down the following day we encountered a weed-cutter, by anchor moorings, merrily chattering away at them.

We just took our time, one bend after another, passing Belaugh with two moored boats at the staithe, deserted, one fisherman and a small group of children playing a little further along.

Anchor Moorings was packed out and carrying on we passed Coltishall Common with a few small spaces and families enjoying the weather. It looked like a number of visitors had arrived by car as well as boats. The pubs seemed to be doing well with many patrons sitting by the garden bank watching us pass.

Fine for them. Me? I'm hoping I don't c**k up with an audience !

Moving on we sqeezed past two canoeists by the hotel and finally arrived at the lock.

Three or four fishermen on the bank, a couple of little cruisers, two rather large Richardson boats double moored in the turnaround area leaves just enough room on the bank before them for GH 2. The weeds in the turnaround area are diabolical. Getting out tomorrow might be fun.

After suitable refreshment the crew take off over the lock in search of supplies, I took the camera and headed in the other direction. Those pics will likely be part of the second or third post for this part of the trip.

Back at the boat I became aware of a small herd of cows with apparent jet-propelled hooves, every time I took my eyes off them they disappeared and popped up about 400/500 yards away. This is a phenomenon I have encountered before. Some years ago, whilst cruising past St. Benets with then family we decided to stop and explore the ruins. The field around them are pancake flat, as you will know, and at the time of first sight were covered in cows, lots of them.

It took no time at all to stop and moor and yet when we turned to walk to the ruins they had all gone, to this day I have no idea where. It's not as if it's not open country. Just gone.

Any way here we were and here we stayed, for the night. More to come, first I've got to sort the pictures out...

 

More pics shortly

 

[MotorBoater]

More Coltishall pics

A few more to follow...

[MotorBoater]

Finally, a couple of Horsted Mill and a couple of the river approach to it.

The story continues, when I get a bit of feeling back into my fingers.

 

[VetChugger]

Has the advice changed? I was always under the impression that hire boats could go no further than the pub at Coltishall. Not being at all critical, good for you for exploring.

[webntweb]

I seem to remember a sign saying no hire craft past this point but that was many years ago.

Been up to the lock with both Moonlight and Lightning recently and also a couple of times with 42 foot hire boats in the mid 80s.

[grendel]

its like the dragons in the south, myth, just that, I have taken hire boats up there, Robin has, so yes you can take hire boats up to the locks and moor up, you cant take hire boats up the leg to the mill (or any other motor boats either, its too shallow.

[MotorBoater]

Nobody said a word, there were five in total that night and as we all left the following day a couple more were arriving.

Btw, when  London Rascal and Sheila were there a few years ago it was in a Richardson tub

Just checked Richardson's Captains Manual again...

Under Cruising Limits - basically don't go to sea !

Under Where To Moor - No mention.

Under where not to moor - No mention.

Maybe different yards have different rules ?

[YnysMon]

We’ve been to Coltishall Locks a couple of times. We didn’t see any notices restricting access, nor anything in our Skipper’s handbooks (from NBD and Ferry Marina).

[MotorBoater]

July 15th. - Georges Version of His Mother's Antics on Day One

Woke up, got up, fed up. No great rush as the agenda for the day was dictated by the need to get back under Wroxham's bridge.

We chilled, mainly watching Richardson personnel working on the two boats in the turning area, including swapping a battery at one point.

The water was crystal clear (Hence the weeds) and you could see the river bottom no trouble. You could also see lots of fish swimming from the lock down the length of our boat before turning and making their way back again, resolutely avoiding the line of half a dozen fishermen behind us. I didn't have the heart to tell them.

The double moored pair finally decided to leave so we decided to get along too, the idea being to see if we could moor at the common for a bit to kill time before heading back to the bridge.

Just as we were ready to go another Richardson tub arrived and took the space in the turning area again but nothing like the previous occupants. I gently nosed into the weeds, swung the wheel over in reverse, and we were out and away. No sign of the fisherfolk moving and we hoped they would leave it clear.

Made our way downriver and were delighted to see several spaces at the common including a couple big enough for us. The sight of day boats taking the same space as 30/35ft plus cruisers was starting to get on my nerves. No problem I thought as we glided in to the bank, George on the bow with a rope in hand and the wife behind me ready to throw him the stern rope when he was on the bank.

He wasn't on the bank long enough to receive it. Having stepped on to the bank, properly attired I might add, for some reason he took a step backwards instead of forwards. There wasn't anything there.

The act of stepping off had edged the bow slightly away from the bank and before I could get it back in George went down between boat and bank. Just like his mother he had a firm hold of the rope but a shorter length and this time he had stepped over it so that when he went down it lodged behind one knee. This mean't he didn't quite go all in but soaked one leg and half an arm.

Do people live underground there? Where they came from I don't know but in no time at all people came from nowhere and about eight or nine of them had him out and on the bank. Mother of course flew to the bow and I'm standing by the helm watching the stern drift out but a woman shouted for the rope and pulled it in after I threw it. Another guy tied the bow up while we sorted George out.

He was more concerned at the fuss than the fall and we packed him below to dry off and change. after thanking everyone they all disappeared again.

This was day six and for the next four days my dear family were hoping I was going to make it a full set, sorry to disappoint.

Suitably rested the crew decided to explore while I tidied the boat. After a while they returned and we set off for the bridge, arriving at the Hoveton mooring in good time. There was one space available, furthest from the bridge which mean't I didn't have to demonstrate my stern mooring skills to the patrons of the Kings head, and others.

It took the pilot about half an hour to work through his little bit of backlog then it was our turn and we were through and away to Salhouse for the night. The bankside moorings were full so we moored outside, loads of room,  just before a shower arrived. Not a bad mooring really, quiet as we like it, by now we were used to GH 2 twitching at the sniff of a wash from passing boats.

Only a couple of pics this time, not sure why, presumably an element of "Been there, done that."

Next time Herbert Woods, from the inside.

[MotorBoater]

July 16th. Three Birds, One Stone.

Late start today, didn't get underway until 10.45am.

No particular rush again as we decided we were due a visit to Potter Heigham, I was in no hurry to deposit wife and son at the Doorway to Temptation that is Lathams.

On the way it occured to me that the Richardson guy had advised a pumpout about halfway through the holiday, we needed to moor for the night somewhere and ,of course, those two just HAD to go to Lathams.

So this was going to be win, win, win though how I got away with the last one I still don't know.

The Bure was busy busy, it was pretty clear, at least to me, that a major factor in the instant tourist boom was the fact that the kids were not at school. It might have looked a bit more normal otherwise. What are they going to do during the regular holiday period ? If they were looking to skip abroad as so many do then I suspect they may be having second thoughts now.

Anyway we soldiered on, George nearly got us tangled up with a sailing boat at the southern end of Horning but the guy was brilliant at shouting where George needed to be, without a trace of rancour, whatever he was thinking.

I took the helm for another tour of Malthouse and that was worse than before. Nice to see so many people in one place but acting responsibly. In fact this was generally true of the entire 10 days.

On past St. Benets, this must be the only holiday I never stopped there and left into  the Thurne. We decided to save Womack for another day and arrived at Herbert Woods.

I wasn't bothered at the £22 charged for a twin tank pumpout, it's part of the holiday, and Alan did a very thorough job. What was amusing me was the number of people waiting for water !  Apparently their pressure is not very high and there were four or five boaters criss-crossing the pontoon to see how it was going on. At a rough estimate top-up was taking about 30 mins per boat. Fortunately we didn't need to join them.

Alan said we were welcome to stay the night but we needed to be gone by 8am as Friday was a big change-over day, not a problem as we were usually up and about early but I set an alarm on the temporary phone the crew had bought me at Beccles, as I like to use Aweigh and Ulysse apps.

Incidentally, Alcatel One smart phone £35 from Tesco, including £10 voucher, absolute bargain. The guy in Tesco apparently said it was rubbish but it behaved flawlessly, perhaps he was referring to the games performance, they often do.

Anyway, off we go to Lathams, big surprise - no queue, of course not, they are all inside. Quite well organised and we were round in no time at all. How we did it I don't know but only £25.76 ! This included two 5ltr bottles of water at 99p each.

Back to the boat and laze around up top watching a number of Woods boats rolling in for change over, and people still waiting for their turn at the water hose.

Another day done. More to come.

 

[grendel]

I chatted with the lady at the door on Lathams, and apparently they have a set number of shopping trolleys (and no baskets), so if there are no trolleys available you have to wait until someone comes out, they clean the trolley handles and let you in, far more subtle than some of the bigger supermarkets. it does mean that even if you only want 1 item you have to have a trolley (which also achieves separation from the person in front when queuing.

[SwanR]

Very much enjoying reading this and seeing your photos. That certainly looks busy. I’m reading a lot of first timers asking about routes and moorings and pubs but it seems to me that it’s been too busy to plan. More a case of going with the flow. 

[grendel]

thats pretty much what i did last week, any public staithe i moored up at was full after midday, though i was generally trying to find nice quiet wild moorings most of the time.

[MotorBoater]

July 17th. - Just Cruising, Because We Can

Starting to feel like the end of our holiday but there are still a couple of days to go.

Up and away early as requested, Mikande, next to us was away first, more lovely people by the way, and we followed.  I think we were the only foreigners there. We passed a column of boats headed for Woods,  with not many smiley faces.

We set off for Stokesby again as we were minded to get some more honey to take home for little gifts from Norfolk, I could say we do like that ride down the Bure but in truth there isn't a part of the broads we don't like.

We left the Thurne for the Bure and the by now usual rat-race was building, at least the paddleboarders and most of the canoeists seemed to be keeping to the smaller rivers and the broads. The day boats were doing their level best to fill in however.

We were approaching Stokesby just after 10am and it was clear there was no room at the inn, more socially distanced mooring.  I'm sure people were thinking they were doing "The right thing" but equally sure they weren't thinking it through. I'm bl**dy sure if I can keep 6ft away from the wife on the boat I can keep 6ft away on the bank !

So we binned the honey idea and turned around debating where next. Stella had a hankering for Salhouse again so off we went.

The work on the 24hr mooring at Acle is looking very tidy and I remember wondering if the tea room will open again or whether this is still stage one of something bigger.

The pub had spaces, a tad early I suppose, Bridgecraft and the bit next door was busy again, seems a popular spot.

St. Benets was not exceptionally busy and we pushed on, deciding not to waste any more time down Ranworth way, a slight disappointment for Stella as she still hasn't climbed the church tower.

Horning was a bit messy with no chance of a mooring unless stopping at Southgates, only one boat here but several day boats jockeying for position at the New Inn.

On down to Salhouse, at first sight the bankside mooring is chocker, again no "Socially Distanced" mooring here. Found only one boat on the three boat mooring down in the far corner, under the trees, that will do nicely.

My stern mooring skills suffice to get us in without going anywhere near the boat already there, must be improving, it's not long before a dayboat with six brawny types arrive, mooring first nose in, then sideways, then finally stern-on thanks to the guy in the other boat. Frankly I was enjoying it too much to think about actually helping, naughty me. I could have sent the crew in but with their record we might have been pulling six heavy weights out well into the evening.

I went looking for the warden to pay our dues while the kettle was boiling, after a while the dayboat moved on and the last bankside space for the night was taken by Royale Emblem, nice looking boat, well presented.

We explored the footpaths, found the bins and settled in for the night, lovely evening sunshine too.

More to come.  Only two more nights, which means tomorrow is our last full day.

[MotorBoater]

A few more pics

[YnysMon]

Lovely tale and photos again.
Royale Emblem. Yes, she is a lovely boat, not the newest, but we found her a very good reasonably priced boat for 5 adults and a dog. Very comfortable and easy to handle from the helm’s perspective. Large comfortable lounge area for the evenings. Also, great to have a ‘larger’ boat that can get underneath bridges. We hired her in 2017. There’s a tale lurking somewhere a few pages back of our adventures on her.

[VetChugger]

There has long been a problem of peoples perception of space and maybe two boats taking up to four moorings, really frustrating at times and there is plenty of advice in onboard manuals etc. Never seems to be heeded though. Bad luck at Stokeby, Lovely stopping off point.

[grendel]

my problem is even with a 25 foot boat the spaces look tight, yet once I have fitted the boat in I find they are plenty big enough, I can fit my car into a space with about a foot to spare at each end, - i have yet to manage that with a boat.

[MotorBoater]

July 18th.  - A Wherry, Close Up

Woke up to a nice day, and black shiny things moving around the water in the distance with orange bouys attached.
Are they shark warnings ?  Are they heck, just some nutters out for a swim, mistook elbows for fins. Probably normal around here and the buoys are presumably to let the boats know they are there. Does that work with the 10/12 year olds practising boat handling with dad ?

Although it's near the end of the holiday we decide not to risk a water shortage and moved along to the hose point. There was space by then and I managed another stern moor, and topping up took a mere 5 minutes, I'll remember these water points for the future.

We motored out of Salhouse straight into the "Wroxham Navy". I think every day boat from Wroxham must have cruised downriver in one flotilla. A couple of pictures I took don't really show the effect of this lot travelling together en masse. Only spoilt by five yobs in one of them continually racing to get in front then losing it and laying stopped across everyone's path. We got past and left them causing havoc at Horning where they tried to cross the river to The Swan.

The stretch down to the Ferry was busy as usual but well-behaved, we were still surrounded by the Wroxham Navy and they were having more trouble with the flappies than we were.

We eventually broke free and it was continuing to be a nice day as we pushed on, aiming for Womack, cruised past St. Benets and turned up the Thurne.

We are not into sailing ourselves but I do think the sight of a sailing boat with the wind filling the sails can be a joy to behold so decided I wanted to catch a picture or two if the opportunity arose. The Thurne often seems to be a good place for this and we did indeed spot a few. Not exactly what I was looking for but close.

We turned into Womack with a struggle. George quickly abandoned the wheel to me. A Wherry, Maud I think, with scouts, was coming down from PH trying to turn right with a little pusher boat behind for momentum, a cruiser was trying to get out and turn right, two cruisers and us trying to turn left, two flappies trying to go straight on and there in the middle of it all was a double handed canoe, giving way to no-one, turning into W. Water at zero mph.

Trying to keep GH2 pointing in the right direction with minimal, and I do mean minimal, forward movement while trying to avoid the flappies in front and the remnants of the Navy coming up behind made for a hairy five minutes.

The exiting cruiser went by, hugging the reeds to his right, my left, the wherry was caught up on the reeds/weeds right on the corner whilst avoiding the canoe. The saillies sailed right on with a number of boats now stacked up behind the wherry making way for them. We slid across the wherry bow into Womack Water only to find the canoe hadn't gone far and was sitting in the middle of the water with the two occupants watching the mayhem at the junction.

Presumably realising GH 2 was considerably the larger vessel they resumed their journey moving over to let us through. We soon realised that we were wasting our time, the moorings along the bank were full and as we carried on, looking into the distance, the staithe looked full too so we circled the island (Moorings also full) and turned to exit back to the Thurne.

As we approached the end the wherry came around the bend, having finally made it off the reeds/weeds and I hugged the reeds to let her pass with her pusher doing sterling work at the rear.

We turned left for PH, pretty busy there, and as we didn't fancy Woods we decided to give the Quiet Moorings a try as we had noticed they were all but empty, never been there before.

Directly opposite maycraft, no problem. Then Stella decided we needed "A few bits and pieces" and George needed feeding, as usual, so they decided to walk up to Lathams. I pointed out on the map that if they were busy there was a shop showing a bit further on. It was only after they went I noticed a rather large sign for Premier on the front of Maycraft !

In the event there was a queue outside Lathams, down the side of the building, so they decided to walk on.

They found Premier a bit further on than expected but worth the trip apparently. Not as small as expected either and pleasantly surprised at how much stock they had.

When they made it back we settled down for our penultimate night on the Broads.

Lots of pics again.

 

[MotorBoater]

 

More pictures here

[MotorBoater]

 

And finally more including my attempts at sail boats.

 

[MotorBoater]

July 19th. - Oh Dear, Last Night Tonight.

Our last full day dawns and as usual nothing special planned. The day looks to be glorious and we know we have the boat to sort out so we decided to enjoy it with a leisurely cruise up the Ant and hope to get in at Paddy's Lane for our last night.

A quick look over the side tells me the water is apparently rushing up to Potter so we let go at the bow and a slight push sends the bow out a bit ?

Err, no actually.

Tried again, and again, out with Aweigh and I find it's past high tide and the tide is actually going out !  It's the breeze that makes it look like it's going the other way.

Re-tie the front, check wifey on board, away from the edge, and let go aft. George gives a push, this time it works, free off the bow and we are off, Yes George made it aboard.

Down the Thurne into the Bure, where is everybody ? St. Benets half full, people enjoying the sunshine, swing into the Ant heading for Ludham bridge.

Now we find out where everybody is. The queue for the bridge starts at the beginning of the moorings on the left bank. No-one is going anywhere much and we are to far back to see what the hold up is. I take the wheel as we have the usual problem keeping a straight line with the stern veering left and right because of little steerage way.

Brainwave !  I suddenly realise that if I can't go forward then I can go backwards so I start edging a length forward and half a length backwards. Only took ten days to work that out.....

After about half an hour we get to the lefthand corner and see at the righthand turn to the bridge there are two of the large newer Richardson boats see-sawing past each other attempting the bridge, backing out at the last minute and making way for other craft to come through downstream. This accounts for the intermittant appearance of boats passing by us.

Boats ahead of us were getting bored with these antics and were taking turns to slip past and under the bridge. Not an option I was looking forward to,  but as it happened I didn't have to. The big one nearest us appeared to momentarily lose control and bounced off what looked like a Hampton moored on the corner by the boatyard then went back for another try at sinking it but just ran full length down the side of it and carried on under the bridge.

The other one promptly followed it under and suddenly there was room for everyone. We all began taking turns each way to transit the bridge so we were through and away.

There was no more excitement as we motored on up the Ant, How Hill looked marvellous in the sunshine, as did all of it really.

Barton was quiet and we made it to Paddy's Lane and took the last spot on the newest part of the mooring.

A few boats went and others arrived but we just got on with getting GH 2 ready for returning to the yard.

It was a lovely, peaceful, evening.

A bit more to follow.

[MotorBoater]

July 20th. - It's Over

We were actually back in the yard by 8am, as were a number of others, the staff were ready and as usual very helpful as we sorted ourselves out.  Richardson seem to have a good handle on covid.  The fuel deposit we had paid was £125 and we used £113.56, we owed £12 for Wroxham pilotage so I gave the receptionist £1 and called it quits.

He was wondering how we had used £113 in just three days hire but recovered quickly when I pointed out we had been out a bit longer than that.

The boat was actually pretty good, obviously dated, but we didn't mind the multicloured formica cladding, doors and worktops. We hired the boat for space and airdraft not aesthetics. With one short-lived exception we helmed entirely from the upper position and loved it. All I reported to the yard staff was a tiny leak in the rear toilet window that left a saucer sized puddle after a shower of rain and a dodgy aerial connection to the TV.

I have left two subjects to the end for simplicity.

First wifi. Richardson's EE connection was first rate for much of the trip but played up a couple of time on the extreme southern areas. I have a Huawei mifi unit with a three network sim that again was flawless everywhere. We even streamed Virgin TV, on my laptop, tucked away in the corner at Salhouse.

Second food. We usually try to support the local economy wherever we are but as I had been hibernating, sorry shielding,  since March I was in no hurry to put myself about too much. The issue was how to feed ourselves without constantly visiting shops and built up areas.

Watching TV one evening I saw an advert for a company producing cooked meals that would last for months in a cupboard, no freezer required - we thought Yeah Right !  The advert appeared a few times and as we were looking at maybe having to overload on tins and packets we eventually thought there is no harm in sending for a catalogue.

These meals are heated in microwave or in the oven. We preferred the oven. Apparently pressure cooked, I saw sous vide mentioned somewhere. The website is typical of that kind of thing and held no surprises.

Although concerned the portion sizes looked small we sent off a trial order, a ten meal deal, to have a look. Impressed but the idea needed more work. We then ordered more for further experimentation with their pots of flavoured mash and pouches of rice. This worked well so we went all in and ordered for our Broads trip.

The upshot of all this is we ate really well and would certainly use them again. We found that with a bit of imagination the mash, rice and even salad went towards making excellent, tasty meals. Our menu for the trip was:

Lasagne.....Cottage Pie.....Chicken & Leek Hotpot.....Coq au Vin.....Minced Beef Hotpot.....Beef Casserole & Dumplings.....Ditto with Chicken.....Pork and Apple Hotpot.....Pork Casserole & Stuffing Balls.....Beef & Mushroom Stroganoff.....Chicken & Herb Lasagne.....Liver & Bacon with Mash.....and not forgetting All Day Breakfasts.

We also took Bubble & Squeak Mash Pots - not much squeak !, Roasted Onion Mash Pots, ordinary Mash Pots and Long Grain Rice Pouches.

We took some earthenware oven dishes to decant the meals into, as I said we prefer to use the oven as we could then produce all the meals at the same time instead of one at a time in the microwave. All we were washing up were knives, forks, plates and oven dishes. We were cleared up and out enjoying the evenings in no time.

Ten day food bill for the three of us £122 plus perishables.

We don't have any connection to the company, we are just well satisfied customers. I'm not up with how naming external companies is allowed on here and for now I will say the name starts with P and ends with X.

If anyone wants to learn more let me know.

 

[VetChugger]

I have often passed that tin heron! I always have a lunatic wish to have a bazooka to hand to destroy the bliddy thing! Totally off the wall I know but, somehow, my mind occasionally works like that. Really enjoyed reading all about your voyage and loved the photographs. Very well done and hope to see more in the future. Thanks very much.