You Know You’ve Arrived When ...

[ExSurveyor]

Postwick viaduct as well, always breathe a big sigh, time to wind down and relax.

[BroadAmbition]

Going back to the early years in the 60's it was the restaurant just over Wroxham bridge on the right hand side.  We used to stop there for lunch before driving onto Potter Heigham via Ludham Bridge

The 70's and 80's it used to be the Prospect Pub on the original A47 somewhere close to Swaffham, it was on the north side of the road.  That remained the place for years and years as we would call in for an early lunchtime pint with pool and darts before carrying onto Brooms for our Annual Lads week

Then it became Postwick viaduct like many others have said

I changed that shortly after launching 'B.A' as I came to be driving to Stalham on what seemed like a weekly basis.

My 'Point' for the holiday has begun is now the A1 junction at Blyth just south of Bawtry with around 150 odd miles still to go.  That makes the journey part of our trip.  Nowadays seeing as I no longer go via Acle but use the NDR my first sighting of the Broads proper is Wroxham Bridge - That'll do for me

Griff

[SwanR]

When we hired from NBD or Barnes or even on the way to Horning, I always got a thrill from seeing the boats lined up along the back of the car park just before Wroxham Bridge coming from the Norwich direction. Just like this ... 

[RumPunch]

If I've been away for a while on a holiday say, for me it's the realisation that I live in a very green and plesant location. Normally hits me either between the Wroxham road and Neatishead or Neateshead and Barton Turf, with all the overhanging trees.

[Davydine]

 Sutton Bridge was always a landmark on the way from Derby when I was a child, but we would usually stop in or near Norwich for lunch. The Rushcutters at Thorpe was one I remember, the boats on the river and the trains on the bridges made that special.

On a slightly different note, the smell of diesel exhaust always makes me think of boating holidays!

[Mouldy]

Boy, how the journey to the Broads has changed since my first visit in 1969, from NW London with my parents.  No dual carriageways, heading up the old A11 through Newmarket, Thetford, Attleborough, Wymondham and around the outskirts of Norwich on the way to FB Wilds in Horning.  I still have memories of mum and dad stopping for a drink in The Angel at Larling to break the journey on my first and subsequent visits.

Passing the monument in Thetford Forest when it’s on our left became a waypoint then, the start of our holiday and to a degree still is now, despite the massive changes to the route and the roads through the intervening years.  Passing it when it’s on the right was the signal that our holiday was finished and we were homeward bound.  Like many people, crossing the Postwick Viaduct and seeing the river below is when we know we’ve arrived.

When the solicitors have eventually done their thing and we are finally able to move, the journey will be very different and much shorter, although we will still be living a 35 -40 minutes drive away, near Watton.  When we pass the monument on our left then, it will be on the way back from visiting family and friends, still living in Milton Keynes and Northampton and we’ll be nearly home.

[Vaughan]

26 minutes ago, Mouldy said:

heading up the old A11 through Newmarket, Thetford, Attleborough, Wymondham

Don't forget Hethersett, and the Cringleford Bridge. Or a very good lunch in the Bull at Barton Mills, when the main road used to go right round it.

In the 60s, you could still do the run from Norwich to the North Circular in just under 2 hours. That is at night and if you were a passenger in a Mk 1X Jaguar, driven by Tom Percival!

[Timbo]

Like Griff, my way points have changed over time. As a kid in the very early 1970s, it was Donny Railway Station that was the gateway to The Broads. A couple of years later and sitting in a traffic jam with the 'improvements' to the A17 and A47 became the way point. As an adult it was the sight of Lincoln Cathedral sitting on the cliff that marked the beginning. Later, as the trips became more frequent, the marker would fluctuate between stepping out of my front door to pulling up at the boat yard. At one point it was the moment I rolled into the campsite at Hickling, pitched the tent and popped the top on the first beer. 

As the roads continue to be 'improved' with the associated chaotic roadworks and my in-laws move to southern Lincolnshire the way points have moved again. Before this last lock down, I had the strange experience of driving along the mental and geographical boundary between 'I'm going to visit the in-laws' and 'I'm so close to The Broads it would be quicker to visit the boat than to drive home at this point'. All it would have taken was one more set of road works with a detour and I would have been off racing to the boat.

But, when all is said and done, there is one particular moment when I know I've arrived. It's in the early hours of the morning,false dawn. The wind is in the reed beds and the 'Boys' (or boy now) will be nosing along the bank. I will take a deep breath of air tinged with the green of reeds, the brown of water with just a multicoloured hint of diesel and I will accept that at last I am on The Broads.

[SteveO]

The heady whiff of Norfolk sewage as you approach Postwick.

[floydraser]

Approaching the Thickthorn junction - which lane for the stock car race around the island to the A47 today? Then Pozzik viaduct, as we locals say.

It must have taken some of you an age to get along the old version of the A11. Apologies if you were stuck behind me around 2010ish. You see, some bright spark decided that fitting satellite tracking would catch us all sitting in lay-by's and improve efficiency. It actually meant that we could be seen breaking the 40mph mandatory speed limit for HGV's in place at the time.

[Helian]

It's when I catch sight of the pylons (originally WW2 RAF radar masts) at Stoke Holy Cross. For many years I lived within sight of them. My parents, and previously grandparents, live virtually in their shadow.