Celebrating 40 Years Afloat On Fair Duke

[YnysMon]

I love the trip up to both Neatishead and Dilham, especially the latter. Well worth the effort!

[Broads01]

Me too. We enjoyed both today, more to follow.

[Broads01]

Thursday 3rd June 

We continued on the Ant in warm sunshine today and How Hill was the first stop. Rollie enjoyed a brief run off the lead but we didn't want to keep him out long enough to get too hot. We continued then to Neatishead and were fortunate to get a space on the outer end on the right. The path to the village is still "blocked" but in reality you can easily walk around the temporary fencing. We spent a lovely couple of hours over lunchtime watching the comings and goings. As we continued our journey north across Barton I saw a hire boat travelling in our direction seemingly oblivious to the red posts. They were coming from Irstead but instead of heading up the middle of the Broad they made a beeline for the western edge and proceeded to almost hug the edge all the way. Somehow they didn't ground and continued behind us as we reached the Ant. At the Stalham junction we kept left and continued through Wayford Bridge and to Dilham. This week, I've seen more canoeists and paddle boarders than ever before, especially around Wayford where you can hire canoes. The river was quiet in the area as usual and as we arrived at Dilham there was only one boat moored. We made a brief stop there and then made the last leg of our journey to Stalham. We squeezed in on my favoured Richardson's mooring which is the one side-on on the left side just as the Richardson's dyke start, before you reach the private moorings. We had an excellent meal and service at The Swan. 

 

 

 

[Broads01]

Friday 4th June

On our last full day, we made our return journey down the Ant non-stop. We decided on trying for a stop at Ranworth again as we both enjoyed it so much the first time. This time, however, we weren't so lucky as the two spaces I could see were taken up by the boats immediately ahead of us. One of those was a dayboat who could have moored in the dayboat dyke - thanks mate. We stopped at Cockshoot instead. It was nice there as ever except currently you can't walk anywhere because both the dyke boardwalk and the one by the Bure are closed for no obvious reason. After a short stop we were off again and weren't planning to stop at Horning Staithe but the rare opportunity that came up there was too good to miss. After a short walk and an ice cream we continued to Wroxham. Rather than moor penned in stern-on in our own boatyard, we opted to the relatively spacious Barnes pontoon moorings. Evening meal was at the Liberty where we both enjoyed our main course but our desserts much less so. I always find it difficult knowing the best place to eat in Wroxham.

Saturday 5th June

It was a straight forward check in back at NBD. There was no fuel refund as they've recently changed to all inclusive.

Overall

A brilliant week, with the weather being the icing on the cake. It was busy of course but that's never bothered me and as always there were quiet areas to be found. Mel enjoyed herself also and said of all the times she's come with me (this is the 6th) this was the best one.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[SwanR]

Great to read your tale. I haven’t really tried many places to eat around Wroxham yet. Grey’s fish and chips had been nothing like the quality it used to be. Ken’s is ok and seems popular, always a queue. The King’s Head, well, we’ve tried it a couple of times but the food was very ordinary. Best food yet has been the Chinese takeaway delivered from Horning. Have got Liberty on my list to try at some point.