Springer’s Retreat On The Rivers

[YnysMon]

2 hours ago, kpnut said:

This morning I’ll wander along to Horning Pleasurecraft and take a photo of the mooring for you Helen, so you know what to expect on your arrival on Friday. 

Bless you Kate. Thanks! 

[kpnut]

2 hours ago, YnysMon said:

Bless you Kate. Thanks! 

Here you are Helen. 

and to show the actual depth

about a quarter up my wellies but I couldn’t get a good picture. 
 

I could see moonlight shadow on her mooring but without wading through all the water under the crane thing I didn’t know how to get over there to take a photo right by the boat. The carpark area before the building was fine. 

I used the walk to also go and talk to Sonny at Boulters about a couple of things. They are paddling about inside the shop and office, but open as usual. 
 

And I walked back up onto the playing field, round it, having a look at their mini orchard over the other side of the football pitch, and then down the steps to come out opposite the Chinese takeaway.

When I arrived yesterday, the three mooring posts nearest the Swan were taped off. In the evening some fishermen came along and moored there, leaving the boat on its own overnight. They came back early this morning and went off in the boat.
After my walk this morning, I noticed the tape has gone. I’m sure no workman has been along to repair the posts, they didn’t look like they needed any work doing anyway, so I can only conclude that the fishermen put the tape there. 
I’ve moved the boat up as I was taking up unnecessary space  Two dinghies were moored further up, so with them and me, there wasn’t space for another larger boat. Now there is plenty of space, but no-one’s even been past to spy it. I’ve just seen one day boat all morning go past.

Update - there is now a boat in that space, so I’m glad I moved up for them. I’ll have something to eat, then depart. 

[Lulu]

Awwww dear Finlay. He needs some little wellies x

[kpnut]

21 minutes ago, Lulu said:

Awwww dear Finlay. He needs some little wellies x

He’s made for this weather Sam. He even has webbed feet. 

[Lulu]

49 minutes ago, kpnut said:

He’s made for this weather Sam. He even has webbed feet. 

Unlike diva Desmond who jumps over puddles and won’t go out in the rain 🙄

[kpnut]

I went for another walk. I took the path diagonally across the field from the lane near Ropes Hill to the radar museum. I’ve been across there any number of times before, summer and winter, and have barely seen it so DRY. You’d have never guessed there’s been so much rain only a few days ago. Must be very sandy soil. 

[YnysMon]

Thanks Kate. I hope the water level drops as the area between the office/workshops and the boat lift isn’t level and there are often pools of water there when there’s a normal spring tide, so Finlay was probably in the shallowest bit. Hope our wellies can cope! I suppose there’s always the bin bag option. 

[kpnut]

Wednesday 8th November

I was at Boulters again this morning Helen and they said at last they’re seeing the water level drop a bit in their office and shop. I’d thought the same going along in front of the various properties. More grass than flood now. 
Apart from round the Ferry Inn carpark. That hasn’t shifted at all and made me wonder how the water actually gets out once overtopped there.
Do they pump it out, in which case I suppose it hasn’t been worth doing when the tide will just bring it back in again, or does it have to wait to evaporate, in which case it’ll be about June before it’s dry?

I’ve gone along to Ranworth again, I seem to be getting my money’s worth now there’s no charge! We’ve been on a big rainy, muddy walk round the footpaths/tracks I mentioned previously. 

This is the conservation area down Farm Lane opposite the reedcutter’s storage barn. View looks across to the river behind the line of trees.
Some very happy ducks.

I extended the walk round to Panxworth itself and in to South Walsham. I won’t do that again; there’s no footpath alongside the road at Panxworth and the road seems a very busy one. I didn’t have a map with me to see where the road goes from/goes to but I know there is a road somewhere off the A47 as a cut through to Wroxham.

Now the dog has had his cleaning off swim and is lying in front of the woodburner in the Maltsters while I try a glass of doom bar. My verdict - very  smooth and balanced. 

[garryn]

There is a pump that normally keeps the car park clear as well as the big pump down the road.

 

[kpnut]

Fuel at Boulters was still £1.45 by the way. 

[garryn]

Good to know they are still open dispute been submerged in water.

[YnysMon]

1 hour ago, kpnut said:

Fuel at Boulters was still £1.45 by the way. 

Glad that Boulter’s are open. We’ve agreed with the members who were on the boat earlier this week that we’ll get a refuel and pump out at the start of our week, since they left the boat early during the worst of the floods. 

[kpnut]

Thursday 9th November. 
It had been a very still peaceful evening at Ranworth with just two boats down the side, one on the front and one over the far side. I’d listened to the bellringers practising up at the church, a very British sound and I heard the 11pm bell ring, but that was it till I heard the birds splashing about and squabbling at about 7am. 
Once up, we had a walk round the ‘church loop’ (down the lane past the wildlife boardwalk, up past the church and back down the footpath running parallel to the road), then breakfast and later, we set off for Boundary Farm moorings. 
I saw just one other boat on my journey and the river looked wonderful with her autumn colours and sparkles on the water. 

We moored facing upstream at the end nearest Thurne with that beautiful view looking towards Thurne mouth. 

One big negative of the day coming up (and stop reading if you’re eating!!!) 

There we’re 7 - yes SEVEN -large piles of dog poo just on my half of the moorings, between the end and the gate. Plus one already bagged up. I cleared the piles, putting them in the river as I might do everyone a favour, but I don’t want that much on my boat. I’ll take the bagged up one with me in my flowerpot storage unit at the back.
What makes people think that’s acceptable? It’s revolting and totally unnecessary. Certainly not the sort of person I want to know. 

I’ll check the other half of the mooring before I leave as I can’t bear the thought that it might be similar. 

Frustration over, we had to go for a walk to the Lion so went up past the Bureside holiday park and moorings, and continued along the riverbank path. It was in very good condition, very little mud really apart from at the far end as it comes past the boats moored up before Thurne dyke.
On Sunday, the grass in front of the two chalets opposite Thurne dyke were flooded, but not today.

The dyke headings themselves are now dry and the water level has dropped noticeably since Sunday.

The geyser of froth by the little pumping station is still going strong however and there are some very strange, otherwordly noises coming out of that pumping station shed!

Instead of going to my destination, we continued along the riverbank, this time a bit more slippery and muddy, but nothing unexpected for the time of year, to the chalets at Potter Heigham. Approaching the chalets was where the flooded grazing marshes start, again with hundreds of wildfowl enjoying them.

And this next photo is looking over the river to Horsefen marsh on the opposite bank. 

Walking along behind the chalets, instead of paddling in the water on the concrete path or making the grass above even muddier, I walked along the top of the little concrete wall. As a child, this was very easy. I have memories of walking along the bar of the upturned benches in the school hall during PE lessons and on countless garden walls etc, but 55 years on it seemed much harder to keep my balance! Oh dear, the ageing process I suppose. 
From the first road you get to we walked up towards the Wind Energy museum and somewhere past an egg farm (not sure it’s actually a poultry farm as there no smell saying it was, maybe just an egg packing place?) there’s a footpath on the right. It went across a sugar beet field, then next to another and round into a wood, across a footbridge and on to the other side of the wood. Here I had a choice, another footbridge and onto a path that looked like it might head off in the wrong direction, or down the side of the wood behind a farm. Hoping it would lead to another means of traversing this second little dyke I chose this one as I felt it was going towards Thurne. It skirted the farm entirely, at some point crossing the dyke, probably at a little junction where I chose to turn left to run parallel to the farm drive. I reached a lane and a footpath sign took us diagonally across a field, and then straight onto another headland path before reaching the lane that the Lion is on. That was good then. I’m sure it wasn’t the nearly 3 miles that it would have been by road according to Google maps, which was all I had on me for reference. 
I had to go into the Lion to pick up my loyalty card I’d left in there on Sunday, so I was going to stop for a drink too. Finlay had a quick swim to get rid of his mud and I washed my boots in the dyke to be polite in the pub. The carpark was full, there were cars all along the road, and it felt I had to breath in to squeeze through the door into the bar. It seems I had joined a funeral wake. So, firstly not wanting to intrude, and secondly, realising if I stayed there’d soon be a wet dog aroma as Finlay started to dry off in the fug of the warm room, I collected my card and left. That was a shame. 
I took the quick way back to the boat, along the lane to the big corner, turning right along the permissive track to Bureside. 
There’s a line of walnut trees along that track and I’d hoped I hadn’t left it too late to collect some. I’d even taken a bag with me. But not one! Either the squirrels have had them all, or someone had harvested them in October. In the summer, they’d had a full crop ripening on them. 

All in all, a good long walk for the dog, who spent the rest of the day and evening literally snoring on the sofa. 

I spent a bit of time before bed outside stargazing. The more my eyes adjusted, the more layers of stars came out, and there was one planet, sort of to the right of Orion, but no meteor shower as I’d hoped. 

[kpnut]

I’ve just found a website called space.blog.gov.uk

it is full of really interesting information, explaining about various features, nebulae etc that I didn’t know before.
Like Orion’s sword is just a large cloud of gas/nebula and that one of its top corner stars, Betelgeuse is so large that if it was the centre of our solar system it would take up the whole space between it and Jupiter. 

Tonight I’m off outside again to see if can see the things I’m told I can see. I’ll take the binoculars. I did see the seven sisters and Orion last night and I think the planet was probably Mars, but it sounds like Jupiter and Saturn should be there too. 

For anyone local and interested, Salhouse Broad is holding a night sky viewing evening event on Monday night. I was thinking of booking a ticket, but think the forecast isn’t good. If the forecast changes, I’ll go. Mooring fee is refunded if you book a ticket. 

[ExSurveyor]

Have you tried the sky view app, it is useful to identify bright lights in the sky.

[grendel]

you can flip the view in google earth to look outwards too.

[grendel]

theres a site called spaceweather that sends out alerts for stuff like aurora

 

[kpnut]

I’ll take a look at all of those. Thanks.

[vanessan]

4 hours ago, kpnut said:

For anyone local and interested, Salhouse Broad is holding a night sky viewing evening event on Monday night. I was thinking of booking a ticket, but think the forecast isn’t good. If the forecast changes, I’ll go. Mooring fee is refunded if you book a ticket.

If it’s this one - https://www.salhousebroad.org.uk/stargazing.html 

It’s tomorrow. Hot food included in the price too!

[Troyboy]

There is a website N2YO which tracks the ISS. If you can get you binoculars focused on it, it might be worthwhile. It just looks like a bright star to the naked eye, except that you can see it moving across the sky. It is travelling at 4 miles a second.

 

 

 

 

[kpnut]

Oh thanks Vanessan. Don’t know why I thought it was next Monday. Sorry for the misinformation. 

[kpnut]

Friday 10th November

After a quick walk down to the marina and back, we set off towards Stokesby. I hadn’t yet decided whether to moor on the wild mooring on the bend before the village or to go to the village staithe. The village won as it was empty. This meant I had no reason not to go to buy a treat at the shop. 

Having done that, we went off on a most interesting walk, about 6.5 miles in total. I hadn’t realised that there’s a footpath all down the riverbank to Great Yarmouth. The path was nice shortish (ankle to shin high) grass, not at all muddy. Finlay had a ball, running up and down and to and fro with no bossing from me. He definitely covered at least 5 times the ground that I did. 
The path took us past the derelict Old Hall Drainage Mill,

then Stracey Arms Mill on the opposite bank,

then views of both Stokesby Hall

and the very grey and drab looking Herringby Hall,

then the Herringby moorings. I’ve moored there before when the light faded before I reached Stracey Arms on my way back from Great Yarmouth. I have no idea if I should have done, but there are no signs saying ‘no mooring’ and the quay heading is in very good condition. 

Then Six Mile House drainage mill on the opposite bank. It is possible to shorten the walk I did by taking the first path that leads straight up to the church, more or less opposite Six Mile House, but I wanted to walk as far as Runham Drainage Mill with Runham Swim Drainage Mill on the opposite bank.

I then took the straight path off the flood bank up to the village. It has a pretty village sign. 

That was probably two thirds of the walk done as I was going to walk back to Stokesby along the fairly straight lane rather than following the meanders of the river. On my way along the lane, I stopped in at the church.

It must be the plainest church in the area,

not even an organ, just a pedal organ instead. Far more difficult to play mind you, needs more co-ordination.

The information leaflet said the church had been used in ‘Some  Mothers do Have-’em’ for Michael Crawford to fall through the roof, as the church was pretty derelict at the time. That might explain why it’s so spartan inside. 
There was a sobering display of memorial information of the poor local lads who lost their lives during wartimes. There were quite a few of them; those left behind at the village must have been devastated. All the forces were represented, along with the merchant navy and volunteer reservists. I’m sure tomorrow they’ll be suitably remembered for their sacrifice. 

And I was soon back in Stokesby. It was cold by this time, so a nice warm-up in front of the fire in the pub was on the cards, but the pub was disappointingly cold, with no cheery fire as a welcome. I soon drank up my very tasty glass of Ghost Ship and departed to warm up at the boat.

[Turnoar]

Missed the boat so as to speak but pretty sure I saw Finlay dog in the vicinity of the fruit machine, I was at the wake which had indeed flooded the road with vehicles and the bar with overspill from the restaurant inc. yours truly, shame I didn’t put two and two together and seek you out and introduce myself.

I can safely say you would not have been classed as an intruder, the family grew up in the boat hire business and treated visitors like family, indeed there were some present at the wake who came on holiday and became lifelong friends, some were even mad enough to move here! Some even madder bought boats from the yard ex-hire, suffice to say they were looked after well.

[kpnut]

Various ‘bits’ of wildlife today. 
Cormorants drying their wings,

Swans on a family trip out, 

2 types of fungi (does anyone know what they are please?) 

and a thistle that I’ve always known as cabbage thistle, but I have no idea if that’s correct.

It has distinctive chlorotic leaves and I’ve seen it before in wet places. There’s a lot of it at St Benet’s between the cross and the single mooring in the corner of the field. 
 

I also saw great crested grebes, little grebes and two muntjac deer. 

[kpnut]

2 minutes ago, Turnoar said:

Missed the boat so as to speak but pretty sure I saw Finlay dog in the vicinity of the fruit machine, I was at the wake

Oh, it would have been lovely to meet you in person TO. 
It was obviously a really good send-off.