Springer’s Retreat On The Rivers

[kpnut]

14 minutes ago, YnysMon said:

That sounded like quite the walk Kate!

Not one of my brightest ideas!

[LizG]

My screenshot off my App shows the path disappearing either side of the presumed house? 

[dom]

12 hours ago, kpnut said:

7). I then proceeded to notice that there’s a good tarmac pavement all the way to Horning

I was just about to say something along the same lines, as your earlier comment about the lack of path puzzled me slightly.

Hoveton primary school (which must have been closed 40+ years now) used to be on the left just before Palmer's Lane coming from Hoveton. I think the pavement probably exists because some of us used to walk to school from Hoveton and others from Horning.

[kpnut]

1 hour ago, LizG said:

My screenshot off my App shows the path disappearing either side of the presumed house? 

Thanks for the map.
Yes the path does do that and so I was partly prepared to have to turn back at the end of the path with a ‘private’ sign - fair enough. Although often an unfenced road marked through a yard will indicate a historical right of way or permissive path. 
But the path stopped well before that, it didn’t even go into the wood. A mystery, even to the lady I spoke to. She was very surprised to see a path on the map.
The wood wasn’t marked private so I did go in following a faint path, but it just ended up at the side of the dyke. A lovely wood all the same!

[kpnut]

Thursday 16th November

Today I planned to go to Salhouse to explore some new paths around there and go and see what the Bell Inn is like. But following various conversations with Tony back home over the past week, I decided he needed help after having a problem with a swollen hand that was getting worse rather than better, so decided to set off back to Stalham. 
Isn’t it odd that as soon as I’d made the decision, setting off and letting Tony know, I felt really sad and selfishly regretted it? Just shows how much the boating bug has got under my skin. But all good things must come to an end. 

On my way over Barton Broad, the boat somehow wandered towards Neatishead. So I moored up and walked along in the rain to the White Horse for a final sit in front of the fire with a glass of Tom Cat. I haven’t visited so many pubs in such a short space of time for years! I had a nice chat with MM who happened to walk in and recognise Finlay. 

On my return to the moorings I found two men from the BA resurfacing the grit path that had washed away in the rain. Surely it’d make more sense to use something more permanent as the path is on a slope so it’s inevitable that it’ll happen again sometime. 

Entering Barton Broad again and the boat turned back downstream. SR obviously doesn’t want to go home😂 I allowed the boat to go as far as Irstead, but someone was moored on the electric so I persuaded her to turn and go back to our home mooring. More enticing to spend a damp drizzly night on the electric at home rather than off grid in a beautiful location. 
Finlay was more than happy to arrive back to snuggle into his crate in the car, his most favourite place of all. Oscar came to visit his friend, knowing exactly where to look  and making s beeline for the car boot but at that stage, Finlay was still in the boat. (They did get to play today instead).

And so ends the most diverse and enjoyable trip I’ve experienced so far. I’ve learnt loads, but my feet will enjoy having a break from paddling about in wellies. 

Sorry the posts have been so long, just shows what the long dark nights do to you 🫤

[Broads01]

17 minutes ago, kpnut said:

Surely it’d make more sense to use something more permanent as the path is on a slope so it’s inevitable that it’ll happen again sometime. 

I agree, plus something that doesn't make the boat messy with the gravel you inevitably tread in.

No need to apologise for the length of the posts, Kate, they've been good to read.

[SwanR]

It’s been great to read your posts and see what you’ve been up to. Hope Tony’s hand is ok. 🤗

[YnysMon]

6 hours ago, kpnut said:

Sorry the posts have been so long, just shows what the long dark nights do to you 🫤

They can never be too long.

I had a giggle at SR doesn’t want to go home. Never a truer word.

Hope Tony’s hand gets better soon. I don’t know about you, but there’s a bit of nagging going on in my household on the lines of looking after oneself. 

[kpnut]

10 hours ago, YnysMon said:

Hope Tony’s hand gets better soon. I don’t know about you, but there’s a bit of nagging going on in my household on the lines of looking after oneself. 

Usually falls on deaf ears. What is that saying about a horse and water????

[CambridgeCabby]

With the movement toward carbon footprint reduction and recycling in all aspects of daily life I’m amazed bodies such as the BA haven’t considered using alternatives when replacing quay heading ; planks of “fake wood” made from recycled car tyres and plastic would last far longer and use products that otherwise go to landfill.

As far as the quayside paths are concerned a product akin to that used on children’s playgrounds again using recycled plastics would be non slip , easier for wheelchair users to negotiate as opposed to the grit or wood chips currently used and again be far longer lasting , also this type of path would have an amount of give meaning less potential sprained ankles etc when alighting .

[dom]

The big concern with these things is what happens to the materials as they degrade and microplastics. There are already pretty shocking levels of microplastics in a lot of our rivers and it's fairly self-evident that they're significant carcinogens.

I went through a big eco-friendly phase, growing and hunting most of my food, composting everything, etc. I gave a lot of it up in the end, as it's fairly clear that recycling, etc is all pretty pointless until we realise and accept that the only way to mitigate damage to nature is to curb and possibly reduce population numbers.

[MargeandParge]

If we don't start somewhere we will never finish. 

Kindest Regards Marge and Parge 

[kpnut]

I’m swayed by Simon’s point of view as benches etc made from recycled materials do seem to look new for ages and don’t seem to deteriorate in the same way as wood.
But then Dom also points out about what might happen when they DO eventually deteriorate. I suppose the materials haven’t been used for long enough yet to know. 

So maybe a trial in one location would be appropriate. With some way of speeding up the wear and tear to investigate any particle release. 
 

Neatishead in particular seems an odd place to replace grit with grit when it washed away, as the bit that was replaced was on the slope down from the grass to the quay heading. 

I noticed the grit surface at both Boundary Farm and Acle Bridge had also been washed away in part. And somewhere I noticed where the grit had gone it had left the older dressing of more consolidated chunkier stuff intact. 

[YnysMon]

I’m a bit concerned by Dom’s post. What’s are you suggesting re:limiting population? That’s dangerous territory to revisit, given what went on in Germany during the last century. 

[dom]

My grandfather was a bomber pilot in WW2 and involved in one of the raids which was instrumental in stopping Germany, so not suggesting anything remotely along those lines. It's just abundently clear to me that population growth is out of control and that something needs to happen to slow it down, otherwise all of the lesser things we try and do like recycling, etc are largely pointless.

I think it's in the film "Age of Stupid" (but might be Fahrenheit 911) where they point out that developed countries are using something like 4 times as many resources as the world can sustain.

There's a lot of left wing propaganda in the green movement, but I'm more right leaning and can still see there are a lot of truths within the narrative. The big problem is it needs a unified, global and unselfish response to address - but modern society seems incapable of behaving in that way.

[YnysMon]

33 minutes ago, dom said:

The big problem is it needs a unified, global and unselfish response to address - but modern society seems incapable of behaving in that way.

Agreed. However, I don’t think our society has ever been capable of behaving that way, except when the whole country is threatened by a very immediate threat, when we miraculously pull together. 

[kpnut]

My early start to drive down here this morning has resulted in me nodding off in front of the tv just now.

I was going to come to the boat yesterday, but I would have arrived after dark. With a slight niggle in my head of split water pipes from last week’s cold weather (having looked up the forecast before leaving last time and not seeing a cold spell on the horizon, so not taking any preventative actions) I didn’t want to arrive to a problem in the dark, so left at 5.45am this morning instead.
As usual, unnecessary worrying but better that way. 

I was hoping to catch sight of the Nogs on their Bridgecraft boat, with a cheery wave to say hello, but I’ve read they’ve finished for this trip. I have really enjoyed your holiday tale Nogs. Thanks and pleased you’re back soon. 

So far, it looks like the river levels are slightly lower than last trip. Hopefully there won’t be the need for quite so much paddling in wellies this week. Wroxham Bridge was just on 6ft when I drove through at 10am. 2 hours before high water. The viaduct moorings were empty apart from a BA workboat.

Looks like someone’s been filling the holes in the quay heading next to the mooring posts. One very large hole left to do. 

[NorfolkNog]

Hi KP, sorry to have missed you! Lovely and warm at the mo but levels have gone up a bit in the last couple of days so please be careful!! 

[SwanR]

Hope you enjoy your time afloat Kate. There's rarely anyone at the Viaduct moorings at this time of year, just a few "regulars" who tend to stay at the stern on moorings. Not that they're doing anyone any harm with so few boats out and even less getting through the bridge probably.

The problem of holes along by the mooring posts on that stretch seems to happen every year.

[kpnut]

Where to go? I left Stalham at 2pm (yesterday) as the beautiful sun of the morning was clouding over. Irstead or Neatishead?

I decided to try Neatishead first and honestly thought there’d be one or two boats already there. But I had it to myself. 
I thanked a couple of fishermen at the entrance for lifting their lines as I came along. Soon after mooring up, Mike, the waterways chaplain came down the mooring to ask if I’d seen one of his ‘charges’ on my travels. I hadn’t seen another boat at all. We had an interesting chat about his work. It pleases me greatly to know there’s someone keeping an eye out on those who are permanently on the river in the poor weather months, as it’s a hard life. 

After a slow start this morning and feeling a bit embarrassed not to emerge to take the dog out until way after the rangers had started working on a cordoned off bit at the entrance end (ie I was being extremely lazy!) we set off for a good long walk.
I noticed a hedge that has been laid a few years ago in the carpark near Gays staithe. The binder rail holding the laid pleaches down is still visible, but the hedge has since grown well around the hard work someone put in. 

The path alongside the field leading to the boardwalk also has a laid hedge.

This is what my husband spends his winters doing, although not at the moment with his swollen hand.

We visited Gay’s staithe and saw no-one, Irstead and saw no-one, but there was £1.05 on the electric post, Alderfen Broad, Neatishead church and the fudge lady. 

The lane along past Barton Broad boardwalk towards Irstead was so very muddy and full of wet leaves that my thoughts wandered back to pranging my motorbike donkeys years ago when I skidded on wet leaves one horrible November night.

And then a second thought that as a youngster, I would have been delighted to have been tasked with using my old Massey 135 and yard scraper on the back to clean the lane up. 
Blow me if then I didn’t come across a very similar tractor sitting on the crossroads at Irstead, dressed with Christmas lights. A predecessor of both the 135 and the little massey 35 before that. And beautiful. 

I didn’t think I’d been in Neatishead church before, but it did feel a bit familiar once inside, as it has a wc in the porch, free to use!
The path leading to the door is pretty, with pollarded limes as memorials to the lads killed in action in the First World War. I think it’s the nearby Barton Turf church that has a similar avenue. 

The guide to the church was interesting and said that the Domesday book called the village Snetesherd, meaning ‘the head of the stream’ as it was the source of the river Inet, and then it was renamed Netesherd by 1301. I looked up the river Inet on the internet later, but can’t find any reference to it. 

The fudge lady had some new flavours - sloe gin, and winter spice. They’ll make good stocking fillers. 

Call me mercenary, but the idea of using that £1.05 on the post at Irstead got the better of me, so we set off to go and see if the space was free. It wasn’t, and the boat moored there wasn’t hooked up to the post. I might be tight, but I wasn’t going to moor up on the parish staithe and ask if we could swop, 😂

The height  gauge for Irstead shoals is still showing a high level, but it has certainly has gone down since last month.

So we carried on to How Hill, again empty of boats apart from the BA workboat just mooring up. 

[NorfolkNog]

How are you finding the levels generally? Are they starting to drop again? 

[kpnut]

52 minutes ago, NorfolkNog said:

How are you finding the levels generally? Are they starting to drop again? 

Well, I’ve only been to Neatishead and How Hill so far. 
How Hill didn’t overtop last month, so no real change there.
Last month, Neatishead was very wet and soggy on the quay heading and difficult to get on the boat. Much better this time. The Irstead height gauge is lower. Last month it was right on the very top of the black ‘high’ bit at one point. 
 

I’ll update as I revisit different places. It certainly can’t be any more awkward getting on and off than last trip. 

[NorfolkNog]

Sounds very similar situation to when we were out. If it's showing 7 feet ish at Ludham it would sound about right. St Bennetts was above water but not a lot! Looks like you have a low air draught which is ideal in winter 

[kpnut]

I can get most places, most of the time. Mind you, even Ludham Bridge had to be given more thought last month. 

Officially 6’9”, but I measured accurately with straight edge, plumb line and spirit level at 6’5” and have been under Wroxham at 6’7”. 
I’ve even been under PH bridge once!

But annoyingly, Wroxham is still out of bounds at the moment. I’ll go and have a look later in the week, but not holding out much hope. 

I do want to moor up at St Benet’s this trip. 

 

[YnysMon]

Lovely to hear about Mike the waterways chaplain. Good to hear that someone is looking out for local boat dwellers in these colder months.