Springer’s Retreat On The Rivers

[bucket]

43 minutes ago, Gracie said:

I think your glaringly obvious orange bathtub is a very lovely boat. I have holidayed on a couple of them and absolutely loved them. She's where she belongs, on the Broads

Stay safe

 x

I couldn't agree more!.....lovely boats, we hired most of the Horizon 35's from Acle Bridge over the years, really well set out and spacious, my kids loved them......yours looks great (as orange as it is) Kate!

[YnysMon]

Pink!!! Eew! 

[ExSurveyor]

3 hours ago, kpnut said:

I think it’s going to make a few people happy that she’s staying orange😂

Is your new Norfolk runabout car ordered yet.

[kpnut]

Ooh, a matching pair. Would it get us home to Yorkshire?

[kpnut]

3 hours ago, bucket said:

hired most of the Horizon 35's from Acle Bridge over the years,

Which dint did you put in her then?

[Broads01]

I think keeping the (I assume) original orange will be a nod to the boat's hire history. That would be my choice I think. 

[bucket]

8 hours ago, kpnut said:

Which dint did you put in her then?

There were no reliable witnesses ......... and you can't prove anything.....

[kpnut]

Saturday 16th December

I returned to the scene of my previous mishap, mooring at Ludham Bridge in the exact spot I’d tried earlier in the week. More successful this time!

It was turning out to be a glorious day so a walk down to St Benet’s seemed a good idea.   The permissive path was in good shape and the views were lovely -one of those ‘big sky’ days, with golden coloured reeds. 

A boat had arrived at the moorings since I had gone past earlier but otherwise not a soul on the river. That couldn’t be said for the carpark at St Benet’s though, that looked pretty full and with two other cars parked along the concrete track. One man I spoke to said he was looking out for shorteared owls. 

This must be the cleanest track on the Broads at the moment!

Soon after arriving back at the boat, another boat came in to moor. With the choice of the whole moorings, both sides, it moored right in front of me, but didn’t stay long and once again I was left holding the fort. 

The bus I intended to catch was at about 4.25pm. Long before that, a car pulled in and I recognised it as belonging to a mooring neighbour from Stalham. So we had a nice cup of tea onboard and a news catch up, and then I was very kindly offered a lift up to Stalham, just in time to catch a beautiful sunset.

A quick  trip to Tesco and on to Wroxham where I had just enough time for a browse in Roys toy shop. I’ve never been in there before and my bank account wishes I hadn’t gone in this time. I can’t resist wooden toys for my little granddaughter. So now I have enough presents squirrelled away to last till she’s 3. As long as I remember I’ve bought them!

The City of Norwich Brass Band concert was excellent. Very Christmassy. Turnoar had told me they are very good. Well worth the effort of getting there. 

So today, I need to get the car back to Stalham before I can go anywhere in the boat, as I don’t want to leave it here till midweek. 

[NorfolkNog]

1 hour ago, kpnut said:

moored right in front of me,

It's amazing how often that happens. We moored on the deserted quay at Reedham. Big steel Broads Authority work boat moored slap behind us. No obvious reason to moor there. With a fast ebb behind us I had a tricky manoeuvre to reverse out. 

[gancanny]

21 hours ago, kpnut said:

a glaringly obvious orange bathtub!

  had a one for a fair number of years,  survival orange,  great boat

[Gracie]

I have had this when mud weighting. You choose a beautiful, nearly empty Broad to have a bit of alone time then a ruddy great cruiser does the same and so close to you that when the boat swings round your boats are almost touching 

3 hours ago, bucket said:

There were no reliable witnesses ......... and you can't prove anything.....

i am with you there Bucket, I have never dinted a boat, I've not hit a tree or lost fishing gear hitting said trees or anything 

Kate that last photo is stunning.

Have a lovely day, I think it's going to be a sunny one

 x

[NeilB]

3 hours ago, kpnut said:

So today, I need to get the car back to Stalham before I can go anywhere in the boat, as I don’t want to leave it here till midweek. 

I’m onboard from about 1pm Sunday if you want a lift from Stalham?

[kpnut]

I took Neil up on his really kind offer as it meant being able to get back to LB with enough time to move on upstream. Steaming hot water will be on the cards. 
Thanks Neil. 

Before that, we had another walk down to St Benets in the sunshine. The swans seemed to be content.

This time I turned right once at the farm near the end of the concrete track to follow the (muddy) grassy track that comes out further down Hall Common Lane towards Ludham. At the t junction, we turned left onto Staithe Road and eventually wandered down Horsefen Rd to Womack staithe. The staithe has been reclaimed from the high water and for info, the water is turned off. 

Something I’ve never noticed before is this memorial stone for Ludham Airfield. It’s in the corner of the green furthest from the bus shelter and was unveiled last year. 

Retracing our steps down Staithe Rd, I also noticed that you pass the end of the dyke that comes up from opposite Womack staithe and you can spy the staithe through the beech hedge.

We turned off at Lovers Lane to follow the field track back past the renovated barns and onto Hall Rd again back to Johnson Street and along the road to Ludham Bridge. 
That was a lovely relaxing walk.

[kpnut]

As usual, as soon as there is a stunning sunrise that I’m actually awake for, I’m not on a mooring that’ll do it justice. 

I woke to a colourful glow coming through the curtains at Neatishead, but the trees and house next door got in the way. I should have quickly got up and taking the dog up to the field, but was too snug in bed! 

[Wussername]

On 16/12/2023 at 18:23, YnysMon said:

Pink!!! Eew! 

Miaow or what. 😅

[Wussername]

30 minutes ago, kpnut said:

As usual, as soon as there is a stunning sunrise that I’m actually awake for, I’m not on a mooring that’ll do it justice. 

I woke to a colourful glow coming through the curtains at Neatishead, but the trees and house next door got in the way. I should have quickly got up and taking the dog up to the field, but was too snug in bed! 

You missed a wonderful dawn. It was magical. However, red sky in the morning, shepherd's warning.  

This time of year, the sunsets are memorable, every now and then a dawn which has a beauty of its own. No large hills, no mountains, just a large sky. As illustrated by Seago  a Norfolk landscape artist who captured the very soul of the county. From his home in Ludham, visited by the Queen Mother on many an occasion, his paintings vividly enraptured the dawn, and the end of the day.

[kpnut]

I’ll look him up. 

I was going to edit my post to quote the ‘Red sky in the morning, Shepherds warning’ as it was certainly right today. I got wet, on and off, on my walk today. 

[YnysMon]

1 hour ago, kpnut said:

I’ll look him up. 

I was going to edit my post to quote the ‘Red sky in the morning, Shepherds warning’ as it was certainly right today. I got wet, on and off, on my walk today. 

Growing up in a port, for us it was ‘Red sky in the morning, sailor’s warning’.

[kpnut]

Monday 18th December

After missing the wonderful sunrise this morning and realising tomorrows weather was going to be decidedly worse than today, I decided on a good long day out exploring more of the countryside round here. 
Leaving the 5 fishermen who’d set up camp all around me, I took the dog on his new figure of 8 slip lead (a revelation, no more pulling!) past the White Horse and New Victory Hall (surprisingly busy), up to the other bit of Neatishead, turning right at the little crossroads by the primary school. Up that lane to a t junction where I went left and soon after found a footpath across a field. This obviously isn’t very well used as I had to fight through brambles by the footpath sign to get onto the field. This came out on the lane by Cangate and I crossed and went down the lovely green lane opposite. This is the path I used a while ago past Hill Farm I think it’s called and eventually out onto Long Lane behind Bewilderwood.
Along there, where the flooding from last month has receded somewhat and onto the footpath leading to the crossroads at Ropes Hill at the top of Horning. The roadworks and very slow 4 way traffic lights are still on that crossroads but the gas men have move further down and are now working opposite the public carpark near the Swan. 
The staithe was the domain of the wildfowl, with just one boat. 

I had intended to go in the Swan but it was still a bit early for beer and I noticed that Tidings sell takeaway hot drinks. I had a tasty hot chocolate sitting at the staithe. 

Then on down Lower Street where I encountered the Southern Comfort dominating the scene.

On past the boatyards. It was good to see the council had provided an extra skip for people to get rid of debris from the flooding. 

Up past the primary school and along to the crossroads where instead of going diagonally across the field to head towards the track that leads to Griff’s corner on the Ant, I turned left on the lane to come out onto the main road. About 100yards to the left and on the opposite side of the road next to the new radio mast, is a concrete track that services the sewage works. So down there, diagonally across some field paths, eventually coming out near the junction to ThreeHammer Common from the Radar museum road. I took that and could have walked back to Neatishead along the lanes but wanted Finlay to have more of a run, so chose numerous footpaths to thread my way back to come out at the back of the primary school again. It’s very noticeable that the footpaths have dried up a lot recently, apart from ones on arable fields where the soil is so compacted, a result of autumn cultivations and then endless rain. 
All that was left was a walk back down to the White Horse where I stopped for a while, meeting the most gorgeous Irish water spaniel and his friendly owner. 
On getting back to the boat, I was surprised but shouldn’t have been, to see 3 of the fishermen still sitting there. They must have been freezing!

That was a walk of 8.5 miles,  and for much of it I didn’t need to use the map, now I’m getting a feel of my whereabouts round this area. 

What I’ve learnt this year from all these walks is that you really don’t need to moor right near a pub to access one. At this time of year, it does sometimes mean a lunchtime stop so as not to run out of daylight. 

Lion at Thurne from Boundary Farm. 
White Horse at Upton and Maltsters at Ranworth from Fleet Dyke.  
Crown at Catfield from How Hill or Wood End staithe. 
White Horse at Neatishead from Irstead or Barton Turf. Kings Arms at Ludham from Ludham Bridge or How Hill. 
And the 3 pubs in Horning from The river Ant, and Horning church mooring. 

[kpnut]

I think it’s sad to see 6 holes on the new grit quay heading at Neatishead, by the edge next to the wood. That’s just down one side, I didn’t go down the other. They were only find this spring. 
I say ‘I think’ as someone who knows the technicals of these things might be able to say it’s normal and all part of the settling process. But to me, it’s probably more like lack of proper consolidation when first laid. 

[dom]

2 hours ago, kpnut said:

it’s probably more like lack of proper consolidation when first laid. 

To be fair to them, they may have been placed under undue pressure to complete the works. A certain person ignored the closure and moored anyway, pushed their way past Heras fencing and went snooping around the plant and equipment on site. I'd imagine they were keen to move on as soon as possible as a result.

[Broads01]

5 hours ago, kpnut said:

I took the dog on his new figure of 8 slip lead (a revelation, no more pulling!

Sounds good. Do you have a photo?

[NorfolkNog]

5 hours ago, kpnut said:

but it was still a bit early for beer

Never too early for a beer!!! 

Loving your tale. That boat at Horning was there when we were out. Think it's one of the winter regulars. Speaking of which, wonder what happened to Tombstone? 

Hope you manage to extricate yourself from the fishermen! 

[kpnut]

1 hour ago, Broads01 said:

Sounds good. Do you have a photo?

I’ll take one. 

 

1 hour ago, NorfolkNog said:

Never too early for a beer!!! 

I knew someone would say that!

Even in the drenching rain this morning, two fishermen were perched opposite when I opened the curtains. 

[Graham47]

7 hours ago, kpnut said:

I’ll take one. 

 

I knew someone would say that!

Even in the drenching rain this morning, two fishermen were perched opposite when I opened the curtains. 

You should have told them to sling their hook.