Springer’s Retreat On The Rivers

[kpnut]

On 30/03/2024 at 09:00, Gracie said:

Have a lovely time afloat Kate, you have the lighter nights to enjoy too. 

Well Gracie, the first of those lingering lighter nights. This was 7.45pm. I felt that summer might one day come after all!

And yes, there’s a boat cruising down in the second photo. In fact two boats, privately owned. I hope they found space at Ludham Bridge as it was pretty dark. 

[Gracie]

Stunning Kate, thank you. You just can't beat an evening like that on the rivers. Spent many a night sat outside, wrapped in a duvet, not wanting to go to bed and miss one bit of it

Enjoy, stay safe

Grace x

[YnysMon]

1 hour ago, kpnut said:

And yes, there’s a boat cruising down in the second photo. In fact two boats, privately owned.

Where are their nav lights? 

[kpnut]

I think it was a bit chillier last night after those nice clear skies yesterday evening. No matter, I slept solidly again. 
We got going about 9am, destination probably Acle bridge. I was tempted by the look of Upton dyke on my way past but will save that for later. 
Approaching Acle I had the choice of all mooring spots bar two, but just as I was about to turn round in good time before the bridge, 3 boats in succession came through the bridge, so I had to turn nearer Bridgecraft than is ideal. I didn’t want to go through, turn and come back as it’d be just my luck that I’d meet a whole string of boats coming up and end up at the back, with all moorings then taken once back under the bridge. That was me well and truly overthinking it!

Anyway, I turned, the first boat in the line nearly nabbed my chosen spot but then decided to veer back out into the river again at the last moment. And 70p on the electric for my efforts. 
Finlay had a run, then I was too tempted by the Dunes cafe so went in for a bacon and egg sandwich for a late breakfast. It was gorgeous, with tasty smoked bacon and very filling. I’ve also got a slice of rhubarb and custard cake for my tea. Treats galore!

I spent 3/4 hour on hold to my doctor’s surgery, wasting some lovely sunshine, and then Finlay and I set out for a walk. 
Along the river past Mill House Farm to Acle dyke moorings. Someone, I think Broads01, said he thought they looked closed and I’d responded saying I wasn’t surprised seeing as they’d been underwater for weeks. 
I can happily report they’re now open for use again, £5. The honesty box has moved along the fence to the corner nearest the moorings (it used to be in the middle of the. private moorings bit in front of the house. The old subsiding house is no more, just the black barn conversion. 
So maybe they were just giving the moorings time to recover after the wet winter. 

Crossing the road by the Hermitage and wandering up Old Rd, I saw a new signpost. It showed a WW2 trail, with a little detour across the road into a housing estate where I found a pillbox, just there in the middle of all the houses! 

I lost the trail signs at the road junction so took the left road into the village. I’m pleased to say the Vault cafe is still running, I’ve never been in but have heard it’s good.

Scooters cafe was open too and seemed busy. I couldn’t justify stopping in a cafe when I’d had that lovely bacon and egg sarnie. 
I find Acle a funny place, something and nothing, but I get the feeling it’s ‘on the up’. 

I walked up Pyebush Lane past the cemetery towards Fishley church, having caught up with the WW2 trail signs again. I know there are two more pillboxes up there. The photo shows both Fishley and Upton churches. I was pleased there was a breeze to blow away the smell of the oilseed rape flowers, urgh!

I’ve no idea where the trail signs went again as I reached Upton. We turned left and sat by the village pond for a while,

then stopped in at the White Horse for a glass of beer -this time a 4.1% greene king called Scrumdown. Quite hoppy and not too heavy. 
Then down to Upton dyke and back along the river to Acle bridge. 5 miles with no rush needed. This is a walk I’ve done many times, but there’s always something new to find, this time the pillbox in the housing estate. And nowhere was ultra muddy which was a real bonus. 

On walking down the bank on the Pedro’s side and looking across at the now fairly full moorings, I realised just how low my Horizon 35 is compared to most other boats. Maybe I need to build an upstairs to keep up!

And Malcolm, Moonlight Shadow is 3 boats down in the picture. No-one on board to say hello to as I walked past. 

[YnysMon]

10 minutes ago, kpnut said:

 I realised just how low my Horizon 35 is compared to most other boats. Maybe I need to build an upstairs to keep up!

At least you don’t need to worry about the bridges! We’ve never hired anything with a high air-draft, as we appreciate getting to the less frequented parts of the rivers. 

[gancanny]

32 minutes ago, kpnut said:

I realised just how low my Horizon 35 is compared to most other boats.

your boat is the right height for the broads,  it is the others that are too high,   

[Mouldy]

43 minutes ago, kpnut said:

 

And Malcolm, Moonlight Shadow is 3 boats down in the picture. No-one on board to say hello to as I walked past. 

Hmmm.  I fear that you may regret being so close to our grandchildren . . . . . . . . . . they are verrry loud!

[kpnut]

1 hour ago, Mouldy said:

they are verrry loud!

Nothing heard so far. 

[Mouldy]

10 minutes ago, kpnut said:

Nothing heard so far. 

The night is young!

[Broads01]

I'm very pleased to read about Mill House Farm moorings being back open. The closed signs last week didn't look temporary but evidently they were so.

[kpnut]

Moonlight Shadow had moved on this morning by the time I’d surfaced and fed the dog. 
About 9.30 it was time for me to set off. It had got windy, blowing me back onto the bank as I was swinging the stern out. I moved up a couple of posts before trying again as I was quite tight up against the boat behind me. Success by pulling the bow tighter to the post. 
I then decided to go over to Pedro’s to fill with water. I moored side-on parallel to the building, and turned her with the ropes so the bow was sticking out into the basin before setting off as I had residential boats both in front and behind me. 
I had a short pootle up to Upton dyke as I knew there’d be plenty of room to turn at the end with no yachts there. I was the only boat on the ‘free’ moorings side. It’s so peaceful here. 

Then a shortish walk towards the village and down onto the concrete road across the marsh.
Broody skies across the marsh made me pleased I had full waterproofs on. 

And up the track to the black Upton Mill. I wanted to check this track out as in the winter it was in a real state after builders’ vans had chewed it up. By doing the walk this way round, I wouldn’t have so much of a reverse exercise if it had been hopeless. 
But I needn’t have worried, it’s been dressed in the worst parts and wasn’t too bad at all. 
I noticed that most of the dykes have been cleared. 

The difference between a choked dyke and a cleared one that can do its job efficiently. I wonder if they’re done on a rotation to create and preserve diverse habitats. 

The new side building at the mill looks good. I could most happily live here!

Back along the riverbank and up the side of Upton dyke after a quite long pause at the beautifully situated bench at the end. Finlay needed a swim at the slipway to clean off before being allowed back on the boat. 

[kpnut]

For anyone needing to know about technology things, I successfully attended a zoom meeting this afternoon at Upton staithe by hotspotting my iPad to my phone. I checked the speed when I arrived and it had told me it was ‘fast’ so I hoped it’d be OK. No freezing, no time lag at all. 

That done, I felt Finlay deserved another walk for his patience. This time I took the path just by the moorings, literally outside my back door! 
It then goes vaguely parallel to the river, following a little dyke through a wood. It was very muddy and a couple of weeks ago would have been stunning with plenty of clumps of daffodils. I did find a stand of late ones under a tree.

The path comes out onto a track, meeting the path coming up from the sailing club on the Bure. I turned right on the track back into the village and down to the shop for a sausage roll for an extremely late lunch. I then retraced my steps up to Church Road, up past the church that was unfortunately shut

and continued along the road. It was rather more busy than I had anticipated and I wouldn’t recommend it as a walk. When I reached a ‘t’ junction and turned left onto the road between Acle and South Walsham it was even more busy with quite fast traffic. Maybe it was nearing rush hour. I turned off this road soon past Hugh Crane’s yard (there is a path marked on the map before the yard, but there was no sign of it at all, just a house and garden with a large fence!) 

Anyway, the track I turned onto leads back to Fishley church, through that damn flowering rape field again and followed yesterday’s route back to Upton and the staithe. 

I took a photo of the view across to the Acle bridge moorings. If the boats hadn’t been there, you’d never know there was a river.

That thought took me back to how I started on a boat, not that long ago. In 2017, my daughter and I hired one of Simpsons houseboats. While driving around the area doing normal holiday things, we rarely saw the river. We could have been anywhere in the country, rather than the Norfolk Broads. It was only when we hired a dayboat from Whispering Reeds at Hickling that we realised just what we were missing. 

While I’d been in my meeting, all the scout yachts that CC had mentioned on Sunday came into moor and the smell of their tea cooking was most enticing. I expect tonight felt good for them, with showers available for them at the boatyard, no doubt. 
So from a quiet ‘on my own’ mooring, we have a yard full. 

[dom]

56 minutes ago, kpnut said:

While I’d been in my meeting, all the scout yachts that CC had mentioned on Sunday came into moor

After seeing them mentioned the other day, I wondered how exactly they're managing to keep them all under control. Presumably, they must have at least one experieinced sailor per boat? Must be quite a job to find that many suitable people.

[Troyboy]

Brilliant write up for today Kate.  Finlay is a lucky lad. 

[kpnut]

1 hour ago, dom said:

After seeing them mentioned the other day, I wondered how exactly they're managing to keep them all under control. Presumably, they must have at least one experieinced sailor per boat? Must be quite a job to find that many suitable people.

Maybe the scouts are already good. They looked more like venture scout age.
Whatever, they were doing a cracking job on Sunday as I stop/started my way through them down the Ant, and they all came to a stop in the correct place today. 

[YnysMon]

I’ve read up some accounts of groups taking young people on Hunter’s boats in the friends newsletter. They do have to have one experienced skipper per boat.

[kpnut]

I know the organisation I spent a lot of time with when a teenager, Forest School Camps used to use Hunters for sailing ‘mobiles’.

I used to go on the ‘shanks pony’ version. I walked in Scotland from Ullapool to Cape Wrath, across the pyrenees from Pau to Jaca, as well as across Dartmoor in numerous Feb halfterms in differing weather conditions and many many caving trips in South Wales, the Mendips and Devon.  
Any outdoor activity experience for youngsters is the bees knees in my book, as long as it involves some discomfort, effort and the chance to show leadership, teamwork and problem solving. It builds resilience and self reliance. 
So I just love seeing these groups out on the water. 

[kpnut]

I surprised myself by being up for an earlier start this morning. I woke early to the sound of a downpour, in fact I’d also heard heavy rain in the night. 
Even though I was earlier than normal for me, I was still beaten by the scout group who slipped silently past me and out of the yard without me noticing. When I drew the curtains at just after 8am, I could see a  line of sails moving along the horizon in the direction of Thurne mouth. 
I left it a while so as not to catch up with them and caught the tail end of their flotilla as I turned into the Thurne. They carried on up the Bure. 

Destination Potter Heigham with a backup plan of Womack if necessary. I needed to do a bit of shopping; milk and fruit. 
Plan A worked. I pulled into the second slot on the moorings just before the guys in the first spot were leaving, so pulled the boat down to tuck into the end. And 47p credit to do the hoovering and recharge my toothbrush. 

The day has been very showery, I suppose April showers but without the warm sunshine in between. We had the muddiest walk of the trip so far, not just because after the rain this week, (the paths are getting noticeably slippier), but because I chose a route that I’d forgotten was so low-lying anyway. 
Starting off behind the chalets by the Norada, with a couple of wet and claggy parts, I noted the drainage pump is still working flat out.

Considering this is just one of many pumps across the Broads, plus on all the tributaries across Norfolk and upper reaches, especially of the Bure, it’s perhaps no wonderthe rivers are taking a long time to recede (obviously along with various other causes). 

Candle Dyke looked so inviting, ‘if only….’  I did see a dayboat in the distance and also a yacht up Heigham Sound - lucky them. 

I was accompanied all the way round the marsh by the booming of bitterns. I also saw a marsh Harrier. I wish it was the harrier I heard and the bitterns I saw. It will be a red letter day the day I spot a Bittern. 

I’ve noted into my mind a good place for picking sloes later in the year - a nice little avenue of blackthorn in flower. 

I felt completely overdressed in full waterproofs as I was well and truly overheating, and decided the time is right to now dig out my rucsac rather than wearing all this stuff just in case. 
I glanced up at the sky as I decided to take my leggings off, and quickly reversed my decision. 

I soon got rained on.

I took the path through the carr to head towards Potter Heigham church. Muddy or what? I should have carried on along the Weavers Way and come down the lane. Finlay enjoyed it though. 

Past the church with its round tower with an octagonal top

and past lots of old characterful houses, interspersed between newer ones in the village. Down Station Rd, across the A149 along to the Premier convenience shop, down a residential road next to the Falgate, a pub I’ve never been in and certainly felt I couldn’t with the dog looking like he did.

And onto another incredibly muddy path to the right. This path eventually comes out into Horsefen Bank, which wasn’t too bad, but as I reached a path to the left halfway down, I knew it’d get extremely muddy down towards the river, so I cut my losses and traipsed across a field that not long ago was underwater

and onto the track that runs behind Herbert Woods boatyard. 

In the dyke, the marker gauge shows just how high the water has been this winter.

After a detour to look at the boats for sale, we got back to the boat. Finlay had a dunk again to clean him off and I dried him and wrapped him in his coat, before leaving him to go shopping. I bought him a chew treat for when I got back and now he’s flat out asleep, hasn’t even bothered to ask for his tea yet. 

It’s still raining, on and off. 

[Gracie]

26 minutes ago, kpnut said:

Any outdoor activity experience for youngsters is the bees knees in my book, as long as it involves some discomfort, effort and the chance to show leadership, teamwork and problem solving. It builds resilience and self reliance. 
So I just love seeing these groups out on the water. 

I couldn't agree more

I've always made sure my boys spend lots of time outside and not stuck in front of a screen, go on activities with the school and after school clubs, camping, fishing, boating etc. I believe children can learn valuable skills and lessons in the great outdoors

The other day though, my eldest threw a strop and asked me why he couldn't go on his x box all day long like his friend and how his mum is so cool to allow him to. I replied that it was a good job I'm not your friends mum then because I'm not that cool, he wouldn't like me very much and he's still going on that walk 

Grace x

[kpnut]

Richardson’s Hercules helping out a HW boat. 

[Roy]

8 minutes ago, Gracie said:

I couldn't agree more

I've always made sure my boys spend lots of time outside and not stuck in front of a screen, go on activities with the school and after school clubs, camping, fishing, boating etc. I believe children can learn valuable skills and lessons in the great outdoors

The other day though, my eldest threw a strop and asked me why he couldn't go on his x box all day long like his friend and how his mum is so cool to allow him to. I replied that it was a good job I'm not your friends mum then because I'm not that cool, he wouldn't like me very much and he's still going on that walk 

Grace x

I agree with you grace and Kate  my mum brought me up like that being a 80s child we have limited technology lol

I’ve always been an outdoor child thou I’d rather play outside than inside and now I’m working as a gardener/ garden designer so I’m always outside in nature and live every minute even though the weathers been a tad wet ! 
 

[kpnut]

1 hour ago, Gracie said:

I believe children can learn valuable skills and lessons in the great outdoors

Absolutely. I like the principle of this new ‘Forest School education’ (nothing to do with the organisation FSC I mentioned earlier) but I have one very big BUT about it. 

A lot of the people who run the sessions are teachers and firstly may well not have the lifelong experience of the philosophy behind it themselves, and secondly, teachers generally find it very difficult to release control of an activity. Which then negates the whole thing of self reliance etc. 

Seeing as many forest schools are in-school sessions (ie in the timetable, not physically indoors!) they have to have lesson plans, outcomes etc which is completely against the whole principle. 

That’s the main thing I have against PGL type experiences as well; far too teacher/instructor led. 

Even a lot of DofE expeditions are organised to a great extent by adults, giving out kit lists, food lists etc rather than letting the kids sort it out and learning the hard way that filling a rucsac with tins rather than a change of clothes, and spending the daily budget allowance on crisps is not a good idea. 

[kpnut]

1 hour ago, Roy said:

I’ve always been an outdoor child thou I’d rather play outside than inside and now I’m working as a gardener/ garden designer so I’m always outside in nature and live every minute even though the weathers been a tad wet ! 

And I bet without those childhood times outside ‘learning by doing’ about how to keep comfortable in dire conditions, you wouldn’t be doing that for a living now. 

[Roy]

9 hours ago, kpnut said:

And I bet without those childhood times outside ‘learning by doing’ about how to keep comfortable in dire conditions, you wouldn’t be doing that for a living now. 

Yes that very true Kate. 
my mum said she always knew I’d do a job that involved me being outside. 

[NeilB]

11 hours ago, kpnut said:

spending the daily budget allowance on crisps is not a good idea. 

Spot on.  You need to save some for the alcohol !!