Broads Bug Bites

Tractorted · June 16, 2022

In response to YnysMon's request ,

Our first trip to the Broads stated with a choice of holiday put to us kids by our parents - the Broads or Butlins, myself and my eldest brother decided on the spot if the outcome was Butlins we would be staying at home ( we were 16 & 17), we had no idea what the broads were but they had to be better than Butlins, apologies to all those that love Butlins. The summer of 1980 saw us make the long trip from Scotland to the broads (parents, two brothers & me), starting out about 3am, made even longer by massive roadworks somewhere possibly about Newark- new road building with excessively long queues and static for long periods of time - long enough for people to get out their picnic tables and chairs on the side of the road- we just sat on the muck heaps in the sweltering sun till the traffic moved , made Norwich for lunchtime with look at the mustard shop , arrived at Richardsons in time to pick up the boat at 4pm along with the groceries that had been ordered, Don't think the smell of the boatyard on arrival has changed much over the years. Tideway 5 was our boat for the next two weeks, navy and grey in colour same design as San Paulo but without the metal grate over the single cabin window, hand over & trial run completed we headed off, Jarrolds book open at the correct page, think that was the name of it- following every twist of the river, with advise from the boatyard we headed for the pub at Wayford bridge, across Barton , up past the mill & cottage, and through the bridge- wild moored to the bank & scrambled off for chicken in a basket, always remember the pub looked something from out of the wild west with a wooden built veranda facing the water, a horse tied to the railing wouldn't have been a surprise, memory thinks it was an all wood structure- not sure how reliable that is. It wasn't a big boat for 5 but my two brothers had the forward cabin with the escape hatch in the roof, me the single cabin and my parents the kitchen table conversion. We covered a lot of the broads up to Coltishall where we watched sandmartins fly in & out holes in the river bank, saw a coypu but didn't identify what it was for another couple of years & I suffered sunstroke, not a good idea to get your haircut short for a holiday on water, through Potter Heigham bridge to Hickling so that my fishing mad brother could try and catch a pike- never succeeded but a highlight of the afternoon was when a Perch caught to use as bait jumped out of the basin they were in & jumped back into the broad, the basin was then quickly moved from the top of the aft well to the floor to thwart any further attempts at perch escape, we visited Beccles, Geldestone, met a coaster between Reedham & Cantley, moored at Marina Keys, Yarmouth, hired canoes at womack for the day and paddled around up the tree covered river at the top end and down to see the black hull of the wherry, fed an insane amounts of bread to the ducks etc, mum had to be quick securing the bread needed for meals or the ducks had it- this was in addition to the bread that was bought daily especially for the ducks- this habit has remained although it's now seed and not bread. The broads bug was well and truly caught. At the end of the holiday we had breakfast in Richardsons cafe looking out at all the boats and feeling flat that it had all ended & we now had a long trek back to Fife. I returned a few years later.