New to the forum but not to the Broads!

emmrecs · August 17, 2015

Hi to all. Newbie forum member here (living in Lincolnshire) but not new to the Broads, having taken my first boating holiday on this wonderful waterway in 1972!

That first time I was with my parents, hiring from F B Wilds at Horning. A couple of years later, together with my wife (who had never boated before) we took both sets of parents on a boat hired from Alan Johnson at Acle Bridge (as a thank you for all their help and support whilst we were at university and college). What I didn't know before we went was that neither my wife nor her parents were particularly keen on a boating holiday and if we had had to cancel for any reason, they would not have been upset! However, by the middle of the week they were all asking when can we come on a boat again? I think that illustrates perfectly the allure of this wonderful area!

Since that time (1975) we have taken a number of holidays on a variety of hire boats with a mixture of "crew", ranging from our parents, to friends, to our two daughters (and, later, their husbands and children). Indeed, this coming Friday, August 21, we are once again returning, this time to Horizon Craft, Acle, and Dawn Horizon 2, with our elder daughter, her husband and three grandchildren aged 11 to 19. (We have previously hired Dawn Horizon 4 but on that occasion the party included our younger daughter, her husband and young baby, in addition to those of us there later this week, so the boat was pretty "full"! This time there should be a little more space!)

We've also cruised the Thames, some parts of the Canals, the Cambridgeshire Waterways and the Caledonian Canal. As you may gather, boating is one of the whole family's most favourite holiday types!

Jeff