Boating on the Broads!!!

Wheyhey!!!

Look at that bird! My missus managed to photograph one of the rarest birds in the UK, the Marsh Harrier... This was one of a pair that we spotted just south of Dilham...

And she even got a shot of one flying... They are big birds... See below for the story about getting them on camera...

This is the start of the Broads update, I'm still having trouble with getting pictures to appear in the right place on Blog entries. I don't seem able to cut and paste pictures where I want them... Anyone with ideas, leave me a comment...


Afternoon all!!!

This is the belated update of my boating trip on the Broads in Norfolk. It was fantastic! We had a whale of a time. Luckily for us the weather helped us out by being beautiful for the first few days. I managed to get a suntan in England! The piccie above is me steering the good ship 'Mermaid'. It was an 40 year old tub with a small diesel in the back.

We took our two greyhounds Izzy and Jay with us as well and we were not too sure if they would take to boating but as Jay shows here asleep on his back while motoring down one of the rivers they took to it like a greyhound to water?!!?!?

This is one of the shots I took that I was pretty impressed with. It was a large Norfolk Wherry. This is the type of ship that was used a long time ago as cargo ships on the broads. They are still around and they look stunning under sail...

As some of you might know I am originally from Holland and this view of the River Yare towards Yarmouth has a very dutch feel to it. Windmills, reeds, water, you could be on the southern rivers of Holland...

This is the stepson James at the helm. Mainly because we spend the afternoon moored up outside the Swan Pub in Horning where I drank a few too many of East Anglia's finest beer Adnams Broadside... James stayed one night with us moored at How Hill where we proceeded to lighten the load of the boat by drinking all of the beer supplies hahahahaha...

There was a suprising amount of wildlife about... We saw amongst others: Ducks, Swans, Geese, Kingfishers, Cormorants, Great Crested Grebes, Herons, all sorts... The wildlife is not really disturbed by all the boats and usually stayed put when you cruised by so I had a chance to get some decent shots... A credit has to go to my wife jackie who managed to get some shots of one of the rarest bird around in the Broads, the Marsh Harrier. We were on our way to Dilham and that route took us through some very narrow canals through marsh land and suddenly I spotted a pair of Marsh Harriers but as I was piloting the boat through the narrow canal got my wife to take some shots and she managed to get some half decent shots, which was amazing as they disappeared as quickly as the appeared...

This was a grey heron perched on top of one of the handy signposts that help you find your way around the Broads. Hey, I am no sailor, and an AA road atlas wasn't the most useful map so these signs helped a great deal hahahahaha...

This is the river coming down from Potter Heigham. It was a nice windy day so there were a lot a smaller Wherries out sailing. Kinda tricky to get around as they are under sail which means they have right of way but some of them were tacking up the river, i.e. going from bank to bank every two minutes which made me passing them in a boat that only does 6 mph sometimes a bit tricky. Needless to say, having a few pints down my neck didn't help either hahahahaha!!!

This was on the entry to Ranworth Broad. It was a cormorant drying of after a fishing expedition. Looks quite like the Bacardi logo doesn't it? Or is that just my booze addled brain???

I got a couple of nice shots of herons flying by...

This is myself piloting the boat down some river that I can't remember... Helped by my greyhound as you can see... (Yes, that is a pint of Singha beer on the dashboard...)

Most of the time this was the view that you saw the whole day, quiet rivers with the odd boat here and there... Lovely and peaceful. That was what myself and my wife found to be the best part of this holiday, the sheer relaxation of it, just pottering along at 5 mph is just very relaxing...

I got some good shots of sunsets and sunrises as well... This was a nice sunset while we were moored up at How Hill...

This was the same place but later... Lovely pastel shades and good reflections...

This was the little tub that we drove around (I know it is not 'driving' but I don't know the boating lingo...) It was very comfortable (with the exception of the beds being slighlty too short as I am 1mtr85...), it had a small kitchen, a separate bedroom, a shower room with a good warm water shower and a good working bog, always important! To sum up, a great time was had by us and we will be doing this again. Yes, it is expensive, 700 squid for a weeks boating including all the insurance and fuel, but to us it was worth it. It was the first holiday in a long time where we actually came back rested instead of knackered...

Cheerio,

A rested Alex.