Mystic Horizon - Day Four

Having had about 2 hours of unrestful actual sleep due to feeling so unwell with my cold, by the time morning came at Bramerton I was all up for staying in bed and leaving the day to come and pass without me doing very much at all.  However, two things got me up and ready:

1. I wanted to explore more of the places I have not been to before on the Southern Broads - Surlingham Broad, Rockjland Broad, Langley Dyke and the River Chet to Loddon .

2. I had a Blog to film.

So it was that I took my time getting ready and after some toast and coffee I was feeling somewhat with it - truth be known I did a piece to camera but sounded and looked so awful It never made it past the edit - and so around 9:00am I left the moorings and headed towards Brundall.

Unlike the Northern Broads these rivers - in this case the Yare - despite their width and length seem so peaceful, such little actual moving traffic it was a lovely morning and after another coffee I was feeling a lot better and more perky.

Before long Surlingham Broad (Bargate) was sign posted.  You enter through a very narrow dyke, but my goodness what a delight awaits as you enter the Broad.  It is large, still and has a very tucked away feel about it as if one has entered a private waterway and lake belonging to a large country house.  This surly would make for a very special peaceful mooring be it for a few hours in the afternoon or overnight.  I could not stop and was heading out of the second entrance back to the main river.

I'm not quite sure how I feel about Brundall as a whole, in a sense it is a bit like a wider stretch of river that you get when you come into Potter Heigham, the homes are larger, posher and cost more and the boats on the moorings are large Brooms and the like - not small Freemans.  There is so much money tied up (literally) in the marinas here and yet I am pretty sure the majority of people who own such boats and moor here use them as floating entertainment places for friends and family to come to - rather than to actually take them out on the river (or to sea) what a shame.

It is as if the small community that make up Brundall 'by the river' is the Riverside Estate and is not really 'real' it exists only because the boats are there and if the boats were to go so would the community - that is at least as I feel, since the main town of Brundall is some distance back from the river and on the other side of the railways tacks.  The vistor to this stretch of water is not sure where to go should they wish to stop - Of course Alphacraft, Broom and Silverline would let you moor in their basin if they were quite and not a changeover day, but it none the less feels to me a place you just admire from the river and keep on going.


Just a quickly as the riverside homes spring up they are gone and it is open countryside again - Rockland Broad awaits.  A very shallow Broad but and one you must keep to the designated channel in, but as I entered Fleet Dyke which leads to the Broad I had no idea what would greet me.  It was as if this was a forgotten natural world - different birds were basking in  he morning sunshine on the channel makers, Swans foraged in the rich waters whose vegetation was abundant.  I had the camera rolling as I entered the Broad planning to do some narration - but I was silenced.

I just stopped the boat and came out to the aft well for a moment to take in the beauty, I was moved - it was like all this was going on - nature - and I was in the middle of it and watching it all unfold as if they did not know I was there.  I then thought why not use the boat to pan and move the camera around the landscape than me move the camera itself.  A little risky since it was low water on an already shallow Broad but I delicately engaged gear for a moment forward or reverse and had a little ballet with the boat drifting, moving so gracefully and smoothly.
I had to guess what the camera's field of view would be since it was outside the boat on a suction mount but the video that I captured was amazingly beautiful and the music I had heard only the previous night while listening to Classic FM - I knew it would match it perfectly and it did, I hope you will enjoy the scene too and be moved by its visual and musical mix. 

So it was time to leave beautiful Rockland Broad and head down Short Dyke back to the main river.  It was from here on the damn Wasps began to come one and the other and once in the Cockpit despite the roof, windows and doors being open - would they go? Not on your nelly - so out with the fly killer (sorry nature and all but I don't want to be stung thank you very much) and so they were building up a couple on the dash, 1 on the floor...Time to look out for Langley Dyke.

I have heard many good things of this place, and I was not sure if I had actually found it - but in fact I had a narrow dyke lined with moored boats, all small mostly sailing but the odd motorboat too but no sooner had I turned in than two sailing boats tethered to each other side by side were coming down the dyke - one was under power. Of all the times to meet them it had to be here!  But I was waved forward and the distance between them, me and the moored boats certainly got the contraction levels up - phew we passed each other without incident and I carried on up to the small staithe at the top of the dyke where you find some tranquil 24 hour free Broads Authority moorings.

The Yare is not always so placid and I can well imagine how these moorings can be a real restful quiet place off the main river with all its current and chop on the hull.  Once more though it was a flying visit and soon I was turned and heading back to the main river our nest destination being Loddon via the River Chet.

Now let me tell you, if you think the River Ant is narrow and twisty, you've not seen anything!  The River Chet is a very narrow, very twisting river and it is indeed very pretty, but contrary to many people's views I did not find it as restful and beautiful as the River Ant (my favourite river) maybe it was the brown peat tinged waters, the reed lined banks in the main or the fact that it just was twist and curve after twist and curve making me paranoid as to what would happen if I met a boat coming the other way.  I met two, fortunately at locations where I could pass with ease.

Upon arriving at the Chedgrove moorings, I knew it was a matter of a couple of bends and Loddon would soon be upon me and what a truly wonderful place this is .  The moorings were busy in the basin but not full and I slowly came in to moor between two boats and after a quick tidy up was off the boat to head into the village and get some bits and bobs and get something to eat from Rosie Lee's tearooms.  It was only as I walked back from where the public toilets are a long time follower of my Blogs and his family were moored and called me over.  Because of what I do despite cruising the rivers alone much of the time I am seemingly never far from meeting new people having a chat and putting faces to names.  

I then popped into Rosie Lee's Tea Rooms.  I have read a lot of reviews about this small café and when I arrived it was full of people so I went along to the shop down the way for a few bits and came back as much of the party of Aussies were leaving - they could of been Kiwis' actually I am not very good with accent placement.  Once inside an old lady sat finishing her lunch, hello she said visiting on a boat?  Well then I was as if a local sat chatting while my sausages were being cooked (what a change to ones just kept warm)  and taking in the soul of the place.  It is special and popular with the locals as with visitors and I recommend you visit if you want good old fashion cooking and a warm welcome.

Back to the boat and back off down the Chet - still paranoid about where I may meet another boat and still trying to figure out why the river did not give me the same emotive feelings as other waterways. I thought of going somewhere else other than Reedham, but decided against that and so it was not a long trip from the mouth of the Chet to Reedham.  Upon arriving the Broads Authority ranger who is stationed here helped correct my mistaken attempt at my newly learnt quick way to tie a clove hitch knot - perhaps I will stick to the slightly longer way of doing them in future - once the boat was secure I took my rubbish to the bins and had a wander around up to the chip shop - never open when I am here - then a look at the Ship - very nice looking it was too, but I could not justify the prices for the food tonight.  I'll save my money until I get to Acle and go into the Bridge Inn there. 

When I came back to the boat I pondered the idea of having a fee to moor here over night and personally thought that if they do decide to charge such as long as under a fiver I would be happy to pay - you have a sort of reassurance of the Ranger being there to offer advice about when the cross Breydon  to telling you where you can take your rubbish.  There is water and electric here too and very quite it is - other than when the trains go over the bridge, but I like that noise .

Finally, it was not too late - 8:30pm - 9:00pm I am not sure but I had a shower and could not for the life of me work out why the door kept opening, and why I did not feel I was quite - well - level anymore.  Sure I had a couple of beers with my dinner but I was not squify so what the hell was going on.  After some time I walked into the rear well and as I opened the door it too swung straight back in my face.  Right something is up with the boat it is on the lean - it did not take too much more time to dawn on me what had happened.  I was 'hung up' on the quay heading.

Now in my defence this was caused by two things. 1. The Ranger asked me to move the boat back when I had arrived and tie my stern line to a large green post and my other one to the rung of the ladder - this meant that my stern had been kept too close to the quay. and the quay at this point was concrete topped and sided not concrete and timber sided  - 2. the design of this boat means there is a slight 'overhang' with the top of the rubbing strake at the stern compared to the bow.  It mattered not so much what, or how it happened it had happened and it was terrible news because I had to leave on the low tide in morning and the river still had some way to fall.  

Well this is one of the good things of being a 'big strong boy' as my mother tells me, and having a lighter smaller boat for while it took a lot effort I pushed the boat off the quay and with a splash the stern was now in t e water and the boat was level.  I then readjusted all my lines, set my fenders including taking one from starboard side to prevent the rubbing strake being able to touch (and be hung by) the quay - see the photo - and all was well and I could sleep easy.  Over all a wonderful day in which I had seen so many new things and really had enjoyed the time exploring.