Brinks Belmore | The Big Tour - Day 5 (Part 1)


It began early, before 6:00am when I got up to move the boat from the Yacht Station up to Oulton Dyke - the reason mainly as since the office was closed on arrival the evening before, I wanted to 'escape' before anyone opened up for the day and charged me for my evenings mooring.  The bonus was a lovely still morning over the Broad as I set sail - thinking I was capturing this all on camera, I found when I brought it back in from the roof it had captured about 3 minutes and died - I really should charge things the evening before!

I arrived at Oulton Dyke and decided to opt for the pontoon mooring and came in nice and quiet to avoid disturbing those moored along the bank and clearly still in their berths sleeping. Tied up it was time to get back in my own berth and do something rather rare - have a lay in - which I felt ok with since the long journey I had undertaken the day before from Wroxham without stopping.

Now close on 11:00am I was refreshed and ready for a new day - but where to go?  I had no idea in fact I had not checked what the tides were doing, and instead just untied and headed down the Waveney deciding to work out a destination on the hoof. When I reached the fork that takes you down to the Waveney River Centre and further on to Beccles, I carried on - so it ruled those places out and instead would head for Reedham on the Yare, via the New Cut.

It was approaching the New Cut I thought of what I might like to eat later for dinner - and soon found I liked the idea of a pub meal cooked for me than making  do with bits left on the boat before I could stock back up but that left the question what pub? There could only be one choice for me - good food, Ale and atmosphere the Ferry House at Surlingham.

This of course is well on the way to Norwich and I was just on the New Cut heading towards Reedham by now it was afternoon and I did not really know how long this cruise may end up taking, not to mention I had it on my mind that tomorrow I would be leaving the southern rivers and heading back north.  I checked the tide times and found it very favourable, late afternoon so Surlingham would be ideal and without any need for a super early start. 

The day was just glorious, blue skies with beautiful white puffy clouds not much in the way of wind and a temperature that just kept getting higher.  Even the usually mundane straight New Cut was pleasant and turning left at the end and passing under Reedham Railway Bridge made me wonder if I should stop at Reedham - the quayside almost devoid of other boats and looking very welcoming - but no, I would carry on and enjoy the cursing while the weather was good - by now the sunroof was open and I planned to take in some other sights along the way - Rockland Broad for one and Bargate when we arrived in Brundall too - but that is still to come in part two of day five's adventure.

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