Category: barging

Day 1

Engine purring, Cat in (not purring!), gloves ready, radio headset on, stern camera on, Navionics on, log book out… we are ready for a new adventure!

This time taking Hoogtij out, we have a pretty and delicate looking Norfolk Broads cruiser behind us. This means we can’t spin Hoogtij out from the stern as she would crash into it, and we don’t want that! So, we prepared to turn the old girl on the bow using the incoming tide to gently float her around once we released the stern lines. This time, we feel more confident, I didn’t spend the night awake dreaming up every bad thing that could happen. The turn worked perfectly and with the final line released we are facing the right way to go up the river once more! I was literally doing star jumps with joy and waved frantically at all the neighbours watching us pass. What a thrill, some people dive, some climb, some fly, us, we’re excited taking our 1936 ship out on the Norfolk Broads exploring!

It is mid September and a beautiful sunny week ahead that we have chosen for an autumn adventure. The sun is shining on the water as we cruise through familiar territory towards Breydon water and the Yare. We stop at Berney Arms mill for lunch on deck. It is peaceful, you can see for miles around, the horizon punctuated by old water mills. Feeling relaxed, we set off once more past Reedham and under the bridge with a foot to spare. This twangs the radio ariel but we’re getting used to that. Our first night is spent at Reedham Ferry inn as before, but on this trip we shall go beyond the ferry into rivers unknown! Nobody else is on the mooring, so we have it all to ourselves until a small yacht joins us and two men appear intent on finding a pub open, as the Ferry Inn wasn’t.

Day 2

The next morning we looked out to find a thick mist rising from the water before the sun rose. We had decided to inflate our kayak to go and explore the River Chet, a very narrow river just beyond Reedham leading to Loddon. There was a surprising amount of hire craft heading that way, but Loddon is very popular. It was calm and picturesque all the way into Loddon. We turned the kayak around, hmm not enough time to get out and enjoy a pint or lunch, we were on a schedule with the tide! We were moving on with Hoogtij for the next leg of the journey. We rowed back, tired and aching, around high water to discover that the mooring was completely flooded! We hoisted the kayak over the mooring to float on the other side! After getting that packed away, it was time to get the engine going again!

The chain ferry was ahead of us, you had to choose your moment carefully to get across whilst it was docked on either side. People were kayaking past us slowly, so we had to wait for the right moment to untie all the ropes… then we were off, going further than we had been before! We were hoping to stop at the Belchamp Arms, a pub in the middle of nowhere before reaching Brundall. We wanted to meet up with the owner of an old steel tug there. Passed by the monstrous and infamous Cantley sugar factory ever puffing white smoke into the sky. The Belchamp Arms wasn’t meant to be, the moorings were all full up and oddly shaped so not ideal. Onward we go! The next possible mooring was Coldham hall but that was full also, We went through Brundall with all it’s many boatyards and marinas, not our scene but interesting. Where were we going to stop? Starting to feel tired and the afternoon moving on we finally rounded a tree lined curve in the river to see Postwick mooring on the right with a small space on the end. On the left was the Ferry House pub with a big mooring out front free. Captain Phil, said it was my call, port or starboard? The big pub space was tempting but I didn’t fancy all the gongozling as people sat staring from a few feet away, pint in hand saying “ooo she shouldn’t have done that!” and also there seemed to be a reserved sign out (which reading later was out of date). The space to starboard on Postwick looked wild and natural, ideal for Zee, but oh so small on the end! I chose this one! So Phil snuck our big lady in behind a cruiser with her bum sticking out but hey ho, it would do!

To celebrate, Phil rang the pub and booked a table for dinner. We got the kayak back out and when the time came, rowed across to the pub! The sun shone and we admired Hoogtij from a distance. We got chatting to a few other drinkers also in kayaks, to hear how impressed they were with my rope throwing, blush. We had been gongozled! We also met the couple from the cruiser in front who had kayaked across too. Dinner was simple pub fare, from a pub that clearly hadn’t changed for 50 years. We asked the man serving about the ferry that the pub was named after. He took a seat and explained that there were two stories depending on who you believed… It was a warm and friendly place, we would definitely come back again. Along with our neighbours for the night we all got into our kayaks after a jovial evening imbibing Old Rosie cider to row into the darkness aiming for our boats and avoiding some late night fisherman who had turned up.

Day 3

Early the next morning Zeeshan insisted on going for a walk, so off we went, cat on lead and sleepy woman in dressing gown down the towpath. There was mist on the water and as it lifted, colour filled the sky, to make a stunning scene.

It was such a lovely setting and we didn’t fancy another round of “find the mooring!” we decided to bend the rules and stay longer than our allotted 24 hours there. This pleased zeeshan as he’d found good hunting grounds in the long grass to the side and chalked up two voles and a shrew to his list of unfortunate norfolk rodents! That morning we cycled into Brundall on a mission to find coals for a BBQ later and set off once more in the kayak to explore Surlingham Broad.

Hoogtij has too deep a draft to enter the actual broads which come off the rivers. These are all shallow wide expanses surrounded by trees, hidden water oasis’s where boats that can, mud weight overnight or just go to fish. On the Broad, we stopped to watch Grebes and take in the beauty of the place. On returning through the channel back to the main river, we noticed a very narrow entrance, made for a kayak that led into the unknown. We had to go and explore! Trees and branches overhanging the water made a tight tunnel to get through, quite a challenge to navigate with a long kayak and 2 pairs of oars.

The water way took us through winding untouched wilderness and where it opened out a little we came upon a couple in a rowing boat. We all paused to chat, we learnt of their history in coming to Norfolk and how they loved this truly hidden wild place, the unspoilt nature and wildlife. Having gone as far as we could, it was time to retrace our watery path and get back to Hoogtij. The sun was high in the sky, surrounded by clear blue. Time for a BBQ on deck. It felt so relaxing to pause for this extra day and take in our new surroundings. That was until zeeshan our ships cat decided to go for a swim after trying to walk backwards along our rubbing strake! he spent the rest of the day drying out inside…..

Day 4

The next morning it was time to get on and get moving again! We left at 8.50am, the wind was holding us in slightly to the mooring so we discovered a new trick, the manual bowthruster! Phil used his legs to push the old girl out at the bow. Worked a treat! Our mooring neighbours had recommended we head for Brammerton Common where the river was still wide and the moorings generous. It was gorgeous scenery as we came upon the common itself around a bend.

The moorings run the length of an open grassy common bordered by a high wall of bracken and trees. Fortunately a large space was waiting for us past a little cruiser. Every time you see a mooring from a distance, you think it’s too small until you’re into it and realise you could have moored double your length in it! Phil tried a ferry glide in but there was almost no tide on this part of the river so it was a very slow process. Off we jumped for a walk about.

We weren’t going to stay long as we wanted to start the return journey and spend the night elsewhere on route. A lovely place, we promised ourselves a longer visit next time. Engine back on, we attempted to turn on a stern spring, but the wind was against the bow and she refused to turn, so we went ahead and planned a turn further up river. Just passed the pub there we found a wide space on a bend to turn. Hoogtij pirouetted gracefully around, we warned a couple of oncoming cruisers with a few beeps of our horn.

Phil wanted to try stopping at Cantley where a rustic pub the Reedcutter’s Arms was known to serve a menu of real ciders (a rarity). We were too late setting off, it was 12.30 when we arrived at Cantley, way past optimum mooring time for a big boat like Hoogtij. It was completely full, a group of yachts and crusiers filled the space. Onward we went at an extra slow pace to allow lunching boats further on to get moving again and make way for us. On our right we came upon Hardley Cross and a quiet new mooring just before the entrance to the Chet. There was a gap between boats, could we squeeze in? I stood on the bow and as we neared, a man from a Dutch Cruiser Bacchus that was moored there, shouted that he would move up for us, making more room. What a gent! A broads cruiser at the other end of the space was also making ready to leave, so we felt even more relief especially as the wind was blowing up with gusts of 17mph making the approach more difficult. We made it, tied up, Zee jumped out of the door and we all surveyed this new place.

It was a lovely spot, all you could hear were the reeds rustling in the wind. From the path above the mooring, the scene was of quiet fields, you could see for miles right back to Cantley and Loddon in the distance. The stone Hardley Cross is the marker for the boundary between Norwich and Great Yarmouth and stands at the corner of this river and the Chet. We met a couple of happy London brothers in a hire craft fishing with excitement. Theirs was the only boat to share the mooring for the night. As the sun set, we walked Zee on the path, or he walked us, demonstrating how to hunt. We saw so many deer on the fields, we lost count of them. It was a very exposed place but quiet and wild with reeds and open sky.

Day 5

Just as we prepared to leave on our last day of cruising, about to untie the ropes, we heard the distinct sound of a bow thruster at our rear. There was Hewland, the only other barge craft we had seen also cruising these rivers. We had been curious to know more about this barge and its owner and there he was squeezing into the tightest spot imaginable with only a foot to spare at either end! A small cruiser behind seemed to get scared and left quickly as this huge vessel edged its way nearer. Jon the skipper clearly knew what he was doing, however he did admit that he hadn’t realised how small a space it was he was getting into! A single hander, we watched in awe at his technique and with a single rope to hold it. He had also been curious about us, that’s why he stopped – to say hello. An experienced traveller, Hewland had been all over the U.K, continuous cruising, and now exploring the Norfolk Broads! Our one fellow big boat exploring the rivers. After sharing barge curiosities, we finally set off again.

It looked to be tight under Reedham bridge with the tide as it was. It was going to be an air draft of 3.25m and we needed at least 3m. Phil got me to remove the chimney hat, just in case. In the event the bridge was open anyway! Once through Reedham, we needed to stop for lunch to wait for the tide to change in our favour, going out, so that we could easily moor back at our St Olaves base. We stopped at Polkey mill. Nobody else was there so we glided in as we pleased. We had lunch on deck, and it was so nice Phil started sunbathing, while Zee bounced about in the long grass after grasshoppers. It was very quiet on the river, hardly any hire boats in these remote parts of the river bordered with fields and overlooked by old mills.

The final stretch of our journey beckoned in the afternoon. We left the Yare and turned sharply at Breydon water into our familiar Waverney. We begin to feel we know these rivers and their characters for navigating. We know Hoogtij better too, and how different she acts on these rivers. The final trepidation in our stomachs was to make the perfect mooring manoeuvre tightly in front of the pretty wooden Broads cruiser we were sharing the pontoon with when we left. Every destination seems to hide around a corner of the ever bending Waverney, so it is with St Olaves. We waited with slight tension as Hoogtij eased her way around the final bend in the river to reveal our pontoon waiting. The tide was not running out yet as we had hoped, so would there be enough power in the tide to stop Hoogtij? As we looked beyond a yacht that blocked a clear view of our base, I jumped up and down with glee!

There was nothing on our pontoon! No delicate wooden cruiser to avoid! A lucky escape this time….Seeing us approaching, two of our neighbourly boatyard workers came to take ropes if we needed them to. A gesture I welcomed as a novice… but now, I was more like ‘Don’t mess with my ropes, I know exactly what I’m doing !’ Just in my head of course.