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Sunday 3 May – part three: there’s a boat coming the other way!
As you can see, it was pretty misty and murky outside, making it hard to get photos of the surrounding countryside. I’m sure it’s beautiful on a clear day.
We did see a duck with some ducklings….
… and a pair of swans again:
Soon we were passing Reedham itself…
… and then we were heading underneath the railway bridge just a little further along…
We then had a choice to make, either go right and head towards Breydon Water, which would eventually take you to Great Yarmouth on the coast or head for St. Olaves and Oulton Broad. Here’s which option we chose…
We were soon being overtaken by what we assumed was a local, although he didn’t exactly put his foot down to get past us, bearing in mind there was a boat coming the other way.
However, a couple of minutes later, we got even more of a shock, when this came past us…
We hadn’t even realised that there was a railway here, but it literally runs right next door to the water.
After being on our own for so long out on the water, suddenly we ran into quite a few other boats. Well, I guess this is where everyone else is then…
We were going to head to St. Olaves for lunch, but it was quite a tight turn to make, and it would take us closer to the sea, so we figured we’d go straight on, getting ourselves further away from the sea, and lessening the effects of the tide on us. We came across this, which we assumed was a former railway bridge. It was a bit surreal.
We did have fun with a small sailing boat that was being an absolute pain, as they just wouldn’t move into the side, and Mark had to go almost on to the other side of the river to overtake them. Honestly!
Not long after negotiating him, we came to what we guessed used to be a railway bridge…
Sorry about the weather, although it does seem to be clearing a little as you went on. I do love seeing the swans and windmills. It reminds me of our trip last summer.
Quite a dreary day, but you still got some nice photos! Quite a bit of traffic on a rainy day! That's quite odd with the railway being so close to the water.
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October 6, 2017-Enjoying an amazing dinner at Victoria & Albert's with PP's Dot and Drew
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Sorry about the weather, although it does seem to be clearing a little as you went on. I do love seeing the swans and windmills. It reminds me of our trip last summer.
It did improve - and you'll see a real change in the next update.
Quite a dreary day, but you still got some nice photos! Quite a bit of traffic on a rainy day! That's quite odd with the railway being so close to the water.
The houses and such in Reedham do look quite picturesque, even in the icky weather. Or maybe, the icky weather is what helps them to look more picturesque!
Very neat to find that windmill - and a train!
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The houses and such in Reedham do look quite picturesque, even in the icky weather. Or maybe, the icky weather is what helps them to look more picturesque!
Cool to see that train.
Lots more boat traffic there, to be sure! I wonder if it would be harder to navigate if you'd gone toward the sea? I would think so...
Cool to see that train.
Lots more boat traffic there, to be sure! I wonder if it would be harder to navigate if you'd gone toward the sea? I would think so...
Oh it definitely would have been and they warn you about that when you pick up your boat. There's a wide stretch of water called Breydon Water that leads to Great Yarmouth, which is right by the sea, and you can navigate it at certain times of the day, as it's tide dependent. To me, that seemed like a lot of work and Great Yarmouth wasn't somewhere I was that interested in seeing.
Sunday 3 May – part four: will we able to get in here?
We kept going, looking for moorings near a pub we’d seen on the map, and finally we found some, and this time, it was first time in for mooring alongside, which is a lot easier to do. I was even brave enough to jump off and grab hold of the rope to pull the boat in, that was until a kind guy came along to help me with it. Honestly, I cannot say enough for the help of others when you’re out boating. So many people are so much better at this lark than we are, and they always seem kind enough to help out.
Once we were moored up, I figured I’d go and have a shower, as we knew that to get the hot water going, you had to leave the engine running for an hour, so having a shower first thing in the morning was not really a straightforward endeavour. Anyway, after having insisted on this wonderful bathroom, I’d better use it.
The only problem was that the shower didn’t work, and I didn’t really want to have a bath, as I thought that might use up a lot of our 100 gallons of water, so I ended up sitting in the bath with the water running, which wasn’t ideal, and it was quite slippery in the bath, but at least it was better than trying to wash yourself in the middle of the bathroom, which was the arrangement we’d had in our last boat.
All cleaned up, we headed out to try and find the Duke’s Head, which was supposed to be about a five minute walk away. I had to get some proud photos of the wonderful mooring we’d achieved!
Further along, there was another remnant of a railway bridge…
We made our way up a path, and literally at the top of it was the Duke’s Arms, which looked nice, but very busy. It didn’t help that there was a sign outside saying that it had been fully booked for dinner last night. Ok, so it’s obviously good, but will we be able to get into it?
We headed inside, and immediately the guy asked we’d got a booking. Oh dear, this isn’t looking promising…
Fortunately, the guy found us a table, and it was right by the kitchen, so we could see the chefs at work, which I found fascinating. I’ve watched a few TV cooking programmes, where it’s all “yes chef” and that’s exactly how it was here, and as you can see, he was pretty young too..
So how was his food? Well, I think the easiest way to put it is excellent. We were very impressed that bread and butter turned up, without them asking us, or charging us. That used to be the norm in most restaurants, that they’d ensure you started off with bread, but these days, a lot of the chain restaurants charge for it. It’s a cheek, but sadly that’s the way it’s gone now.
Mark started off with a scotch egg, which was much bigger than he was expecting.
I didn’t have a starter, but when for one of the items on the special menu, the roast fillet of salmon, with sautéed potatoes, king prawns and spinach in a garlic butter sauce. I really cannot say enough good things about this dish. It was perfectly cooked, and the flavouring was just beautiful, although perhaps a touch too much salt for my liking.
Mark opted for the roast leg of Norfolk Horn lamb with Yorkie (Yorkshire pudding), beef-dripping roasties (roast potatoes), seasonal vegetables and gravy. Elsewhere on the menu, it told us that the Norfolk Horn sheep this came from actually graze behind the pub, which was definitely too close for this vegetarian!
Without the “roasties” which were served up in a separate dish…
… and with them!
For dessert, we both opted for the same thing, the sticky toffee pudding with butterscotch sauce and rum and raisin ice cream. I have to confess I wasn’t expecting it to be swimming in quite so much sauce! The rum and raisin ice cream was absolutely superb, you could really taste the rum in it.
We were both so glad that we’d walked up here, and that they’d been able to accommodate us, as the food had been superb. One of the servers told us what we’d already guessed, that this is a family run place, and they’re obviously making a really good job of it. We were also impressed that, given how busy they were, they made every effort to accommodate all the walk-ins who came after us. They were determined not to turn anyone away if they could avoid it.
The bill came to £52, the same as last night, but we’d had a glass of wine (me) and a pint of beer (Mark) between us, whereas last night had just been soft drinks, but then again, I hadn’t had an appetiser today, so I guess it’s all similar really. You see, I told you this was the average price we end up paying whenever we go out for dinner. Even this was presented in a unique way – as the guy told us, a couple of years ago, he had a flash of inspiration over what to do with all the corks he kept throwing away!
Duke’s Head
Appetiser N/A 9
Entrée 9½ 9
Dessert 9 9
Service 8½ 8½
Atmosphere 9 9
Value for money 8½ 8½
Average score: 8.87
All filled up again, we headed outside, and my goodness, what a difference in the weather now! As you can see, it had stopped raining, the skies had cleared, and the sun was even out. I’d seen on the forecast that they were talking about temperatures in the low 60s, and I was a bit sceptical, given at that time, we had heavy rain, but in fairness, they were right, as that’s about what it felt like now.
I loved this sign!
We made our way back down to the boat, with Mark commenting that we were now moving much slower. Well, I’m not surprised. Not only were we now full, but when we’d been coming up here, we were hungry, so of course we were moving faster.
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