Back to boating on the Broads TRIP REPORT COMPLETED 6/5 - Page 21 - PassPorter - A Community of Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and General Travel Forums
As of January 1, 2019, we have closed our forums. This is a decision we did not come to lightly, but it is necessary. The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk. The server software itself must be updated, and it cannot be without removing the forums.
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There are other changes as well.
Why? Well, the world has changed. And change with it, we must. The lyrics to "We Go On" for IllumiNations say it best:
We go on to the joy and through the tears
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Moving on with the current of the years.
We go on
Moving forward now as one
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Ever on with each rising sun.
To a new day, we go on.
It's time to move on and move forward.
PassPorter is a small business, and for many years it supported our family. But the world changed, print books took a backseat to the Internet, and for a long time now it has been unable to make ends meet. We've had to find new ways to support our family, which means new careers and less and less time available to devote to our first baby, PassPorter.
But eventually, we must move on and move forward. It is the right thing to do.
So we are retiring this newsletter, as we simply cannot keep up with it. Many thanks to Mouse Fan Travel who supported it all these years, to All Ears and MousePlanet who helped us with news, to our many article contributors, and -- most importantly -- to Sara Varney who edited our newsletter so wonderfully for years and years.
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They do look very cuddly, but I'm not sure they'd be up for a cuddle if you could get close enough to them...
There was a story on the news about a week ago about a farmer in New Hampshire who was killed by his Highland bull! Nobody was watching to know if the man startled the bull or what, but he'd always been a calm animal until that day.
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There was a story on the news about a week ago about a farmer in New Hampshire who was killed by his Highland bull! Nobody was watching to know if the man startled the bull or what, but he'd always been a calm animal until that day.
Ok, I'm going to post this, but I'm not seeing any of the photos appearing - they're all coming up as crosses to me, so I don't know if they're there or not. I think it's an issue with Photobucket. If they're not appearing, I'll have to try and fix it later...
Tuesday 5 May – part one: what is that pounding noise?
I think it’s fair to say that neither of us had a good night’s sleep. Just as we were heading to bed, I noticed that it had started to rain outside. I didn’t think much of it at the time, and we went to sleep fine. However, a couple of hours later (at least I’m guessing that’s how much later it was), we were awoken to the sound of a snare drum, as the rain beat down continuously on the roof of the boat, as the light rain turned into a downpour. Honestly, I’ve never heard anything like it in my life before. The sound was just deafening.
Add to that, the bilge pump decided it needed to empty out at least three or four times during the night, no doubt due to the amount of rain we were receiving, and every time it did, we knew all about it, as it made a heck of a noise, and it’s helpfully located right underneath our bed. Ugh!
Fortunately, when we awoke just after 6:30am, it did at least seem dry out there, although it wasn’t long before it started to rain again. At least this time we weren’t trying to sleep, as again you could hear it pounding down outside. This was not a good start to the day.
We got up, and started packing, which fortunately wasn’t a huge job, given we’d only been away three nights, and we’d have the car waiting for us when we got back to our boat yard. It’s so nice to not have to worry about where your liquids go, how much your suitcase weighs etc. I’d like to say we were going back with less food and drink, but I think it was only marginally less, given the fact that we’d had to buy some supplies the first day in Loddon….
Mark went to make the tea, then announced that he thought the milk was off. Now, trust me, in an Olympic competition for sniffing out gone off milk, I would win a gold medal. I can smell it at half a mile, and sure enough, it was gone. Ok, nothing for it then, I’ll wander into town to get a pint of milk from the local shops, which couldn’t be far, right? They’re just in the village…
Wrong, very wrong… I walked for about half a mile and found the centre of the village, but there was no sign of a shop anywhere. Dejected, I eventually gave up, and headed back to the boat empty handed for a cup of black tea, and some chocolate brownie bites in place of my planned cereal.
Once we’d finished breakfast, and had pretty much packed up everything, we still had some time to kill. While we’d been eating, the rain had once again come down. I’d really timed my walk into the village well. It was also very humid, and you could see the sun was desperately trying to break through.
Mark suggested we wander over and say hello to the Highland coos and I wasn’t going to say no to that offer.
I headed up to get rid of the rubbish, and found a map, which clearly showed where the village post office was. My goodness, I’m glad I didn’t carry on walking, as I’d only gone about halfway and that had been half a mile each way.
The cows were a lot further away, but my super zoom still just about managed to capture them.
By now, it was 8:20am, and we figured we’d start off, and once again, we had no issue with getting away from the mooring, although it was quite an easy manoeuvre, given that there was nothing to the left of us.
We passed out by the furballs…
… and this beautiful thatched cottage…
… and then we were into Rockland Broad, although as Mark said, it’s not really a broad, as there are large chunks of it you can’t actually go into. You have to keep between the markers, and that means there are two channels across the broad. We picked the right hand one, having gone through the left hand one when we came in last night.
Master of all he surveys!
Soon we were back on the main broad, and once again, it was deserted on the water, and we felt as if we had the place to ourselves.
What a bummer to be woken up by the rain. And then not get your expected breakfast! Darn it. At least the sun is really trying to help out, it seems! Plus, cows!
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What a disturbance with the rain and pump! I don't think anyone could sleep with a pump under the bed going off periodically. Looks like the day may be fair now that you have headed out.
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What a bummer to be woken up by the rain. And then not get your expected breakfast! Darn it. At least the sun is really trying to help out, it seems! Plus, cows!
Tuesday 5 May – part two: do we really want to go out in this wind?
We headed up towards Great Yarmouth, as we thought that was where we’d seen the field of cows, but we had no joy today. However, as we headed back towards Brundall, we found them! Annoyingly, the farmer turned up just as we did, and he obviously had food, or they knew it was feeding time, as they headed off after him.
Further along the river, there was another happy little family scene.
We headed towards Brundall, and saw a few more things…
… before we turned into the boatyard. At first, we kept wondering how much further we had to go, as our boatyard was a lot further back than we remembered. You have to go past all the privately owned boats, which is a bit intimidating, but Mark managed to avoid them. We then found the boatyard, and the guy who’d shown us the ropes on Saturday was on a boat, and moving it out of our way, so we could moor up, which we did with no issues.
Mark headed over to the office to hand back the boat manual, the hairdryer they’d leant us, and to get the car keys back, as we’d had to leave them in case they needed to move the car, but it was where we left it. The guy came aboard to see how much fuel we’d used while we’d been gone, and he couldn’t believe how little we’d used, given how far we’d gone. He said people usually use double that amount! Well, I don’t know how they do that, as Mark wasn’t exactly gentle, shall we say?
Mark brought the car round, and we unloaded all the stuff remaining off the boat and back into the car. We came back with a little less than we started with, so at least it all fitted in with no issue. Once we were done, we set off, but it took quite some time to get out of Brundall itself, as the railway level crossing was down, then we got stuck behind a lorry and a refuse truck, but finally we were back on the main road.
As we went over the River Yare, we realised that this was the Postwick viaduct, which we’d gone underneath on the boat yesterday. Cool to be seeing it from the other side as it were!
We had a pretty uneventful journey down to Sutton Hoo, although it was painful in places, as we ended up getting stuck behind lorries again – are you seeing a pattern here? I had to get a photo of the name of this place…
This was a bit weird as well…
Finally we were at Sutton Hoo:
We headed inside, showed our membership cards, and the first thing we did was head for the café. As I hadn’t eaten much for breakfast, I wanted some food, and it was really cold outside. As we’d berthed up with the boat earlier, the wind had been starting to get up, and my goodness, it was really gusting here, making it feel a lot colder than it was, if that makes sense?
We both ended up getting leek and potato soup, and I was very impressed with how much bread we got with it:
We also both got a scone with clotted cream and jam …
… and we also both got a luxury hot chocolate, completed with cream and marshmallows. Are you seeing a pattern here?
While we were eating, a couple of times, the door out to the burial ground was blown open by the wind, and even though one guy put a chair in front of it, that only helped for a little while, before that too was blown away.
As we sat there eating, we kept debating whether to go out to the burial ground, as not only was it exceptionally windy, but there was also a very ominous black cloud over the top of the site, which looked like it might deposit a huge amount of rain at any time. Eventually, we decided to take a chance and set off…
As we walked along, we could see views down to Woodbridge, the nearest village, which certainly looked very pretty.
We soon found some sheep…
… and in the distance, we could hear pigs squealing, although we couldn’t actually see them. As Mark said, with the wind, it was probably carrying the sound a huge distance. And my goodness, it was windy – have I mentioned that?!
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I’d like to say we were going back with less food and drink, but I think it was only marginally less, given the fact that we’d had to buy some supplies the first day in Loddon….
It was also very humid, and you could see the sun was desperately trying to break through. 
Annoyingly, the farmer turned up just as we did, and he obviously had food, or they knew it was feeding time, as they headed off after him. 
Well, I don’t know how they do that, as Mark wasn’t exactly gentle, shall we say? 
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