Back to boating on the Broads TRIP REPORT COMPLETED 6/5 - Page 8 - PassPorter - A Community of Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and General Travel Forums
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Saturday 2 May – part seven: are we going to find mooring here?
We carried on along the river, and soon we were approaching this massive sugar factory – not what you expect to see alongside a river on the Broads!
When we got to this windmill, we saw the family of four adults, the baby and the three dogs who’d set off maybe 20 minutes before us. They’d already moored up, so they hadn’t got far before stopping.
We then saw this beautiful heron…
… and saw some more very tranquil scenery, where again we felt as if we were the only ones out on the Broads today.
We found the turning for Lodden and Chedgrove, which is where we’d decided to head to for our mooring for the night, as hopefully that would be quiet, and it wouldn’t be too far to go on day one, so we turned up here…
… and my goodness, suddenly the river became a lot more narrow. Thank goodness we only met a sailing boat along here, as passing would’ve been quite a lot of fun. As Mark said, once you start up here, there’s no turning round, and he wasn’t joking!
We came across another couple of herons along the way…
I got what I (very unmodestly ) say is one of my best shots ever, as trust me, I just pointed and clicked, not expecting to get anything in focus, but look what I got!
We passed by the Hardley Flood, where we could see water coming from there into our river, which was a bit weird.
It was very picturesque along here, and although it looks like we were the only ones here, we had two boats behind us. At this point, we were both very glad that we were at the front, as we suspected it would be a dash to get moorings when we got to our destination of Loddon, and bearing in mind that was at the end of the navigable water, if we couldn’t get something there, we’d be heading back out and facing a long walk to dinner tonight.
Finally, we were coming into Loddon, and worryingly, I didn’t see many moorings. A lot were available, but they were all private.
Eventually, I spotted free moorings, and thank goodness there were about three places left, literally right before the end of the navigable waters. Now just to get in there, and it would be no mean feat, as you had to go in back end (forgive the lack of nautical terms, I am so not a nautical person! ).
Mark started to position the boat up, and I kept trying to yell instructions to him, which generally consisted of “you’re going to hit that boat, turn right/left etc.” He was originally going for the wider berth that would take two berths, but he got a bit off course and ended up heading for the berth where you could only fit one boat.
I was out at the back, desperately trying to get a rope to the Dutch/German who were moored next to us (I wasn’t convinced they were German, which is why I say Dutch/German, as some of the words sounded German to me, but then others didn’t ). Eventually, I managed it and he told me to get Mark to cut the engine, which I told him to do about half a dozen times. I even walked right up to him and yelled at him to do it, and still he didn’t. Apparently he couldn’t hear me. Let’s just say it was a very tense time. We got it moored in the end, but there is no way we could’ve done without the help of those either side of us.
We immediately got off the boat to head to the nearby store, which was about a two minute walk, as I needed milk for breakfast tomorrow and for our tea.
Having left last night, there was no way we could bring anything with us that needed to be in a fridge. That done, we wandered back, and had some down time on the boat, just chilling after our stressful mooring experience.
Great job, Mark, navigating into that berth!
And I agree, Cheryl, the picture of the heron taking off is incredible!! You should submit it to a photography contest somewhere.
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That heron in flight photo is fantastic! What luck to just point and shoot and that's what you got!
I'm all stressed out about your mooring - I can very much picture the chaos! Whew, thank goodness you guys managed OK, but wow!
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Great job, Mark, navigating into that berth!
And I agree, Cheryl, the picture of the heron taking off is incredible!! You should submit it to a photography contest somewhere.
Thank you - I'll keep that in mind. It's something I've never thought of doing before.
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That heron in flight photo is fantastic! What luck to just point and shoot and that's what you got!
That's why I never ever think of entering any of my photos in a contest, as I just point and shoot. I never have time to compose things, it is just pure luck if I get a decent shot.
Quote:
I'm all stressed out about your mooring - I can very much picture the chaos! Whew, thank goodness you guys managed OK, but wow!
That bit of a boating holiday certainly isn't relaxing...
Saturday 2 May – part eight: the noisy neighbours!
We headed out not much before 6:00pm, and wandered from Loddon into Chedgrave. From what I could fathom out, one is one side of the road bridge and the other is on the other side, but essentially they all run into each other.
We soon found the White Horse Chedgrave, which is where I was hoping to eat, as it had some great reviews on TripAdvisor. Thankfully when we walked in, it wasn’t busy…
We got a Diet Coke each at the bar, then headed into the restaurant, and we were the first to be seated:
I have to say the menu had a lot of choice on it, and trying to decide what to go for was tough for me, which I always think is a good sign, given that I don’t eat meat. I didn’t have an issue with what to start off with though, as the crab and cheddar tart with a salad garnish immediately sprang off the page of the menu. I’d never come across those two flavours put together like that before and was intrigued to see what it would be like. The answer was it was superb, although the salad garnish had a dressing, which was quite strong, and didn’t go with the tart. Had the tart been presented just on its own, it would’ve scored a lot higher than its eventual score, as we’d be talking almost full marks.
Mark opted for the pulled pork slider with coleslaw…
After much debate on my main, I finally went for the arctic char with asparagus and new potatoes and butter sauce, and this was divine, and not too filling at all.
Other choices I was highly tempted by included the Mediterranean couscous with pine nuts and sultanas and the whole grilled lobster with thermidor butter, served with straw potatoes and salad. Our server told us there was so much fish on tonight’s menu as, terrible as this sounds, it was left over from last night, when they had a fresh fish Friday, but then again, at least they’re using up their stocks and you know it was all fresh yesterday.
Mark had the chargrilled sirloin steak with home cut skin-on chips, roasted cherry tomatoes and mushrooms with a watercress salad.
I have to say, looking at it, it seemed like a heck of a lot of food for a main course. I was pretty much right, as Mark said he was stuffed, and didn’t manage to finish off all of it. However, I was just feeling like a dessert would finish off the meal perfectly, as my entrée had been very light, and I ended up getting the chocolate and orange brownie with clotted cream. I must admit I had to do a double take, as I couldn’t believe it was clotted cream. At first I honestly thought they’d run out and given me ice cream, but it was actually clotted cream.
I felt just comfortably full at the end of the meal, which came to £52 ($78). To be honest, that’s about what I’d expect to pay for dinner out for the two of us these days over here, so it wasn’t expensive.
The service had been very good, although I must confess I did get a bit sick of being asked if we wanted anything else, as it must’ve been said about six or seven times during the meal. While I’m sure they were trying to be helpful, in the end, I kept feeling bad every time I said …
White Horse Chedgrave
Appetiser 8½ 8½
Entrée 9½ 9
Dessert 9 N/A
Service 8½ 9
Atmosphere 9 9
Value for money 8½ 9
Average score: 8.87
We made our way back to the boat, and the wind was whipping up a little now, making it pretty cold as we headed back. Despite that, of course I just had to stop for a few photos on the way…
We felt like the noisy neighbours when we got on board, as everyone else had extension leads to run their power from the bank, but we didn’t, so we had no option but to start up the engine, so that we could get the heating going, as it wasn’t exactly warm on board.
We did try and sort out the TV antenna, so we could watch a bit of TV, but there was just nothing doing at all. Oh well, everything we want to watch is recording back home, and a night with no TV isn’t exactly the end of the world.
I have to say that the boat took a long time to warm up, and I mean a long time. We must have put the heating on as soon as we got back at around 7:30pm, and it was only about 45 minutes later that it started to warm up. By then, I was so cold that I suggested we put the stove on to make a cup of tea, as bearing in mind it’s a gas stove, I knew that would warm the place up. It certainly did, and I guess that might be the plan of action first thing tomorrow then, knowing how long it takes the warm air heating to take full effect…
Eventually, we got a complaint from the Dutch/German boat next door about us having our engine going as it was putting fumes into theirs (fair enough) and it was noisy. Now as to the latter point, when we turned the engine off, we could clearly hear them in their boat, having a very nice time, which is fine, but don’t tell someone else off for making a noise.
We went to bed not much after 9:00pm, as we were tired, but it was also getting cold again, and the prospect of snuggling up under two duvets (ours and the one provided with the boat) was the only way I knew I would be able to get warm again.
The weather today was dry and mainly cloudy with temperatures in the low 50s. The best thing today was all the wonderful wildlife sightings along the way. The worst thing today was our disastrous mooring at Loddon. Today we tried cruising on the southern Broads And the result was it’s not as picturesque as the northern Broads, but it is a lot quieter. The most magical moment today was seeing the cows right by the riverside.
Dinner looked wonderful. Great find! Bummer about the cold weather though. I hear ya - I hate being cold! (yet I live in Wisconsin.) Hope you were able to stay warm enough through the night.
__________________
Tanya
Every click helps feed .6 bowls of food to rescued animals. Give a quick click every day and help animals in shelters! www.theanimalrescuesite.com
Dinner looked wonderful. Great find! Bummer about the cold weather though. I hear ya - I hate being cold! (yet I live in Wisconsin.) Hope you were able to stay warm enough through the night.
The second you said "I hate being cold" my next thought was "but you live in Wisconsin?"
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) say is one of my best shots ever, as trust me, I just pointed and clicked, not expecting to get anything in focus, but look what I got! 
). Eventually, I managed it and he told me to get Mark to cut the engine, which I told him to do about half a dozen times. I even walked right up to him and yelled at him to do it, and still he didn’t. Apparently he couldn’t hear me. 
Let’s just say it was a very tense time. We got it moored in the end, but there is no way we could’ve done without the help of those either side of us. 
Sorry it was so cold on the boat! 
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