Potter Heigham to Horsey

We had an alarm set this morning just in case we overslept and missed the low tide but I needn't have worried because I was awake and up by 7.15am which was in plenty of time. Mike went to see the Pilot at 8am and he said everything was fine, we should prepare the boat and he'd take us through the bridge. So the canopy, the flag pole and the windscreen were all lowered, the Pilot came aboard and we held our breath as he took command. Pilots don't hang about! Full throttle and straight through!




He moored us up on the far side as we still hadn't breakfasted and then he took another boat through downriver ...

This was a very similar boat to ours so it was good to watch and see just how much spare room there was - not a lot!

While we sat and ate a yacht was brought through and there wasn't a lot of room for that either ...

It's always entertaining at Potter bridge! After breks we lowered the flags and windscreen again as we still had another bridge to negotiate but this was the road bridge - still called the railway bridge by locals. Many years ago there was a station at Potter Heigham but when the line was shut the railway bridge became a road bridge and this eased the pressure of traffic on the lovely old bridge.

After a brief stop to sort out the boat again we motored on up the River Thurne towards Martham Ferry passing more chalets ...

and finally reaching the ferry where there was evidence of fresh building work ...



We then approached Martham Broad which we hadn't seen since the early 1970's ...



It was quite damp by this time and so we turned around after passing a couple of yachts ...

and moored up for coffee with some sheep for company ...

Retracing our route back downriver we reached Candle Dyke and after passing the Eel Sett ...

we passed a flock of geese on Duck Broad ...

We then turned up Meadow Dyke and made for Horsey Mere where we motored over to see the moorings by the mill ...

and then moored up just outside the Mere ...

We love this spot as the sky turns fantastic colours in the evening ...




and flocks of geese pass over on their way to settle on the water for the night ...