Hamish had a final walk by the River Ant …
I packed the van, left it on the site and drove in the Mini to meet the boys at Potter Heigham. We’d arranged to visit Crocus for a last look to see how she was progressing …
Then it was back to the site to collect the van and drive to Luton. We began in convoy but the boys stopped for a Starbucks and I carried on. Hamish was happy to be at their home …
The plan was to have breakfast in the Wayfarers at Ludham Bridge but they were closed so we met in Potter Heigham and ate in the Flour and Bean which is part of Lathams. It was then time to see Nick who has been working on Crocus. She’s been stripped right back which was quite scary to see but positive things are beginning to happen and Nick has told us he’s working to an Easter deadline for getting her on the water. Exciting!!
When we left her we made our way to Thurne Dyke, parked on the roadside and walked down to the main river. We went almost all the way to Thurne mouth then turned around and walked back. The weather was glorious it’s hard to believe it’s the end of September.
After saying goodbye to the boys we drove back to Ludham Bridge where I turned into the campsite and they continued on to Wroxham. Roys was calling!!
The motor home left Cornwall for Bedfordshire at the end of the kids’ summer holiday and so I set off from home with Hamish in the Mini. After two nights in Luton three vehicles made their way across to the Norfolk Broads Caravan Club site which will be my base for the next three weeks. Jamie and Phill helped me set up camp and then they booked into the Travelodge at Acle. In the evening we went to the Wayford Bridge Hotel for a meal. It’s a place we normally like visiting but I doubt we’ll be eating there again. It’s been completely refurbished and quite frankly I wasn’t impressed. The walls were covered in shiny white tiles which made it look like a public toilet!! There was no link to the area ie the Broads as there were airplanes hanging from the ceiling! The food is now very expensive – it was okay but nothing spectacular. The best part of the evening was meeting up with our friends Steve and Lisa who were accompanied by Steve’s son and his girlfriend. We sat in the lounge and had a lovely long catch-up on news. It was quite foggy in places as the boys dropped me back at the site.
I was woken this morning at about 5 o’clock by something making a racket outside. When I got up at 7 o’clock I looked to see what it was and this was the very noisy guilty party …
We’d done a load of packing last night so it was just a case of filling a trolley and putting it all in the cars along with the dogs …
After sorting out a lovely refund on fuel – we’d only used 32 litres – we drove to Ludham Bridge for the traditional final morning breakfast in the Wayfarers Cafe.
We said goodbye to Jamie and Phill and set off for Ash Vale where once again I’d stay the night at Simon’s and drive home to Cornwall in the morning.
It was overcast and windy this morning and we ran the engine to have some heating.
I’d noticed Broad Ambition moored in the dyke …
We had a couple of visitors step on board and a little family came on the beg …
We left the shelter of the dyke and found a yacht well reefed in the wind …
After passing our old friend Capri we shot Acle bridge and moored at the Bridge Hotel for coffee …
We left Acle and headed for Stokesby where the sun came out …
After lunch we motored off and went to Womack Water …
We had a cuppa and popped into the shop …
It was soon time to leave and make our way back to the yard at Herbert Woods …
After mooring in the basin we went to Lathams to shop! Then while walking the dogs we spotted Steve who was walking up to Sally’s mooring so we tagged along. He was collecting Sally and bringing her below the bridges ready for Lisa to join him and sail down to EACC moorings …
