Having spent most of our summer based on the coast in Hemsby, it was time to explore the famous Norfolk Broads. What better way to do this than by a day-hire picnic boat. And what better day to pick than our 16th wedding anniversary 🙂
One of the closest boatyards to our Hemsby campsite is Herbert Woods at Potter Heigham. Our day on the water was booked for 9 to 5pm and our boat for the day comfortably accommodated the four of us, plus Jack and Izzy the spaniels.
We arrived at 8:30am to fill in forms, get our life jackets, and have a tour of the boat. We made Huw our captain, and he had a quick driving lesson. Before long, we were on our way!
For a first-time captain, Huw was rather thrown into the deep end: The first part of the journey along the River Thurne was congested with other watercraft and boats moored on both banks. But soon we had the open river ahead of us, with only swans for company. It was idyllic.
The picnic boat was fully equipped with a dual burner stove, a fridge, stove-top kettle and plentiful cutlery and crockery. (There was also a loo.) The boat had plenty of comfortable seating as well as a sliding roof, which we could make full use of 🙂
While Huw piloted the boat, I made coffee and studied a map of the Broads, Toby waved his pirate flag at any passer-by and Millie-Mae got her watercolours out and did a bit of painting.
We passed close to windmills, St Benets Abbey, and counted the herons standing like statues along the river banks. We were so lucky with the weather.
Upon the suggestion of the boat yard, we headed for Ranworth. We were told that we’d find nice pubs and a nice village to explore. However, when we arrived, it was chocker full of other boats that had beaten us to it! Remember also that we’d never moored a boat before, so didn’t relish the prospect of attempting it with lots of onlookers! We headed back out to the River Bure, and back the way we came, before taking a left turn into the River Ant towards Ludham.
Ludham Bridge was our first navigational ‘challenge’ as the waterway under the bridge was narrow. Huw made it – just! We then found a nice long stretch of mooring vacant … so grabbed the opportunity to stop. Mooring was ‘ok’. I was tasked with jumping off first, and Millie-Mae threw me the ropes to tie us to the posts. Toby had a very important job too – to stop the dogs escaping!
Before our picnic lunch (which was also our breakfast we realised) we went for a walk over the bridge and down towards The Dog Inn pub (well, Jack and Izzy demanded it!)
Back at the boat we enjoyed our picnic, bought the previous day from Roys in Wroxham. It was lovely. The children were having a brilliant time – boating was a new experience for them. And again, the sunshine made the day quite magical.
After lunch, with quite a lot of time left before the boat needed returning, we carried on up the River Ant towards How Hill. Our plan was to stop for coffee here, but again we discovered that lots of other people had the same idea as there was no available mooring. So instead we carried on, right the way up to Barton Broad. Here, the quite narrow river opens up into what feels like an ocean. It was both exciting and scary in equal measure! However, this was our turning point, as we needed to head back to base.
The final approach back to Potter Heigham was the most challenging of the day. A sailing group were zig-zagging across the river … we slowed down and kept going in a straight line as much as we could, but we nearly lost our heads a couple of times when the wind-tipped mast rushed over the boat. To be honest, they were mental, turning at the very last moment as if their plan was to scare us witless!
Luckily, when we arrived back at Herbert Woods a member of staff jumped aboard to reverse our boat into its space (reverse?! Going forwards was enough!)
We had a really fun day. The children are nagging for us to book a ‘sleeping’ boat for next time, which yes, we’d love to do. However, from our one-day experience I think I’d rather do this ‘off season’. The Broads are a honeypot for holiday makers during the summer. At times if felt as congested as the M25: and it would have been nice to have been able to stop and explore more.
This was our first-ever day afloat (well, excluding cruise holidays!) and we all loved it. The dogs loved it too!
We loved the peacefulness of moving through the calm water, with families of swans swimming up to say hello. The scenery was beautiful and it was a great way to explore a part of the Broads. We will definitely do it again 🙂
Our picnic boat was hired from Herbert Woods and we thoroughly recommend them. We also thank them for the lovely bottle of prosecco gifted to us when they found out it was our anniversary (we drank it the following day, as you can’t drink and captain!)
Great day out – highly recommend exploring the Norfolk Broads by boat!
