Hi folks,

We just got back from our first holiday for 10 years, we had a lovely time on the North Norfolk Broads, I've been trying to render something with the right kind of flavour but at the rate I've been going it's going to take a week or so.  So in the meantime here are a few photos:

When I finally get something rendered at least a bit close to my memory of the river, then I'll post it.

Congratulations Fran, I love The Broads as well, very much so, it's a truly magical place!

Nice photos...guessing these are British...envious as I've never been across the pond....a lovely part of the world.

Yes, it's lovely.  The sunset is of Salhouse Broad on the River Bure, we went there one day and stayed a few hours and I loved it so much that when asked if I wanted to go back there and maybe stay overnight? I said "yes" in an instant, didn't have to think about it at all.

It's a wide tranquill place with two entrances from the Bure making a small long thin island - there are no buildings except for a little wooden ranger's hut but there is a long, long hose to take on fresh drinking water, and 20 mins walk away is the village post office, a small shop and 2 pubs, one of which is dog friendly, but we didn't bother with the pub.

Swans, ducks, and coots come to the boats and the swans actually knock on the side of the boats for food, we also saw a pair of grebes ignoring the boats, and we've seen herons and cormorants, hawks and the occasional huge fish, bats swirl about you at night, and the water itself is interesting.

On a sunny day it is bright and sparkles like flashes of white fire, it can be calm and still like a mirror, and I once saw a tiny squall of rain, only about the size of our boat, distrupting the water's surface like a painter using a stippling brush. It drifted across the water towards me before it petered out just short of the boat.  When it stopped so suddenly like that I found myself glancing up at the sky as if to say - "hey, I was watching that!"

It was the moments when I was alone on the boat, while Ian walked off to the little shop and (I thought) the pub, and just as evening fell when I sat out at the prow taking photos of the sunset, these were the moments of greatest peace: the Missisippi steam boats had gone, the small boats were all tied up, no more movement on the water, and it was so quiet and still, moments like these are balm to the soul.

You don't realise you need it until it comes to you.

There were Graculus birds drying their wings:

and a Graculus bird (Cormorant) just sitting there:

Loved it all.

First time I experienced the Broads was when I drove my parents there for their holiday.  They hired one of those floating huts and it included a small rowing boat that had a little outboard on it.  I was absolutely smitten by it, like being in another world, something people won't understand ulness they experience it.

The Bats just make the place all the more amazing!  You can lie down on the top of your boat and watch the sun set, and even when it has, you just want to stay put and watch the stars and Bat dances!

Mrs Bryster and I spent our honeymoon on the Broads back in 1977. A whole week chugging around in a motor cruiser. We had a wonderful time!!!

Quote - First time I experienced the Broads was when I drove my parents there for their holiday.  They hired one of those floating huts and it included a small rowing boat that had a little outboard on it.  I was absolutely smitten by it, like being in another world, something people won't understand ulness they experience it.

The Bats just make the place all the more amazing!  You can lie down on the top of your boat and watch the sun set, and even when it has, you just want to stay put and watch the stars and Bat dances!

Floating huts?  I don't think I saw any of those.

I don't think I could get onto the boat's roof, not with my arthritis, but it's okay we have bats here at home too.

Quote - Mrs Bryster and I spent our honeymoon on the Broads back in 1977. A whole week chugging around in a motor cruiser. We had a wonderful time!!!

That's exactly what we just did!

Pootling!  Loved every minute, even the bruises from the uncomfortable seats. and the bruise on my shin from the sudden arrival stern on at the staithe, and the agony in my feeble arms from carrying shopping instead of being able to just pop it into the car boot.  I didn't care, first holiday for 10 years, LOVED it!

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@Fran**
It's probably not the proper name for it, but they're basically a wooden chalet floating on the water, it was somewhere in Wroxham.  To look at them from the water they just look like a chalet on the side of the bank.  Doesn't have an engine though, the chalet stays in one place so they include a small boat with a little outboard on the back to go messing around in, you just moor it up right outside the porch on the chalet.

I think my parents were a bit worried about getting one of those cruisers because of the bridges, so doing it that way worked out ideal.  No problem getting under even the smallest bridge.

I think they call them houseboats but that is not an accurate description.