George's World Tour South of Stoke - Day 3
I was woken at 5am today by 2 crows squawking outside, but they didn't come back after I scared them off on my way to the toilets, and after that we had a bit of a lie in, safe in the knowledge that there would be no angry landowners making an early morning appearance.
It started throwing it down with rain while we were eating breakfast so we had a lazy morning drinking tea and reading. The weather sorted itself out late morning but we didn't leave the campsite until 12 noon.
We'd decided to do one of the canoe routes that Claire remembered the warden had recommended yesterday. The start point was on the edge of a little town called Wroxham, but which really should be called Roysham in my opinion, as Roy has more of a monopoly in the town than Tesco does in the whole country. We saw Roy's department store, garden centre, pharmacy, toy shop, children's clothes shop and haulage company, and that was just on the main road! We didn't contribute to Roy's empire, and managed to find a bit of river bank to launch the boat which didn't have one of Roy's signs on it, and only involved hauling the boat over one gate and rolling it down a small slope on our little trolley.
By the time we got on the water it was 12:48pm, which on some days could be well past lunch time. We stopped for lunch at about 2pm at a mooring spot owned by the local church. There were loads of butterflies, dragon flies and bumble bees flying around, and if it wasn't for the lightning fast green spider on my head then it would have been the perfect spot for lunch. We resisted the temptation to climb the "pilgrim's path" up to the church and after a cheese sandwich and an only very slightly burnt BBQ muffin we set off up the river again.
We could tell that we were paddling upstream today, although it was still pretty easy going. We saw several more kingfishers, and even managed to sneak up on one while it was perched on a branch. No photos though because we didn't dare move to get the camera out for fear of scaring it off. We also spotted the first heron of the trip, some very cute baby water birds (not sure if they were ducklings or goslings), more bearded tits and the nosiest pair of swans I've ever met. They spent several minutes circling our boat, poking their heads in and having a good look. We think they were after food, but they were out of luck.
We finally reached one of the few locks in the area, and decided that was a good a time as any to turn back. It was much quicker going downstream, but we managed to slow down for some ducklings who wanted to make friends. They were a bit nervous but we both managed to stroke them without their parents getting upset.
We stopped at the church stop again for coffee and muffins, and then I had a go at doing the steering for the last bit of the day. You steer a canoe from the back, just by doing a bit of a wiggle with the paddle, or sometimes doing a big wide paddle. Or in my case by getting mixed up and crashing into a load of overhanging trees in an attempt to avoid a passing motor boat. I think they found it quite entertaining although Claire didn't feel the same way unfortunately. I think I need more practice...
We'd found a suitable campsite during our research session at the pub last night, and got here at about 6.30pm. We've found a nice pitch and have both had our first shower of the holiday, in a shower block that is actually nicer than our bathroom at home. I'm not sure whether that says more about the campsite facilities or our facilities, but it was by far the nicest campsite shower I have ever used.
We're having a glass of wine in George now, wondering what tomorrow will bring. We're hoping the BBC have got it wrong, and that it's not going to rain all day tomorrow, but if it does then we will probably start our journey down to the south coast a day early, stopping only for essential food supplies (cakes, breakfast stuff and bread rolls) and some more diesel for the gas guzzler.
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