George's World Tour South of Stoke - Day 2
I woke up at 6am this morning and couldn't get back to sleep. The sun was creeping round George's curtains and I could hear a lot of cars going past and also a helicopter overhead. I was a bit nervous after finding some old shotgun shells behind George last before bed, and was expecting the arrival of the angry farmer at any moment. I managed a nervous doze until 7.30 and spent a while forcing Claire out of bed so we could have some breakfast.
We managed to leave our overnight spot without any confrontations with shotgun wielding landowners, and we were on the water in the canoe for 10am.
We'd chosen a route starting at a village called Dilham, down to Ludham Bridge or however far we wanted. According to our guide books, the Broads are teeming with wildlife, and we should see kingfishers, marsh harriers, bearded tits and widgeons amongst other things. Normally we take things like that in guidebooks with a pinch of salt, but when a kingfisher shot past us as we were putting the boat in the river we had high hopes for the day.
The paddling was lovely, very easy going compared to the big lakes we are used to, and we got as far as Ludham Bridge in about 3 hours. The water was full of water lilies and lined with reeds and overhanging trees. By the time we'd got to Ludham Bridge we'd seen 4 kingfishers, a bearded tit, several marsh harriers, loads of great crested grebes, two swimming snakes (!) and some other regular wildlife (all to the tune of the Twelve Days of Christmas if you please). Everyone else on the river was very friendly, waving as we passed each other, and a couple of people even decided to take a photo of us. We didn't see any other canoeists though, and only 2 kayaks.
We spotted a couple of amusing signs, one of which was warning us about radar speed detectors on the river! The speed limit ranges from 3-5mph, so we were probably just about ok.
The one thing we hadn't seen much of on the way were tea rooms or any waterside tea and cake sellers at all for that matter. We stopped by a little sign promising tea rooms only a short walk up a track, but when we got there they were closed. We had an ice cream from a little shop and a biscuit from our bag and that had to do.
We had a bit of difficulty getting going again though. One of the Broads Authority rangers had been eyeing up our boat and wanted to talk about it. Even when we were unable to tell him how long the boat was or how it compared to the equivalent Old Town model, he still wanted to chat. He seemed quite shocked at how far we'd paddled and we started getting a bit worried about how long it was going to take us to get back. He recommended some camp sites and some paddling routes, most of which we have now forgotten, and we eventually managed to excuse ourselves, only to become embroiled in a lengthy discussion in the ice cream shop about mineral water. After what seemed like about half an hour of chatting we were finally on our way again. We will have to allow extra time tomorrow for chatting to friendly locals.
The way back was no harder than the way out, despite it being upstream. We saw more of the same wildlife, bringing the total kingfisher count to 7, and were back at George for about 5.30pm. We've paddled 18 miles today, which is much more than we usually do, but have only got quite minor aches and pains.
We then embarked on a wild goose chase looking for a campsite. We ended up following a brown sign which turned out to point to a members only campsite by the sea, miles away from where we first saw the sign. We finally found a cheap but basic campsite by a pub in Ludham Bridge of all places which is fine apart from the lack of showers. We are going in for a pint when the BBQ muffins have finished cooking, to use their wi fi and research suitable campsites for the remainder of the trip!
Tomorrow will be more of the same, but on a different bit of water, and with muffins and an extra flask of coffee. Hopefully we will be able to spot the elusive widgeons.
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