Catching fish in The Norfolk Broads
Catching fish in The Norfolk Broads

A quiet and enjoyable stay at Bramerton Wood End and then the cruise to Brooms at Brundall after breakfast where we moored for lunch at the Yare Pub before moving on to Rockland broad and staithe where we planned our trips around the Broads for the month, I did some fishing before checking my home telephone messages and making some investment decisions. The children seem to be behaving and enjoying the trip and we are blissfully unaware of the wider world as we enjoy no TV reception

A much sounder night’s sleep at Bramerton Woods, after a nice meal at the Woods End pub. It was beautifully quiet, and remote, the wind had dropped and the mooring was tranquil. Awake at 7.00am to the sounds of the woodlark and wood pigeon. Breakfast of poached egg and then the children went for a play in the wood, whilst Di did the housework and I did some filming. Soon we cast off and made our way down the Yare until we returned to Brundall for the riverside shop, fuel for Daniel and Diana and I lunch at the pub called The Yare.

We cheekily moored at the private Broom marina where we had launched The Lady and thus missed the hire boat dodgems. Today we saw a number of examples of appalling helmsmanship – a crew of drunken Welshmen crashing about and falling in, and had to fend off three other boats. We did get the chance to clean the boat hulls off today, between incidents, and they are both looking very smart. Onwards after lunch until we came to Rockland Broad, where we moored at the staithe and went for a walk up to the post office and shop. Got our essential provisions and I also phoned and played back my home recorded telephone messages. Had to phone my stockbroker, who is predicting more stock exchange selling and so we will hold fire on re-investing the EHP money from the children’s trusts. This evening I fished in Rockland Staithe, catching a half-dozen roach until the showers intervened. Listened to an exciting end to the test match at the same time, where England made a match of it and damn nearly beat Pakistan, but ran out of time. Late this evening Di and I planned out the rest of our month’s holiday and sorted it out at the 2nd or 3rd attempt in as many hours planning. The problem was cramming in everything that we wanted to do and still arrive in the right places and dates for market days, events etc. Late tonight wrote up my journal, tidied up and turned in to bed. No real opportunity to listen to the news and our TV does not seem to be able to pick up any signals in these parts. The weather turned much milder and muggier today and, though it rained late on, we had a good day. This evening, a wherry and two other yachts arrived under auxiliary power to moor at Rockland Staithe. The slipway and moorings here are owned by ‘Rockland Poor’ who extract some dues from visitors to finance their trust. The children seem happy enough with their holiday so far and their behaviour is improving. The girls paid a visit to Daniel’s boat for a while today and were very quiet.