Messing about in Boats

It’s been a busy year thus far. Fortunately we booked ourselves a holiday in May. I had the bright idea of hiring a boat for the week. The family thought I was bonkers, as the last time we tried this we sunk he boat (I use the term “we” slightly loosely, but moving on…) but it was very cheap, and I rather liked the idea of a slow holiday. I have to say, I have many madcap ideas, but this was one of my better ones. Aside from breaking down on the way there it was an almost perfect holiday, one of the most relaxed weeks I have ever had. We travelled very little distance, and only visited a handful of places. We did everything reeeaaalyy slowwwlyy. We had a fantastic time just enjoying the places we passed through, watching the ducks, visiting bird hides, eating frequently, playing cards and just being still.

We spent a night on Percy’s Island. We thought it was quite apt that we should find an Island, though it was rather smaller than the Isle of Wight, being about 30 metres long and 3 metres wide. We were only here because the Moorings at Horning were all full. It was a strange feeling of isolation - once darkness fell we couldn’t leave – yet we were able to see and here the village of Horning. Our location afforded a beautiful sunset and dusk view, along with that smug feeling of an exclusive location.

Key to the success of the holiday was that we failed to sink the boat. In fact we managed to achieve a state of some averageness in mooring the boat, with one or two attempts almost being good. I was entrusted with most of the “driving” though we did discover that if someone else

had to take over, Jonathan (age eight) would be the logical choice. He had a natural flair for it, the ability to make small course corrections and trust that they would take effect in time. A steady course requires a certain patience, and a faith that in time your small actions will pay off. I feel there may be a moral in there somewhere….

So, if you want a low cost, low stress, low pace holiday, we highly recommend a boat on the broads. We booked direct with Richardson’s and booked their cheapest boat we could (just) fit in. A week in May cost around £300 which is probably no more than hiring a caravan. In fact, we liked it so much we are going back in October.

Bewilderwood

Here is the first of a few holiday posts – very delayed but we’ve been too busy since we’ve got back to update the blog.

We went to the fabulous Bewilderwood in the middle of our week away on the Broads. It was absolutely fantastic, a giant adventure playground with zipwires, slides swings and climbing frames that we could all go on, as well as the odd Crocklebog and Boggle.

We had some difficulty getting moored at Horning but eventually got a space and walked the half a mile to Bewilderwood.

Martin, Rebekah and Ruth on the boat through to the start of bewilderwood, they were on the wrong side to get squirted by the crocobog, Mildred.

The three person swings were my absolute favourite thing of the whole day – I loved swinging high in the air on these huge swings – the kids clearly loved them too.

Rebekah struggled to get through the small tunnels in this part of the wood.

But this was the one part that Jonathan could complete quicker than anyone else, he was just the right size for squeezing through the tunnels and here he is waiting fot the girls to finally catch up with him.

This is our second go on the boat and they are all anticipating Mildred this time!

Now the girls have really had enough of the small tunnels and have left Jonathan to it.

Martin very carefully balancing on the beam.

And Rebekah hugging a pole.

We loved it and if we manage to go back to the broads we’ll definitely be returning to Bewilderwood.