DAY 7 - WOMACK WATER TO WAYFORD BRIDGE 



Sunlight on the Thurne

Sitting in the brilliant sunshine, eating breakfast with the canopy down, I felt like I could certainly have another week away. We watched the people on the next boat and tried to work out how was with who. Had a walk around the staithe, it seemed quite a nice place to moor, and I could see why it was so popular here. We had some time to kill this morning, as we were originally supposed to be setting out from Hickling, so we discussed whether to go see the offending bridge at Potter Heigham, but we decided to take a leisurely cruise back to the River Ant.





Approaching How Hill

I think today was the hottest day of the week, the water was sparkling, and we were soon passing St Bennetts Abbey, and then shortly after, passing under Ludham Bridge. It only seemed a day or two that we were passing under on the way down. There wasn't a lot of boats around this morning, as we made our way up the twisty River Ant, and before long we were moored up at How Hill. We had a walk around here, the tea rooms were closed, so we returned to the boat for lunch.




Aboard the Electric Eel

Toad Hole Museum

We left the Mars around two, and had a look around Toad Hole, the marsh man's cottage which is now a tiny museum, and very interesting. I had booked us all on the Electric Eel for 3pm, so we sat in the sun for half an hour and watched the boats go by. The boat was late, apparently the people on the previous trip had seen a Heron and stopped to take photos, but we were soon aboard the electrically powered boat, and heading through the reeds. It was a nice trip but we didn't get to see anything we hadn't seen already, very nice for dragonflies. After a visit to a bird hide we headed back, and we soon travelling upstream on the Ant. There were many boats crossing Barton Broad, and this time I managed to find the exit easily.


Leaving the reeds



Boats returning to boatyard

We were all pensive as we turned left towards Stalham, as very soon our group would begin to break up. We moored up at Richardsons, and helped Janet off with her case and into her car. The three of us then retraced our tracks back to the river,  and turned upstream. The river started to get narrow, and soon we were all taking picture of pretty Hunsett Mill, which is the most photographed mill on the broads. At Wayford Bridge there were no free moorings, so we went under the bridge and moored there. Shortly a strange woman, came up and asked for £8 overnight mooring fee, she could have been anyone, but we paid it.


Pretty Hunsett Mill

While we washed up, Janet came on board, she had parked in the Wayford Bridge Hotel car park, as she was heading Durham after dinner so she could make the cricket the following day. We walked up to the hotel for a very nice dinner, the £8 mooring ticket got us a few pounds off the restaurant bill.


Upstream of Wayford Bridge

It was getting dark as we left the hotel, we said our goodbyes to Janet and Mandy, and waved them off. The boat seemed very large and very quite when we got back aboard. We decided to pack in the morning, on the way back to the boatyard, which was about 45 minutes away. After tea and some television, we turned in. I really wasn't ready for home.