Last Days on the Boat

 For me, the Broads got better and better. We moved the boat less and hung out and walked more. Our cheerful tulips lasted the whole week (you can see behind the tulips how the mooring is just outside the window). 

Womack Dyke mooring. We were almost alone outside Ludham here. 

Really the best spot to hang out during travel, if you're not driving the boat. 

"No - you cannot com in!" Opening up the canopy on the boat was lovely in nice weather - it brought the outside into our living room, and gave me more visibility as I was driving. But the ducks felt free to land on our roof - or to peer right inside. I didn't mind - as long as they stayed OUTSIDE. No ducks in the boat, please. 

There were two long moorings along Fleet Dyke, near South Walsham. We got a spot easily early in the day, but in the end, the whole area was parked up pretty tight. Still - the trail along the dyke went one way into the village of South Walsham, and the other way out toward St. Benet's. Lovely trail. 

We sat on the bank across from St. Benets for a long time on Sunday, watching boat after boat pass by, including the Albion, one of the last wherries left on the broads. Wherries were long flat sail boats used to haul goods around the Broads before the railways came in. 

Our last day, we drove the boat almost straight back to Wroxham, 2 1/2 hours. The hire boat company had encouraged us to come back the night before and moor in their yard, to make it easier to pack up an check out by 9 am. 

What they hadn't said was that the almost all of the spaces in their yard were stern-on, parked tight with other boats. I'm not rated for that! And, being Sunday, the office was closed and no workers were around to help. So we arrived tired at 5:30 pm, tied up at a space half the size we needed and couldn't figure out what to do. Luckily, some guys from another boat were willing to come help. The did an amazing job backing our boat down a narrow channel and parking between two other boats. 

Spending the night on the boat was not bad. The boats on either side were very close, but not occupied. There were lights, and I missed the quiet and dark of the river. But it was OK. We walked into town for dinner - it's a sweet town.