The Norfolk Broads

So, I took a completely disorganised trip eastward, to the Norfolk Broads, yesterday, again a Saturday. Generally I take great pleasure in planning trips out of Cambridge carefully and well in advance, irrespective of how well the plans work out! But the trip described last, to Bury St Edmunds and the one described here, to the Norfolk Broads were totally arbitrary. The present one the most random trip I have taken since I practically had no idea where I was to go!

So, what are the Norfolk Broads? I would rather not explain in detail but point you to the appropritate Wikipedia entry: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Broads.

It would resemble in many ways the scenes that you would get to see on the boat rides back home in South of India, but here, there is one difference: while the rivers, obviously, were formed by natural forces, the depressions that are now the lakes were dug out by hand in medieval times!!!

My first port of call was this place called Hoveton and Wroxham. It was a 15 minute train ride from Norwich. But thanks to some engineering works on the rails between Ely and Brandon, the trip involved several changes involving buses and trains. But somehow, I did get to Hoveton and Wroxham. This place is called the capital of the Broads because it is supposed to be pretty much the gateway to the Broads. Well, true, but only if you had a car to drive around or had the time to rent a boat all for yourself and take it around. Public transport was pretty much non-existent and even the brochure supplied by the Broads authority had no practically useful information on getting around by public transport. And given all these limitations, I did take a guided river tour on the river Bure lasting an hour and a half covering the Wroxham and Salhouse Broads. The commentary during the tour was very very good and mentioned how the waters here were pretty much polluted in the 70s and it required a concerted effort in the form of legislation and implementation to clean it all up. During this tour, one gets an opportunity to see a variety of water birds! And one can also easily observe the presence of quite a few thatched houses!

Following this tour, I walked around this little reserve park in Hoveton, where one might get to see birds amidst the reeds, but I did not see any. In all probability, the large dogs that were being walked by quite a few of the toursists (or locals) might have scared the birds away!

And then I took the train back to Norwich and realised it was still too early. Then I decided to go to the Broads in Suffolk and decided to choose between the train that went to the east-most coast of England - Lowestoft and that which went to Great Yarmouth. I plumped for the former and went on the train and only to get down at one random station called Oulton Broads North, a short while from Lowestoft. I walked around this Oulton, which was totally deficient in any kind of sign-posts, but somehow reached the banks of river Waveney. I decided I did not have the time to take another guided river tour, but walked for a while along the banks, seeing several swans and boats and dogs. And then it was time to take the train back to Norwich and then to Cambridge. This particular train route between Lowestoft and Norwich is quite pretty and one does get to see several marshes.

So that is about it for today.