Touring Norfolk in a motorhome

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 Day 19: a cycling day

Route: Hickling Broad – Sea Palling – Waxham – Horsey Mill – West Somerton – Martham – Potter Heigham Bridge – Ludham – How Hill nature reserve – Catfield – Hickling Heath – Hickling Green

Distance: approximately 28 miles

 

This morning I was woken by a thrush. My sleepy consciousness first detected the pitter patter of tiny feet across the roof above me but that wasn’t what caught my attention. The rapid staccato movement of feet were accompanied by a heavier, regular thud tap. A thrush with a somewhat crushed snail peered down through the acrylic skylight above me. Startled it flew off, to be replaced a few minutes later by a braver, more curious starling who took to sitting on the skylight and having a good nosey around the interior below. The random, sudden, juddering of our water pump scared it off. I have no idea why our water pump does this, but every so often, with no rhyme or reason, it suddenly belches into life for about 20 seconds before falling silent once more.

Sea Palling is another Geography teacher’s case study visit; a recurved sea wall with revetments and some mini offshore breakwaters. The aim of these stone walls a few hundred metres off shore are to create sheltered conditions behind them. With low energy environments, any suspended sand in the waves gets deposited, thus building up the beach!

Horsey Mill is a good coffee stop and the car park is large enough for most motorhomes and there are no height barriers to contend with. The wind mill is pretty impressive and there is a walkway out onto the marshes beyond. It is all managed by the National Trust, free to members. You will need to book a tour of the wind mill in advance though.

The website is: https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/horsey-windpump

We cheat on the way to Potter Heigham Bridge and take a short cut by following the lane out of Martham down to Martham Pits and the river Thurne. Through the Hunter boatyard and along a grass path and eventually a small concrete walkway, we skirt the back of fishing plots and little wooden huts and pontoons facing onto the river. It is all really idyllic and peaceful.

Potter Heigham is busy but not unpleasantly so. It is the famous place where sailors in the Three Rivers Race have to dip their masts and shoot the bridges. Some do it better than others! The skill is to drop the mast once and have enough way on to shoot between the bridges and not need to raise the mast and sails again before the second bridge. Many try it and few succeed!

This YouTube video gives you a flavour of the antics:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ccBFC4mROMk   3 Rivers Race 2021 - Potter Heigham Bridge 2

Information about Potter Heigham can be found at http://www.tournorfolk.co.uk/potterheigham.html

We stop on the grass lawns between the two bridges for lunch and admire the boats, the water fowl and the various fish caught by locals before setting off for

How Hill which has the Broads National Park Toad Cottage Museum, a little nature reserve and some walks along the river. You can get a motorhome down the lanes from Ludham and there is enough car parking space. A good ice cream spot! Stroll along the path to look at the old windmills, a different style to the ones you normally associate with the Broads. Don’t forget the little museum at Toad cottage, worth a look in.

https://www.visitnorfolk.co.uk/The-Broads-Toad-Hole-Cottage-Museum/details/?dms=3&feature=1007&venue=0289080

 

Back at Pine Cones, we chat to Heddwyn about how he set up his wildlife area. Later we watch the pheasant marshal her 11 chicks through the undergrowth and at dusk the barn owls come out. Watching a barn owl, like a small white ghost, swoop low across the grass meadow is a sublime wildlife experience. Watching them swoop, fly into trees and then call to barn owls further afield whilst you are setting up your astronomy gear is even more special.