Page published 30 August 2025
Sunday 15 June 2025 - To Barton Broad
A month had gone by since Our Last Cruise, during which we had settled on a place to buy, so there was now time to fit in another cruise. When we bought the Singing the Blues the assumption was that most of our cruising would be mid-week but it was turning out that we always start on Sunday afternoon. This time we didn't cast off till 15:50 and would need to be back early on Tuesday morning as Diana had a commitment to attend. The plan was to get to Ludham Bridge by Monday evening, eat at The Dog, a quarter mile walk from the bridge, then make an early start from there on Tuesday morning.
Leaving our mooring involves a passage of almost 300 yards down the narrow Long Dyke.
One of these days I'll remember to get a better picture of the boat half out of sight on the left. It is Wild Thyme a rare Hampton Safari Mk IV.
While it's not that rare to see a swan and heron in close proximity I'd never before managed to get my camera ready to shoot to capture the scene.
The picture was taken as we passed "The Heater". It was only recently that I recall noticing the triangular island created by the two dykes that take you to Barton Turf named as that. I'd love to learn how it got that name.
At 16:31, just over a minute after taking the previous picture we were approaching the entrance to Barton Broad.
Based on Bing imagery, this shows our track that records how we passed by the Norfolk Punt Club pontoons before making a turn and dropping our mud weight at 16:47 near the second set of pontoons found on Barton Broad.
I guess I did know it at one time, but I had to cruise close to the pontoon as we left Neatishead the next day to re-learn from the sign on the hut that this is a base for the Nancy Oldfield Trust.
Monday 16 June 2025 - Neatishead
It was 08:21 when I took this view from our mooring towards Neatishead. We're well outside the marked channel here, as you can see from the red and green posts, but Just 17 drew more than Singing the Blues and I never touched bottom around here in her.
After taking my early morning photo we had breakfast and it wasn't till 09:26 that we were approaching Lime Kiln Dyke.
There always seems to be a cluster of relatively small moored boats around the boat house.
Once past the boat house we reach the 3mph signs at the entrance to Lime Kiln Dyke. It's another location that I seem to take a photo of each time we pass this way.
Three minutes later, at 09:31, and I am taking a view of Lime Kiln Dyke I don't recall photographing before.
We moor at Neatishead Staithe and spend a little time sorting out what we wanted to buy at the community shop in the village. I fail to take any general views of the staithe as we start the short walk to the village centre, but I do take pictures of two information boards to be found at the staithe. Both are headed "NWT Barton Broad", but one discusses the history of the broad and its fauna and flora, while the other sets the broad in the wider context of the northern rivers of the Broads.
Click the image to open a larger version.
Click the image to open a larger version.
Ten minutes after we leave the staithe we've passed through the village centre and are standing at the entrance to the Victory Hall car park. It's the village hall, and got its name as it was built as a memorial for the fallen in the First World War
Back outside the White Horse Inn and The Old Saddlery I take one more photo before we visit the Village Store.
Called the "White House Stores" it declares itself the "Village Community Shop". We buy a view bits and pieces and order a tea, coffee and something to nibble and enjoy our time in the sun outside.
By 11:00 we're back at the staithe. I spend a little time doing a bit some cleaning, particularly the windows. A hour later we cast off to continue our journey down the Ant towards Ludham.
We'd only been going a few minutes and still in the narrow part of Lime Kiln Dyke when I spotted a deer ahead.
As we got closer I could see it was a male Muntjac. it surprised me by standing its ground. At home they turn and run as soon as they spot you.
Perhaps it was because it didn't identify me as human standing in the doorway at the front of our boat, seeing only a large object that it knew could not leave the water and be a threat to it. As we passed by it turned away from us, nonchalantly continuing to munch the vegetation.
Moments later we were at the entrance to the dyke, passing the cluster of moored boats by the boat house.
It's not my normal practice to start a new page part way through a passage from one mooring to the next, but on this occasion it divides the photographs taken over the three days of the cruise neatly in half.
Next: We continue the cruise visiting How Hill Gardens and The Dog at Ludham Bridge.