The Norfolk Broads

I wanted to do something a bit different to celebrate my 21st birthday so I put the question to my friends at home, and we came up with the idea of renting a boat for the day and going on the Norfolk broads. 

A couple of us have driven boats before so we figured we would be ok and the risk of capsizing would be small.

The 'crew' and our trusty steed

The four of us assembled in Wroxham at the crack of dawn (10am) along with our picnic supplies and climbed aboard the boat that would be our floating home for the next 4 hours. We were issued some sexy bright orange life jackets and told it was so simple to drive the boat that we couldn't possibly mess it up... those sounded like famous last words to me. 

Lucy was pretty worried about being afloat - should we have capsized, she would have had the most to lose as she can't swim, and we were told that the person who falls over board has to swim to the boat, not the boat go to the man over board. 

 Part of me wishes she had fallen in (or anyone for that matter), but alas, she did not.

Sexiest life jackets of all time

We then set off out of the boat yard and down the river. Beth was driving to start off with as she had the most experience, she was issued with the 'captains hat' that Rachel had thoughtfully brought along. 
No one was allowed to drive the boat unless they were wearing the captains hat. This was the law of the boat.

Leaving the safety of the boat yard

Beth modelling the captains hat

After we had successfully navigated our way out of the boat yard, we emerged onto the river. The boat was incredibly sensitive to steer and it took Beth a while to get the hang of it, every time she turned around to talk to us the boat would veer off course and head towards the bank. Luckily we didn't crash, but we had a few near misses, and I'm pretty sure we concussed a pair of swans at some point.

View of the river from the back of the boat

Docked sailing boats

It was a really hot day - I should have brought sun cream, because once again I burned - and there was a lot of wildlife swimming around. Lots of swans, geese and ducks with there babies, which were very cute -although they do seem to swim straight at the boat which surely doesn't help their chances of making it to adulthood.

A pair of geese and their goslings

A grieb

As soon as we set of we pretty much started eating our picnic. It didn't matter that it was only just 10am, as far as we were concerned it was lunch time. Since this trip was for my birthday, we donned the party hats I had brought, and cut the cake - which had melted a little bit on the drive over. We also opened the fruit, juice,crisps, dip and home made pizza that Beth had brought. 

Melted birthday cake

Party hats!

After we had been travelling for about an hour and half, we came to the village of Horning, which (obviously) has the river running through it. It had some incredible houses on the river side, which instead of having a garage to park cars in, they had dock to moor their boats in! 

Houses on the riverside

They have docks for their boats, rather than garages for a car

After we had travelled though Horning we decided to park the boat for a while and go for a walk. This was harder than we anticipated, none of us had ever done this before apart from Beth, whose words of wisdom on the subject were 'Just wrap the rope round the pole and hope for the best.' 

So as we drifter over to the dock, Beth clambered onto the front of the boat and then leapt off onto dry land. This is where the plan came unstuck, we weren't really sure how to get the boat parallel to the dock, we turned the engine off but this was a mistake and didn't help. But luckily a helpful gentleman came to our aid and assisted us onto dry land. 

 While Rachel ran off into the bushes for a wee, we had a look around.

Dock at Bure Marshes Nature Reserve

Riverside

Rachel going for a wee

Bure Marshes

Ducks on the riverside

We saw the paddle steamer, but I wasn't allowed on it

We travelled up the river for another half an hour, but then we turned around and headed back. We started to play a game of catch with a tennis ball and sticky velcro pads, we managed to play for quite a long time before I accidentally threw the ball too high and it landed in the water. Lucy was driving at this point, so we set about organising a rescue mission. We circled the ball for about 5 minutes, but couldn't reach it, as the waves the boat made kept pushing it away. But then Lucy drove over the ball and Beth managed to lean out of the boat and grab it. Mission accomplished!

Playing catch

Water ball

Rachel and Beth successful rescued the ball

After all the drama, we went drove back to the boat yard without further mishap. It was a great day, and a really nice way to celebrate my birthday. It cost £50 to rent the boat for 4 hours, from broadland boat hire in Wroxham.