[adrian]

Once more Sitting Pretty and Running Scared ventured out to the back of the back of beyond. Otherwise known as the Norfolk Broads. Having done the 3-day B&B Canoe Trail last year, Shirley decided to go even broader and go for the 4-day B&B Trail on the River Ant. This time we stayed at different B&Bs and our bags were transported on for us. We travelled up on Sunday and stayed at The Sutton Staithe Hotel, which was to be our first overnight stop.

Day 1
We were met by Mark, “The Canoe Man” with our boat, who took us to Honning Lock, our start point at the end of the North Walsham Canal. This is beyond the Navigation for the Hire boats, so we had the wild life all to ourselves. We joined the River Ant, made a couple of detours to Dilham and Stalham finishing back at the Sutton Staithe Hotel for a shower and a very good evening meal. We had covered 8.4miles in 3hours 48 mins. An average speed of 2.2mph.

Day 2
We left the Sutton Staithe Hotel after a Full English Breakfast and paddled down the Ant, where we saw our first Kingfisher, then round the edge of Barton Broad and on to Neatishead, where we spent about half an hour watching an otter and her cub, (or pup) and on to our second B&B “Grove Cottage” at Neatishead, where our cases were waiting for us. Our evening meal was at the White Horse. A short day, we had only covered 5.7miles in 2hours 50 mins. An average speed of 2 mph.

Day 3
Once again we had to start the day with our obligatory Full English before setting off round the bottom of Barton Broad then on past How Hill which has a much painted and photographed Wind Pump, finishing at Ludham Bridge. After an ice cream we were collected by David Batley and taken on to the Moorhen at Horning. This was the shortest day covering 5.5 miles in 2 hours 36 mins. An average speed of 2.1mph.

Day 4
After an exceptional breakfast it was back to Ludham Bridge for the final day. As we were staying an extra night, we were not in a hurry and the weather was brilliant, so we made the best of it and covered 10.3 miles in 4 hours 12 mins at an average speed of 2.4 mph. We paddled to the end of the River Ant then visited both South Walsham Broad and Ranworth Broad before finishing at Horning.

You don’t have to get out a calculator as figures are rounded up and down but we had covered 30 miles over the 4 days in 13 hours 25 mins at an average speed of 2.2 mph. We had seen lots of grebe, heron, moorhens, coots, geese, swans and ducks, many with chicks, as well as a couple of Kingfishers and the otters. The Hire Boats gave us a great deal of amusement, but there were lots of spells of silence except for the birds.