The Broads

We went to the broads for a sight seeing walking stay. We stayed near the river Ant, so not fully on the main waterways, but hoped to experience the North Norfolk Broads National Park without being on a boat. We stayed for 3 days, with day 1 being time spent an orientation and settling into accommodation.

We visited the villages of Catfield, Ludham, Stalham and Stalham Stithe - but we realised there were few access points to the broads for walking or visiting at these locations. Every available stretch of water has a boat yard on the Riverside, which limited the space for viewing or sitting, or the general access to the Riverside.

In each of the villages we visited there would be a handsome church built usually in flint, each with a very imposing tower and large volume (space) for such small villages. We found some circular walks in the villages but the experience tended to rely too much on the description than the reality of what was actually there. We tended to use our OS Map app to identify walks with the dog. The period properties were impressively set in each village but this meant that access to Riverside views or marinas were restricted.

We used the Bure Valley Railway to access Wroxham. A huge department store here seemed a very odd creation in such a small place. This dominated the village centre but as we had a dog and came to see the natural setting, it wasn't really our main attraction.

Again we tried to walk around, only to have restricted access due to the boat yards and holiday boat hire facilities. In fact, the only Riverside walk here, was between Wroxham Station and the village bridge crossing point. Every bit of space here was cramped without accessible entrance/exits. The pavement are none existent in places and the non-sight bridge makes pedestrian crossing to the one Riverside viewpoint perilous. We did have some great food here.

We travelled to Happisburgh beach and lighthouse, which was a great experience that the dog loved, as he was able to stretch his legs (this was October so dogs are allowed on the beach until March). We took an afternoon road trip to Cromer to find the pier but it shut at 4pm, so we continued to Sheringham as it was raining with blustery winds.

This coastline nestles against high sandy cliff faces making the promenade space tight for access with many steps down to the beach. At Sheringham, there is a standard gauge railway to Holt. This has a charming period Station and large car park. The beaches on this side are pebble beaches, contrasting with Happisburgh's sand.

We did find one riverside walk around How Hill House and St. Benet's Abbey (ruin), coming back through Ludham village. This was about 9 miles following the river Ant. This was very pretty, easy going, and probably gave us the best experience of what boating on the Norfolk Broads would be like.

*Electric Car Charging (October 2022) We found EV charge points tended to be in supermarket car parks or council car parking, where you need to make sure you have registered an account with the correct app. There are very few Rapid Charge points, with the Tesco unit in Aylsham charging a £30 deposit before connection (October 2022). Many were 22kwh chargers requiring your own lead and not suited to do a full charge unless you could stop for 6hrs or more.

Some charge points required you to pay to park and pay to charge the car - Sheringham was 30p per kwh, plus £2.70 parking fee for 3hrs (22kwh charger).