A Final Fling in the Norfolk Broads

My last stop. A long weekend in the Norfolk Broads then back home to Australia. What better way to do the Broads than to follow the 'Coot Club' route.

Arthur Ransome wrote thirteen books in what is known as the Swallows and Amazons series. When I was in the UK in 2010 I did the Swallows and Amazons 'Wildcat Island Cruise', see the blog of that day here. This time in the Norfolk Broads I'm following the adventures of another set of Ransome's characters, Dick and Dorothea, visitors to Norfolk, and the members of the Coot Club, all local sailors on the Broads and keen bird watchers.

The Coot Club members live in the picturesque village of Horning on the River Bure and their adventures take them up and down the Broads rivers and dykes and the various broads themselves.

At Horning there is a glamorous river-boat named the Southern Comfort which cruises down river from Horning to Ranworth Dyke, through the dyke and into Malthouse Broad taking 1 ½ hours for the round trip. This is one of the routes taken by the Coot Club sailors, except that in the 1930s when Ransome knew the Broads, one could sail into the nearby Ranworth Broad which is not possible today as it is a protected area. Our skipper on board the Southern Comfort points out the various places mentioned in the Coot Club books.

Dick and Dot are just learning to sail and so the children, being supervised by the elderly lady - herself an old sailor - who has hired a yacht, sail up to Horsey Mere for some lessons in the quieter waters to be found there. An ancient bridge at Potter Heigham proves to be impassable for many craft so they keep to the more southerly waters making Horsey an altogether more peaceful spot.

At Horsey I found a National Trust windmill and a wildlife cruise, independent of the Trust. Ross, of Ross's Wildlife Cruises, is a complete original. His old boat, the Lady Ann is home to a swallow's nest where numerous broods have been raised over the last two seasons. The BBC have recently filmed a segment on board about the swallows.

Ross's tour lasts for an hour or more and he makes it up as he goes along. He decided on a whim to take us up the neglected Wexham New Cut dyke to show us a derelict windmill. He chatted away as he manoeuvred the boat up the narrow dyke but his sharp eye was constantly on the lookout for interesting wildlife.

We were just a short way up the dyke when a kingfisher dipped across the water and disappeared into the bushes. These shy birds are not readily seen so we considered the trip well worthwhile from that point on.

What our skipper doesn't know about the wildlife of the Broads is not worth knowing. With a marsh harrier overhead and assorted dragonflies flitting around the boat we made out way to the old mill, who's skeletal sails and crumbling brickwork present an eerie picture among the whispering reeds.

We had a demonstration of quanting, the method of moving a boat along by means of a long pole, when the boat had to be turned in the narrow dyke and moved over some very shallow water.

The trip was enjoyed by all and I asked Ross if he would sign my Coot Club book. It turned out that he was a kindred spirit having auditioned for a part in the film version of Coot Club in the 1980s and been in the final three but missed getting the roll.

Of the other ports of call entered in the ship's log of the Teasel, sailed by the Coot Club, I made it to Ranworth, Acle, Potter Heigham, Beccles and Reedham where I was staying. All great places for cycling and enjoying the beauty of the Broads.

The waterways are much busier now than in Ransome's time and who knows, he might have to share some of the blame for that himself.

Star-gazing

For my eleventh birthday on the 6^th October, 1957, I got a bamboo hoop, the latest craze. That evening I stood in the back garden of 13 Upper Skene Street, twirling my hoop and waiting with Mum, Dad, Michael and Nick, the dog, for the Russian Sputnik (as we called it) to come into view.

Sputnik 1 was launched on the 4^th October, 1957 and the whole world looked skyward. Quite near to where I've been based in Cheshire for the last couple of weeks is the Jodrell Bank space observatory. It was from here that the observatory's brand-new radio telescope was able to track the rocket that sent Sputnik 1 on its memorable journey, the only telescope in the world able to fulfil that role.

At that time the telescope, with an impressive 250 feet diameter dish, was the largest trackable telescope in the world. It still holds its own, 57 years later, as the third largest.

This elegant piece of engineering is completely adjustable being able to observe the sky from all directions as it's frame moves full circle on tracks and its dish tips from the horizontal to the vertical (also useful for emptying out the winter snow apparently).

Originally the radio telescope was prosaically named 'Mark 1'. In 1987, for its 30^th birthday, it was renamed the Lovell Telescope in honour of its creator, the brilliant physicist Sir Bernard Lovell. He was knighted in 1961 in recognising of his outstanding work in radio astronomy, vital in the detection of satellites during the Cold War period.

Sir Bernard, who died in 2012 at the age of 98, was invited to the Soviet Union in 1963 and later, after a mysterious illness, believed that an attempt was made to erase his memories of the trip by secretly exposing him to radiation when he refused an offer to defect.

Today, when we no longer fear reds under the bed, Jodrell Bank and its radio telescopes peacefully get on with observing the solar system, and the wonderful Lovell Telescope has been justifiably designated a Grade 1 listed building.