Messin' About on the Norfolk Broads

Thursday, July 22, 2010
Wroxham, Norfolk Broads

I was excited when I awoke this morning as I've wanted to visit the Norfolk Broads for years. Trouble is, they're located in the midst of nowhere--which makes it impossible to get to by public transport. So I was grateful when my friend Amy offered to spend the day with me, which included chauffeuring me to the network of rivers and lakes that make up the famous waterways.

We arrived at Wroxham along animal-studded country roads from Gorleston-in-Sea in about 40 minutes. Wroxham is considered the entry to the Broads and it was strange to suddenly see a congregation of folks when for miles on end no one was in sight. The River Bure passes through the picturesque village that features a clutch of bridges, some old-fashioned and made of stone, others designed in the manner of the Hudson River's Verrazano Bridge with slim metal cables. Swans dotted the waters and came close to the shore for tidbits. We parked at Roy's, a famous department store that touts itself as "the world's largest village store."

Because the best way to see the Broads is by boat, I suggested to Amy that we rent one. Believing that we'd be required to pilot our own boat for the entire day, she understandably balked at the notion. When I reassured her that I had no more than a couple of hours in mind, she banished all thoughts of possible sea-sickness from her mind and fell in stride with my designs. So, off we headed to Broads Tours to book the 2.00 pm tour on the Vintage Broadlands, a steamship-like ferry--similar to the ones that huffed and puffed on the Mississippi in Huck Finn's days--and headed off for lunch.

Though I'd breakfasted fairly well, the drive through open fields and pasture had whetted my appetite for some hearty country 'fayre' and we found sustenance in Hotel Wroxham's Carvery that was a real steal at 5.95 pounds. We spent the next hour on a table by the water watching watercraft zip in and out of the Broads as we feasted on roast turkey and roast beef with all the fixin's--read Yorkshire puds, roasted spuds and a number of crisply cooked veggies--parsnips, carrots, cauliflower--oh and loads of gravy and horseradish sauce. It wasn't really very tasty but it was substantial and with the sun shining down on a gorgeous day, there really wasn't anything major to complain about.

Well satiated, we headed for the Broads Tours' parking lot where we boarded our ferry and set off to the welcome cheers of our skipper who doubled up as a guide. For the next hour and a half, he kept us enthralled with his monologue on the history of the Broads and how they came to be created--they are, in fact, the UK's largest man-made attraction. The Broads National Park is a network of waterways that were cut into the earth by thousands of local inhabitants for about two hundred years in the Middle Ages. Their objective was to draw out peat, a cheap and very reliable fuel. So plentifully was peat to be found in the area that it was exported to Europe where it was well-renowned. However, two centuries of hacking into the earth finally took its toll on the land and when the shallow water table began seeping upwards, it flooded the channels carved out in the peat 'fields'. The end result is the collection of canal-like waterways that abound today in bird life. It was mainly to go 'birding' (bird-watching in American) that I was in the Broads.

And I wasn't disappointed. Bird life is abundant and our feathered friends seemed well accustomed to the dozens of craft that skim the waters. They swim exceptionally close to the boats allowing ornithologists abundant opportunities to pursue their hobby. Amy and I exclaimed over the cute thatched roof cottages that were perched along the banks and at the families of coots we saw everywhere. I now understand the expression "as bald as a coot"--coots are black birds with white patches in the middle of their foreheads which make them seem as if they are bald. In addition to coots, we saw ducks, mallards, teals, white and the very rare black swans, herons, geese and a bunch of other unusual birds with whose names I am not familiar. The waters were calm and so clean that water-lilies grew in the vast expanses of Wroxham and Salford Broads over which our boat skimmed. We could not have asked for a nicer day or more pleasant temperatures.

All too soon, we had to stop messin' about on the river and into the car we scrambled just as fat raindrops pelted us. We drove at top speed towards Norwich and the University of East Anglia where Amy wanted to take me so that I could see the permanent collection of the Sainsbury Center for Visual Arts, one of the smallest but most significant private collections in this part of the UK. What was even more significant to me than the art works themsevles was the fact that the building was designed by Sir Norman Foster with whose work I am familiar (he designed Wobbly Bridge as well as the City Hall Building in London--which Prince Charles infamously described as being "a carbuncle on the face of the city!") Be that as it may, this building, with its exposed metal work on its two sides, set a Modernist trend that has been endlessly imitated by other contemporary architects.

Inside, the permanent collection is a small and very eclectic one. The works on display belong to Lord Sainsbury who bequeathed his collection to the university. He had a marked fondness for certain modern abstract artists as was evident by the many works of Picasso, Francis Bacon and Modigliani that were recurrent. In addition, the collection comprises small to medium sized pieces (mainly sculptural) from exotic corners of the world such as Papua, New Guinea, Hawaii, Peru and Benin. They are superbly curated and very interestingly showcased. It doesn't take more than a hour to see these works which are free to visitors. I kept wishing that more people would take advantage of viewing this fascinating collection.

Back en route home, we stopped at Tesco's for groceries for our evening meal and settled for spinach and ricotta cheese ravioli with Jamie Oliver's Pasta Sauce with Chilli which had a nice bite to it. I made up a salad with rocket using lemon vinaigrette as a dressing and by the time I had eaten my last morsel, I was stuffed and ready to hit the sack.

Tomorrow will be a long day as I journey to London to start the next segment of my English holiday.