Wheeeeeeee got my first coloured dot. What colour's next?
Wheeeeeeee got my first coloured dot. What colour's next?
Member since:14.08.2004
Reviews:10
Members who trust:2
Having been born and brought up in Norfolk and having lived and worked here for a good proportion of my adult life I count myself as well qualified to review the good, the bad and the ugly from an insider's perspective.
However, if its a boating holiday review you're after stop reading now. This is my personal 'bad and ugly' part of the Norfolk and Suffolk Broads, however much money it brings to the area. If you want to visit the Broads I would recommend staying on dry land and hiring a day boat or two. That way you get the best of both worlds and don't get the bad bits of cruiser hire (i.e. endlessly ploughing up and down the 'motorway' confined with squabbling children, tied to facilities close to the water, paying excessively expensive prices).
So what about the 'good' aspects of the Broads. Well its got to be the wildlife. The Broads, formed from medieval peat digging pits that subsequently flooded, is counted as having the equivalent of National Park status and as such is one of Britain's most beautiful and well protected areas.
It has national and international designations for birds, plants and wildlife making it a very special place indeed. The big rarity that you will be VERY lucky to spot is the Bittern, a very shy bird of the heron family. You are more likely to hear it 'booming' which sounds a bit like a fog horn. There are also Marsh harriers and Bearded Tits, also pretty rare. More commonly you will see mallards, coots, moorhens, canada and egyptian geese, great crested geese and swans along the waterways.
The rare, swallowtail butterfly is also often seen in the fens (large boggy areas of land with mostly reeds, rushes and sedge). This large yellow, black, blue and red butterfly is the largest in Britain and has a large green, yellow and black striped caterpillar that curiously smells of pineapple!!
The fens also have over 200 species of plants from the common hemp agrimony, yellow loose strife, ragged robin and ladies smock to the rare fen orchid and the amusingly named black bog rush.
All this abundance of plantlife attracts dragonflies and damselflies including the Norfolk hawker used as the emblem for the Broads. There are also water voles, grass snakes and the shy little Chinese water deer.
The best place to spot this abundance of wildlife is not through ploughing up and down in a cruiser. You really need to get off the main rivers and Broads and to do this try a trip to How Hill (near Ludham) and take a guided tour in the Electric Eel boat along the tiny dykes that run off the rivers and inbetween the reedbeds and fens.
Alternatively you could try a day volunteering with the Broads Authority's Conservation Volunteers who carry out work out on the fens throughout much of the year. This will really get you into the remoter spots that Cruiser tourists never see.
I hope I've wetted your appetite and shown a taster of the environmental attractions of the Broads. I could go on and on but come and see for yourself!
PS: Some of the Specific Criteria below are not relevant to me as I live in Norfolk and don't holiday here but I wasn't able to post this review without clicking on options, so appologies if they don't make sense.
How helpful would this review be to a person making a buying decision? Rating guidelines
NH Hotels, the hotel chain leader in Europe, with more than 300 hotels in 20 countries in Europe, Latin America and Africa. Enter into our web site and find the best available tariff at all times
Venere.com Hotel Booking<br>
Instantly book your Hotel, B&B or Appartment with Venere.com. Huge European selection with photos, reviews, maps and rates. Booking Direct means Lower Prices. Book now, pay on Check out.
Aug 17th, 2004
very helpful by (56%):
helpful by (44%):
