Don’t you just love it when there’s a surprise spell of bright sunny weather? You just have to make the most of it, and a long weekend in the Norfolk Broads is definitely a good way to do this. In another one of our mini-adventures, we based ourselves at Salhouse Broad, just off the River Bure, close to Wroxham, in the North of the Broads National Park, and enjoyed a beautiful few days of canoeing and camping just as it was turning into spring. If you’re looking for a mini-adventure of your own, here’s how we did it.

What did we want to get from the trip?

This was to be our first camp of the year in the second weekend of April (yes, we know it’s a quarter of the way through the year and we hadn’t yet spent a night in the outdoors, we don’t know what we were playing at, but believe us we were definitely feeling the lack of time outside), where we really wanted to spend some time in nature. We were also missing canoeing. We decided against canoe touring this time, due to the uncertainty of the weather, and we wanted the comfort of being able to take a load of warm stuff with us and did not fancy tackling portages carrying that much kit.

Location

We are very fortunate where we live in the Midlands, as it makes most of England and Wales only a few hours drive away. To help us narrow down where we were going to go we used the following criteria:

A campsite that was open at the start of April.
A campsite that was next to water so we did not have to drive to put the canoe in.
Somewhere we could do a couple of days of paddling without having to relocate.
The nearby water being relatively flat and bubble free as an all-in capsize would be rather unpleasant at this time of year.
Preferably somewhere new for both of us.

Despite this being a few simple criteria, it really narrowed the options down for us and we ended up looking at the Broads National Park, and specifically Salhouse Broad. This location fulfilled all our requirements and more!

The Campsite

Salhouse Broad campsite is situated approximately 30 minutes from Norwich, and even less from Wroxham, on the banks of Salhouse Broad. The site is relatively small with around 10 pitches for tents, one glamping pod, and moorings for boats. As far as facilities go it has a bit of a funny mix, but all quite welcome. These included; one water tap, two composting toilets, 2 chemical toilets, recycling and general refuse facilities, a snack truck, an adventure playground, a dark sky viewing net, and canoe rental. The last four are open to the public as well as campsite visitors, and there is a public footpath that runs down two sides of the campsite and out to the broad; which means the public can access waterfront and only a subset of the facilities mentioned.

We took full advantage of the snack truck enjoying locally made ice cream in the best of the afternoon sun.

Norfolk is renowned for being quite flat, so it was a little surprise to find that the campsite is actually on a hill and many of the pitches are far from level. There were so few people around though, that we were given our pick of the sites available, so got a pitch that was fairly level and close to the water.

We were also somewhat taken aback when we found out that the campsite was in a dark sky area, and we were lucky enough to have a couple of clear nights whilst visiting to see the stars. We did not make too much use of the viewing net though as it was a bit nippy out, only being a degree or so above freezing in the evenings. We could, however, see ourselves spending an hour or two in the summer laying back in the net looking at the stars. It would be especially good during a meteor shower where you can spend hours staring up at the sky. With its slight angle you would see far more of the sky than just laying on the ground.

Canoeing

What a fantastic place to go for a gentle paddle. With a lack of noticeable flow, it means you can pootle up and down stream exploring with ease, and with so many twists and turns there are side quests galore going in and out of the various boards. There is also an abundance of waterfowl that we have not witnessed before in the UK. We saw far more than just your common ducks, swans and geese. The dawn chorus, especially the booming of the bitterns, was impressive (or at least that is what Katrina told Rob in the morning - he somehow slept through it… every day). Our highlight had to be the three kingfishers that were flying around us for the best part of an hour as we made our way down a calm section of the river Bure.

The only small snag with paddling in this area was the pleasure boats. Despite the numerous speed limit signs, there are still those who flout the rules and power down the waterways creating some rather serious wakes. This is not good for a number of reasons:

Erosion of the banks.
Disruption of the flora and fauna.
Causing difficulties for other water users.

The last one we directly had to deal with. A rather large rental boat came flying past us, creating a wake that was well over a foot high. Now this would normally not be much of an issue, however due to the narrowness of the section we were paddling, we had kept quite close to the bank. The boat passed us rather closely resulting in us not having anywhere to turn the boat to better cut across the wake. We have spent a fair amount of time in a canoe now though, and were able to communicate quickly enough that we rolled our hips, and braced with the paddles, and all was good.

Once this boat had gone past us and around the next corner there was a right hullabaloo. One of the River Rangers was moored up around the bend and had caught this boat whilst it was speeding, and had pulled them over. It turns out that the River Rangers not only help those in on and round the Broads, but also have a surprising amount of power. Needless to say, we did not see that speeding boat again that day, but we did have a delightful chat the next day with a couple of Rangers about their capabilities, who were moored up outside a disused water works. They actually asked if we had Paddle UK membership. In all the years of paddling in the UK, this has to only be the second time we have ever been challenged while on the water.

This was a delightful little backwater we pulled into for lunch.

We spent a good couple of days exploring the delights of the Broads. We were amazed at not only about the sheer amount of wildlife that was around, but also at how unbothered it was about boats and canoes paddling past them. It meant that animals you’d usually only glimpse were right there to gander at for minutes before they’d head away. Something we did not realise before we went though, was that you cannot access all of the Broads network. Some of them are privately owned, and the entrances are blocked by gates. This was not much of an issue as there are still so many you can access and explore.

Equipment

As this was our first camping outing of the year, we took it as a good opportunity to take a good proportion of the equipment that we expect to use this year, to see how it was getting on. We try as much as we can to put our gear away in good repair, but even so things can degrade without you really noticing. A good example of this: the elastic on our tent footprint had decided to lose its elastic properties while packed away, that got added to the list of gear fixes to sort over the next few weeks.

We were also trying out our refurbished Andy Handy. This is a fantastic bit of kit that turns any dry bag or bucket into a nifty hand washing station. For this year we have fitted a new dry bag, as the last one was no longer watertight. It takes a little bit of care to cut just the right sized hole into the lowest part of a dry sack, then attach the fitting so it seals, but it is more than possible with a sharpie and a craft knife. To use it you fill the dry bag with water (yes that does feel strange to type, but anyway), hang up the bag, then bump the plunger and a second or so of water will gush out. This works out to be a great way of having a hand washing station that does not use extraordinary amounts of clean water.

Our now refurbished Andy Handy looking all fresh with its new dry bag.

When we go on a trip a little tip we picked up was to make a note of anything that was broken, or in need of repair at the time you notice it on your phone or in a notebook, so when you get home you can work through them and make sure that they are ready to go for the next trip. It can be so frustrating knowing that you had a problem with a bit of kit last time you used it, but somehow completely forgot about it between then and now, when you are standing in the middle of nowhere with a broken thing! (Please don’t ask us how we know that ….. Katrina)

Would we recommend this trip?

YES! This is a fantastic bit of the world to go and paddle a canoe around. Although there is a small amount of flow in the rivers it is almost like paddling on flat water. It is also one of the few places in the UK which is set up well for paddling, with many places having specific canoe and kayak put in and get out spots.

Sunny Salhouse Broad