Rat (Ratty to his friends) was so right
… There is nothing — absolutely nothing — half so much worth doing as simply messing about in boats …
I read the Wind In The Willows as a child – living in Queensland. The nearest significant water was the Myall Creek – some 17 miles away.
You note – I said creek.
It didn’t always have much water in it – but sometimes it was big enough to swim in, and to paddle about in a blow up dingy. But a proper boat – not a chance.
One of the reasons I loved Wind in The Willows was the wonderful description of the gentle green English countryside… so very different from the wide brown plains I lived on. Now that I live in the Thames valley – I appreciate it even more.
But growing up – the thought of messing about in boats was as alien to me as walking on the moon.
I have just spent a wonderful few days on a boat on the Norfolk Broads.. and am now a convert. Ratty was so right – on a boat …
… Nothing seems really to matter, that’s the charm of it. Whether you get away, or whether you don’t; whether you arrive at your destination or whether you reach somewhere else, or whether you never get anywhere at all …
We did a lot of not getting anywhere at all. We pottered around the rivers and canals and admired the many windmills.
We moored in the open broads and drank wine as the sun sank. We talked to ducks and coots and swans and cormorants… although the cormorants were not as chatty as the mallards.
The Broads of course are full of history – and being a history buff, I had to check some of it out. There is a lovely little Museum of the Broads in Stalham which informed me about peat cutting and what a wherry is.
But for once – the history took second place for me behind the total joy having no computer, no internet, no TV and most of the time no mobile phone coverage.
I get it Ratty.
… there’s always something else to do, and you can do it if you like, but you’d much better not…
Oh yes!
…the river still chattered on to him, a babbling procession of the best stories in the world, sent from the heart of the earth to be told at last to the insatiable sea.
Comments
8 responses to “Simply messing about…”
My roots are firmly in Norfolk, Janet, and your post has brought back happy memories for me of trying my hand at sailing. Not a wherry I hasten to add, but a small yacht. I wasn’t very good at it and nearly tipped the dog overboard.
Hi Mary – glad to have brought back happy memories. I took my dog on a small sail boat on a lake some years ago. I didn’t have to tip him overboard – he jumped. Then he swam back and I had to drag him back on board, dripping wet. He seemed to think it was the greatest fun.
I used to be taken on holiday to Happisburgh in Norfolk every year as a child and we’d got to Potter Higham and other places on the Broads, but I’ve never taken a boat out. It’s one of my ambitions. I’m in Suffolk, not so very far away.
Lovely blog, and I too love Wind in the Willows – or Window de Willies, as my son used to call it when he was 2.
We set out from Potter Heigham – that’s where the boat hire place was. They were very helpful in teaching us what we needed to know to drive the boat.. Do try it – you’ll love it.
Look like you had a great time and were lucky with the weather.
We had one rainy day Jean – but even that was no worry – we were snug and dry inside the boat – playing word games with friends. There are certainly worse ways of spending a rainy day 🙂
It looks and sounds absolutely gorgeous, Janet 🙂 Thanks for those pics!
You are very welcome Beverley.