Up The Creek Blog

The Norfolk broads are a fantastic place to spend a few hours kayaking along the rivers or open broads. Wroxham town is an excellent place to have a great day out.  There is plenty of parking in the town centre. The river Bure runs through the middle.  There a a few good places to launch from. The main car park has a wooden platform on the waters edge. This gets you onto the main river.  If you paddle away from the boat yards you will be in open broads within a few minutes. Watch out for the swans around netting time they can be very protective of their young.  Just give them a wide berth. South of the town is Wroxham broad . Drive to the Wroxham Yacht club, just before their main gate there is a small parking area on the right with a slip way (Pay and display) . The broad is small but you can navigate out into the main river. The “Canoe Man” main offices are in Wroxham. Address 10 Norwich Road NR12 8RX 0845 4969177 .  So if it’s canoe hire or info about guided trips pop in for a chat . Also Wroxham Marine Ltd on Griffin Lane have canoes and accessories for sales.

If you want to do some coastal paddling from a beach Sheringham is a great place to do it. The beach is typical pebble and sand with a sea wall and narrow promenade.   there is a stretch of the beach patrolled by coast guards. Here there is a slip way onto the pebbles. Fantastic for sit-on kayaks. Just launch off the beach and away you go . There are some areas of off shore reefs so I would recommend the use of a helmet . Let the life guards know you are about to go out they will keep an eye on you. Of course let them know when you are back. There is some parking at the sea front. But I just park up at the train station, load the kayak onto my c-tug trolley, load up the gear and trundle the short walk through the town centre shops to to the sea front. I guess it helps that I came here year on year as a child with my family, so I know the sea front very well.  Many a memerable day building sand castles and fish and chips on the beach.

Burnham is a wonderful place to go for a kayak paddle. Parking is free and plenty right next to the waters edge. It is a tidal harbour Creek so check tide times first (see links page ). Going in a north easterly direction you can paddle out to lots of places to stop and disembark.  If you plan it right within a tide cycle you can paddle right out to Scolt Head island nature reserve.  This is an off shore shingle and sand barrier island .

This is one of my favourite places to kayak. Parking is easy (national trust members free) toilets , small sandwich bar for drinks and food. The parking has a formal visitors area then as you go through the yacht yard there is a wide open area for those using the water sport facilities and the seal trip boats.  The tide here doesn’t stay low for very long so usually there is enough  water level to canoe. The blakeney point harbour is sheltered so more calm than out on the sea.  If you know where to go you can get a magnificent views of the grey seal colony on the west side of the harbour. Keep your distance from the large adult ones but the  young seals will come and investigate. See my gallery for some fantastic shots of seals right up near my kayak. The sand spit can be a great place go ashore and have pack lunch. Check out Beans Seal trips . Worth the £10 just find out where the seals are . I then went back 3 hours later in my kayak to the same spot.

As a child my family came to Wells next to sea on a regular basis. Fish and chips sitting on the harbour wall and crabbing off the Quay side.  This kayak trip was to see the harbour from the water . . Tidal current not too strong. Can get very fast and strong on the incoming tide. A lovely sunny day with the tide half out. There is a slip way at the end of the harbour as the water goes into the Creek.   Very easy to launch from here. But no parking near by. I usually park in the main car park near the front and then take the kayak by trolley up to the slip way . There are plenty of places to pad lock the trolley.  It was very relaxing just sitting in the kayak in the middle of the harbour looking across to the Quay. Worth checking at the Harbour Master office to ask if kayaking is okay in case there is a restriction in place on leisure craft. There are toilets in the main car park just behind the Ark Royal Pub on Holkham Road. The parking on the quay side is very expensive per hour.