Horning Staithe - so long and so disappointing

Many years ago I read all the East Anglia Arthur Ransome books (Coot Club, We Didn't Mean to Go to Sea and etc.)  Horning Staithe features in these as a magical place to fish for perch and to sail in dingies.

Many years later my father, on business in Norfolk, made a pilgrimage to the Staithe and called me up from the Swan Inn to describe a scene unchanged from Ransome's era - a lambent summer's evening, a lone fisherman catching tiny perch one-after-another and a nice warm  pint of beer

But don't bother its all been ruined...  I returned my father's call - 30 years late - and we commiserated.

OK the rain did not help

Rather heavy - I felt sorry for the wedding party sheltering at at the even more sorry when I say the faux-Mississippi-steamer they were boarding.

Every 60 seconds one of these big white things chugs past

Yuk Yuk Yuk Yuk Yuk - your own riverside palace, complete with mooring and ugly cruiser and 500 boats a day pass your windows

This is Irstead Staithe - at the end of a quiet country lane - a few houses, a church and a couple of fishermen.  Idyllic - if you can ignore the big white plastic cruises passing down the River Ant every five minutes or so

A traditional boat house - lord knows how much the just out of shot thatched houses are worth at Hickling Broad...

Hawking over the reed bed  - is this a Marsh Harrier?

Might be - habitat and flight correct and no white rump - but I am not sure - wrong time of year for a Hen Harrier and the only other possibility is Montagues Harrier - which is very rare

From here a spectacular drive on the A47 near Great Yarmouth and then south looking for somewhere to camp:   Place 1 the office had closed at 18:00, Place 2: signposts ran out about a mile short - eventually found it - one caravan and no one in the house, then to a Camping & Caravaning Site - very friendly but as not a member they advised me to save money and go to the independent to the South - it was now dark and I found that there was a BIG concert on so many side roads closed and marshalled and campsites full - eventually found campsite just outside bass-beat range from the show.