I find myself increasingly counting the days to our family weekends on White Lady. Being located on the northern Norfolk Broads there are three viable destinations for weekend trips. The Bure up to Coltishall, The Ant up to Stalham and given favourable tides, the Thurne to Potter Heigham and beyond.

Of course I still have trepidation navigating under Potter Heigham Old Bridge in the knowledge I would have to repair any damage to the boat. It does help when you can be confident of clearance assuming the height boards haven’t be hit. If we have a reading of 6ft, then we have plenty of clearance under the bridge with screen down. We could probably fit with out screen just laid flat on the coachroof but for peace of mind I remove it to the rear cockpit bench seat having pulled over to make the process safer.

This weekend, both tide and weather looked ideal to get under Potter on Saturday lunchtime and for a Sunday return mid afternoon. My idea was to get up to the free moorings at Catfield as I’d never been before but having got under the bridge easily, I felt more ambitious and decided to explore to another location I’d not yet seen; Somerton.

West Somerton represents the furthest East you can navigate on the northern Broads and Dungeon Corner was the spot used to film an episode Gone Fishing with Bob Mortimer and Paul Whitehouse. Sadly it’s closed season for fishing but it was great to see the spot in person. En route we had to pass through the Martham swing bridge which made a change.

This part of the Broads is wonderfully remote with the fabled ‘Big Skies’ and is mastered by reed cutters. Remains of wind pumps provide the only relief from flat fen and reeds. Martham Broad opens up to wildlife, but not boats. It provides a slightly surreal effect when navigating the river channel but with access to the watery expanse being denied.

West Somerton has a real charm in that there is very little there other than a small cluster of houses, a modest green and many small stagings for very small boats. A pub is said to be nearby, but I have no idea if it is still trading. There is a water point with a donation box recommending a £1 donation for a refill. This is a real joy when elsewhere on the broads, commercialism has taken over to the point where some locations will charge you £10 or more for water.

The free mooring is extensive and could support a multitude of boats but it does feel like the only reason it still exists as a free mooring is that no one can get there to make it desirable for commercial exploitation. The crew were keen to watch the Grand National, so I took the liberty of a walk up to Somerton Mill. There isn’t much to see but then again, you don’t have that many opportunities to get that close to the brickwork of a windpump. Next to it was a substantial iron shaft, semi-embedded in the earth which will probably been part of the pumping gear.

As it was now mid afternoon, we needed to up sticks and head towards our overnight destination of Catfield. Doubling back, we then took the Upper Thurne to Hickling Broad, passing the cut to starboard which leads to Horsey Mere. With Hickling Broad opening up, we followed the clearly marked buoyage to stay in the channel. Although perhaps not essential in the spring, certainly as the season progresses, weed takes over and can make the passage arduous to say the least requiring you to ‘stay in the middle’.

Around half way up Hickling, we were looking out for a yellow cardinal mark showing the turning point into the well buoyed channel taking you into Catfield Dyke. It is said to be very shallow in the vicinity of the Cardinal but I suspect this has more to do with people cutting the corner and not rounding it properly. It was really quite windy and raised an entertaining chop whilst the sun was dead ahead and low in the sky making it rather hard to make out the final buoys before the dyke. I could imagine some casual boaters could easily become disorientated and run aground just outside of the well buoyed channel but that’s just part of the adventure.

On entering Catfield Dyke, the wind lost it’s grip and we were presented by a wonderful reed-lined ‘canal’, straight as a die but quite magical. It’s perhaps 30ft wide and probably none too deep. I can imagine this being tricky, if not impossible to navigate with weed present although I’ll definitely try this summer.

The end of Catfield Dyke greets you with a small boatyard and a free mooring capable of taking perhaps four small boats such as ourselves or three of the more common sized cruisers although I would imagine they’d have a bit of trouble getting up the dyke (or under Potter Heigham Bridge for that matter)

There is nothing here ! and that’s a wonderful thing. It means that it’s peaceful with a low likelihood of ravers hiring a boat for a drunken and noisy weekend finding the place or managing to get to it. It also means you’re unlikely to have to contend with screaming kids as there’s nothing for them to do. For me this makes Catfield one of my top five moorings (certainly in spring, we will see in summer). Yes, there is a small village pub around 30 minutes walk away but that’s not the point of this place. We settled in and cooked a lovely dinner on board which was far too involved for boat cooking, but why not on a mooring like this – what else are you going to do ?

Our initial plan for the weekend was based on it being a bit of a squeeze to get under Potter Heigham Bridge making low tide timing fairly critical. This would have meant getting back under early afternoon. As part of the trip the idea was to enjoy a Sunday lunch somewhere and so on the face of it, the Norada Tavern at Potter would have been the obvious choice. I have to say, I’m not a big fan of pubs which serve various shades of crispy brown and chips – sure, some people love it, but not me and I have an air fryer at home for that kind of thing. To that end, it dawned on me that it could be possible to enjoy lunch at the newly re-furbished and re-opened Pleasureboat Inn. It had to be worth a shot as last time we moored there, the pub was derelict and in a very sorry state.

The pub had definitely been given a full work-over with a bright, fresh and clean interior. The staff were exceptionally inviting and attentive. The food was excellent whilst offering genuine value for money. It made a real change to be seated in a bright space without piped music making conversation impossible. Sure, the exterior of the pub could use some shrubs and flowers to make it more inviting but it’s early days. The staithe outside was completely empty but hopefully in the near future it will maintain a balance of being accessible but also having the visual interest of seeing a few moored boats. Hopefully The Pleasureboat becomes one of the few pubs on the broads where we could get a mooring for lunch in the summer.

We were running out of time so departed Hickling to make passage back to Potter where we dropped the screen again and made easy passage under the bridge, tying up for a short but essential visit to Lathams to buy something I never intended to or though that I needed.

It was then time to make our way home to Ranworth in beautiful afternoon sunshine. The weekend weather had been cold and rather windy but compensated for by bright sunshine throughout. A stunning early season weekend cruise which may struggle to be beaten.