Norfolk Pilgrim

The Broads are my local wilderness.  I love the landscape, the wildlife and the slow waters. Under the wide skies I can be at one with nature; re-imagine Jesus’ lakeside ministry; slow down and escape from our 24/7 lifestyle; all that’s needed to catch up with a 3 mile an hour God. Long ago, on an island where three rivers meet, hermits established a community. Following the example of Egyptian monks, the tidal marsh and reed beds was their green desert !  In time the community became a Benedictine  monastery and, until Henry VIII’s reforms, St. Benet’s Abbey was a powerful centre for the Christian faith.  Still the abbey has a powerful attraction. Wandering on foot or by boat, I find my eyes searching for the familiar outlines of its ruined gate-house and scanning higher ground to catch sight of church towers on the horizon.  Higher than most is the one they call The Cathedral of the Broads - St. Helen’s, Ranworth Visitors are invited to ...

Photo by Ray Jones and Alan Price is used with permission from Norfolk Wildlife Trust Bright red hips and haws hang in the scrub. A party of long-tailed tits squeak noisily through the branches. The board-walk runs through reeds at the river side no longer busy with the hullabaloo of holidaymakers and the chugging of a dozen diesel engines. Autumn has come to Broadland and quietness cloaks the scene like the early morning mist. Less than a mile from Woodbastwick on the Ranworth road, where the road turns sharp right, a lane runs down to the river. The walk starts from a small car park just across the river from Horning’s Ferry Inn. It’s wheelchair friendly all the way – about a mile - to Cockshoot Broad. In summer the water lilies along the dyke are sensational! Along the path fishing platforms jut out through the reeds. Perhaps you’ll stop and chat to a fisherman as you saunter. Walking by the water and talking to the fishermen are Christ-like activities – the easiest...

On an autumn day, where cattle grazed, I crossed marshy fields to the beach. Ragged Robin, the summer’s last flowers danced in the breeze. The first skeins of wintering geese honked in the sky. Beyond the dunes 30 seals were hauled up on the sands, lolling around like so many enormous slugs. More were out at sea impersonating inquisitive black Labradors . I sat. How therapeutic it is to sit with seals! They have the art of being and not doing ! I’d parked at the National Trust’s Horsey Mere car park. There are toilets and a café open every day to the end of October and at week ends through November. I’d used the permissive footpath that leads off from the other side of the road - if you are at all in doubt ask at the café they’ll direct you! Once on the beach, turn right and you soon come to the seals . A few are there most of the year but they turn up in numbers in September and October. My way took me back past the pub – refreshments here are recommended - and...