2023-05-21 52 1

Location

Near Berney Arms in the Norfolk Broads.

Participants

Plans

Take the train to Berney Arms station, arriving at 14:01, giving me 23 minutes to get to the hash and back for the return train.

Expedition

I took the 11:50 train from Cambridge, arriving in Norwich at 13:13 giving me time to stop at a local sandwich shop to purchase a chicken and bacon footlong, then caught the 13:36 to Barley Arms.

As the train approached the platform, I stood by the door, preparing for a speedy walk to the hash and back. Unfortunately, the platform was so small that only one door opened, and it wasn't the one I was at. This cost me about 20 seconds, walking through the train to the next carriage.

At the hash!	You can tell I was in a rush

I headed off, along the route that I thought I could follow easily. (I'm used to geohashing around crop fields, where public footpaths are where crops aren't. Cow fields are more difficult.) I did manage to stay on track, although I paused at a few points to get my bearings.

As I approached the hash, I checked the time and realised that over half of it was gone. So I reached the hash, hurriedly took a few pictures, and then set of on a run, taking a slight shortcut for the first part of the return journey.

This cow followed me for quite some distance

Running back was hindered by two things: my endurance, and the cows. These cows probably aren't very familiar with humans, so were watching me closely even when I walked past them, and some of them got up and looked intimidating at me when I tried to run through their field. So I slowed to a walk until I was away from that herd.

Soon after that, I saw my train pull into the station...

My train, leaving the station

...and then watched it leave.

There were two hours until the next train. I briefly considered walking to another station that would have an earlier train back to Norwich, but (a) I didn't have wifi, so couldn't check whether that work work, and (b) I don't think that would be covered by my ticket, so I'd have to spend extra on a new one.

Instead, I stuck around to explore what little there is in Berney Arms.

Here's some stuff I learned, mostly from Wikipedia:

Berney Arms station was sold to the rail company by Thomas Berney on the condition that they build a station there.
- After some legal proceedings, it was decided that they also had to serve the station.
In the year from Apr 2019 to 2020, it was the least used station, but only because it was closed for a large portion of that time.
Berney Arms is named after the pub, Berney Arms
- I was unable to determine whether Thomas Berney had a connection to the name of the pub, or whether it's a coincidence.
The pub is closed.
The windmill is currently closed, because of a 2018 storm.