Posted by Claire on February 05, 2011 at 06:48:23 user Claire_Morgan.
In Reply to: Joys of Ransoming posted by Roger Wardale on February 01, 2011 at 01:22:16:
"Visiting a corner of 'Ransomeland' for the first time was like reading a SA book for the first time — a joy that could never quite be recaptured!"
Roger's account of Bowness Bay in the rain reminded me of one of my own experiences, the first time I visited England in 1988. We arrived at Wroxham in the evening, and it rained the two days that we stayed. But we rented one of the Freedom small diesel boats that had a top and side curtains and went down to Horning and Ranworth. The next day, I went alone partway up the Thurne and had a pint and lunch in a pub along the river. I smiled a lot and felt like I was dreaming.
Equally part of the magic was meeting a nice gentleman - Bill Haworth, I think his name was - at our hotel, who took us to see his classic center cockpit wooden cruiser. It looked very much like Margoletta!. When he learned of my boating experience, he said that we needed to come back again, and go through Yarmouth with me as crew! Sadly, that never happened, since it would be about 21 years until I returned
All of that plus my earlier in the month Lake experiences, were a wonderful introduction to the reality of the Arthur Ransome world that I had admired from afar for so long.
Claire