The Quiet Life

No matter how much you thrive on it, riding the constant cortisol bullet train is not good for you.

Happy Friday friends.

Sometimes you have to slow down, whether you like it or not. No matter how much you thrive on it, riding the constant cortisol bullet train is not good for you.

And so this week I have officially un-plugged. Well as much as I can really so it’s a short and sweet one as I re-wild in beautiful Norfolk.

Norfolk is one of my favourite places. We come up here regularly, this time with friends for a boating week. The Broads National Park is an area of outstanding natural beauty and ecological importance providing a natural habitat for more than a quarter of the UK’s rarest wildlife.

But the story didn’t start this way, during the middle-ages Norfolk was almost completely de-forested to provide fuel for cooking and heating, natural peat bogs were dug and channels created to move materials by water and become a working environment for commerce and trade. The coming of the railways at the end of the 19th century saw one of the greatest natural re-wilding projects begin and the Broads switch purpose to tourism, it soon became a haven for people to enjoy a bit of “messing about on the river”.

The first thing that strikes you is the slowing of pace, as we picked the boat up from the lovely ladies (Shanelle & Tracy) at the Broads Direct boatyard in Wroxham it was clear that we even talk faster in London, or maybe it’s just me and I talk so much and so fast that calmer humans make it look more obvious. Anyhow’s, they, like most people you will encounter here, were lovely.

As we pootled out onto the 200km of winding rivers and Broads for the week I could palpably feel my heart rate beginning to slow. Although we are a happy ship of fun and laughs, even I find more time to be slower, to breathe, and although this may be quite shocking to anyone who has ever met me, be quieter.

Yes shipmates, quieter, as David Sylvian and Japan sang about in the 80s, I get the rare chance to enjoy ”The Quiet life”, and it is as restorative as it is enjoyable, fun and interesting.

The frequent pub stops for a locally sourced ploughman’s lunch also help to calm my overthinking mind. (insert smiley emoji)

As we gently navigate the winding landscape of reedbeds and windmills I get the chance to breathe slower spotting marsh harriers and kingfishers, swallows and coots and appreciate the environment I’m in without the urgency to always be doing the next thing on the list.

Why don’t you try it? There are so many areas of outstanding beauty, wildlife and fauna in the UK, we are literally spoilt for choice. And it is a brilliant way to lower your own carbon footprint by cutting just a few plane journeys out of the mix.

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