Hickling Broad
Hickling NR12 0BW
Situated in the upper reaches of the Thurne river, not far from the sea, Hickling is the largest Broad of them all, a long, sprawling, mostly shallow expanses of brackish water, cut by inlets and reedbeds. It’s a designated nature reserve, administered by the Norfolk Wildlife Trust, which has a visitor centre and car park on the eastern side of the Broad, where you can buy tickets to enter, following marked tracks that take in stretches of reedbed, woodland and marshy meadow down to the banks of the Broad itself, where there’s a bird-hide on stilts. Boat trips run from a landing-stage down on the Broadand take in a 60ft-high treehouse. Otherwise just get a taste of the Broad by visiting the staithe and witnessing the waterborne activity from a comfy seat outside the Pleasure Boat Inn.
