REGIONAL FOCUS and LOCAL INTEREST GUIDES in and around NORFOLK, SUFFOLK, CAMBRIDGESHIRE, ESSEX and the NORFOLK BROADS in EAST ANGLIA UK.

On 15th December a crew of 14 people will set off from the Canary Islands, attempting to set a new Guinness World Record for the fastest Atlantic crossing by an ocean rowing boat. The "Atlantic Challenge" rowing race is a speed challenge designed to capture the world record for the fastest man-powered crossing of the Atlantic Ocean...

First, take a pretty part of the country, advertise its charms, bring in the visitors, build an industry around the mixture and love the place nearly to death. Second, be aghast at the changes, decry the damage, blame the visitors, but keep the tourist industry because the region now needs it, and try to maintain all life forms...

At a time of changing climates and rising sea levels, evolution is alive and well, not least it seems in the thinking on the new European legislation which touches on them. But there is a problem...

The Norfolk Broads - a singular noun, it denotes an area - is an artificial landscape. Left to its own devices, this area of shallow river valleys and the flooded medieval peat diggings which are the Broads themselves would be swamp - fetid in summer and non-negotiable in winter - rather than the bucolic, if seasonally crowded, holiday destination that it is today...

Long ago, in the late 19th century, before the internal combustion engine, there were electric boats on Britain's waterways, sleek and efficient, carrying substantial loads for relatively little energy. From 1888, when the 65ft Viscountess Bury began Thames day trips with up to 80 passengers, electric boating expanded...

There is a bit more going on along the north side of Lowestoft's Lake Lothing these days. Walk down Harbour Road or, better still, stroll the waterside footpath east from Carlton Swing Bridge and before long you will come across a small shipyard with two slipways and a third under construction...

In the days when roads were still hardly worth the name and horses dragging coal waggons - and coal was the most important cargo - through winter quagmires were the cutting edge of land-bound goods haulage, almost any waterway with enough water offered an alternative...

Think of Blakeney and you’ll probably think of the Harbour or the Point, and on Blakeney Point, you’ll probably think seals. A seal trip - spotting seals from a boat out of Blakeney or Morston - is one of the must-do things for visitors to the North Norfolk coast. It’s easy to see why. A seal is cuddly - if you don’t get too close...

Once upon a time, in the Middle Ages, when East Anglia became the richest part of the country, (on the back of the sheep), Wells-next-the-Sea was a commercial hub, a port for the small sailing ships that carried much of the nation’s trade.

Long before the building of the last trading wherry - Ella - in 1912, the wherry fleet's fate was sealed. The railway linking Great Yarmouth to Norwich had opened back in 1844, and ever since had been gradually taking business from the wherries on their most important route...

The Wherryman’s Way is in the Broads – Britain's largest protected wetland. This installation is one of a number along this 35-mile recreational route following the course of the River Yare between Norwich and Great Yarmouth. The route takes its name from the wherry – a large cargo-carrying barge whose elegant black sails were a once common sight on these waters.

Windmills have been present for more than 800 years. Many windmills throughout the county have been restored and are now open to visitors. Some windmills in the region demonstrate the traditional way of producing flour.

Some say its name derives from the Anglo-Saxon - wisc: marshy meadow, and bec: bank. Others incline to the ‘Ouse Beach’ origin, the River Ouse once discharging into the Wash hereabouts (before it changed course and went to Bishop’s - later King’s - Lynn around 1300) at a time when Ouse was sometimes spelt Wyse.