Hickling Broad holds its secrets close. A sunken place of reed beds and woodland carr, created from Medieval peat pits, dug for fuel. Now the Norfolk Broads are a magical world of shining water and silver reeds, magnificently mysterious in the deep winter twilight.

From the Norfolk Wildlife Trust car park walk away from the reserve entrance, back along the lane just travelled. Find the track a few hundred metres to your right and follow it to Stubbs Mill where a platform keeps feet dry. This is an atmospheric place to watch fiery winter sunsets over miles of swaying reeds. Short-eared owls quarter the banks, soft brown with piercing yellow eyes, they’re visitors from lonely places. As shadows darken marsh harriers arrive, impressive birds fighting back from the brink of extinction. Norfolk is their stronghold. Rare elsewhere, here you might see up to seventy birds circling their roost, an unforgettable spectacle. If you’re lucky, the best is yet to come. Huge cranes, an endangered species, return at the dying of the light, necks outstretched, calling through the purple dusk. A beautiful, triumphant sound, it fills the air, bewitching landscape and memory. Out in this watery land sit the haunted ruins of Brograve Mill. Decayed, dangerous and unreachable on foot, only barn owls find safe places to roost among its broken timbers; only sand dunes protect it from the surging winter sea. Darkness has fallen. Switch on your torch and head to a cosy local for some excellent Norfolk food.