Onto the Little Ouse

I spent a quiet few days in Ely while the last round of wind and rain blew through. Steve, my eldest son, visited on Saturday as it was his birthday and I couldn't get to him. After a tour of the amazingly full car parks of Ely we ended up parking his car in the Cathedral car park and walking down to the river. We spent the afternoon catching up before we retired to the Cutter Inn for dinner an pint or two to wash it down. Good food and good beer I would recommend the pub if your in need of sustanance in a Ely.

Steve reminded me that Stanground lock, my entrance to the river Nene, is due to be closed for a month from 20 Jan. While there is plenty of time to make the trip I couldn't actually pass through the lock with the river at it current hight. So it looks likely my Christmas cruise will be extended by a further month. I'll check with the lock keeper on Monday as the chances of the river falling in time but judging by levels further upstream there is still a lot of water to run through yet.

Meanwhile I've continued my exploration of the tributaries and have moved onto the Little Ouse which joins the Gt Ouse a few miles beyond Littleport and runs for 14 miles to the village of Brandon. The river is navigable beyond Brandon for shorted craft, the lock is only around 35 ft long.

After a keen overnight frost the morning was bright and clear. Steve headed off to March to compete in the 6 mile frostbite run and I set off up down the river in bright sunshine which was just strong enough to take the chill off. However after a couple of hours it clouded over and gentle breeze picked up and it suddenly felt much colder. Around an hour later I reached the GOBA mooring a little over half way along the river and quickly moored up and headed for the warmth of the cabin which was quite cosy. The mooring here is in the middle of open countryside and I'm looking forward to a quiet night.

 

Tonight's mooring

The forecast is good so I'm looking forward to continuing to Brandon tomorrow.