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.

River Lark day 2

I spent the evening watching Sherlock on iPlayer as I missed it last on Sunday due to lack of a tv signal and slow internet. This morning arrived with yet more wind and rain - it really is getting a bit much now but at least it's not snowing. By late morning the rain had stopped and I headed up the river Lark towards Jude's Ferry which as far I can take my boat - smaller craft can get a little further.

The Lark is a river of two halves. The stretch from the Ouse to Isleham lock is quite wide and straight having been adjusted over many years starting with the Romans.

Above the lock it becomes much narrower and meanders along a more natural course and is a very pretty stretch of river.

I had intended to moor at Jude's ferry but unfortunately the mooring was very high and would have damaged the boat cabin so I turned around and headed back to a quiet little mooring I had seen on the way down. I am now settled by the fire for the night and will head off this river and onto the Little Ouse tomorrow

River Lark

As mentioned in my last post I plan to spend the next week or row exploring the smaller rivers which feed the Gt Ouse. I've started with the Lark which is a short river running from the Ouse near Littleport towards Bury St Edmunds although it is only navigable for around 9 miles to Jude's Ferry near Mildenhall. I left Ely around midday and spent an hour cruising up the Ouse then turned onto the Lark and followed it for 3 miles to the little village of Prickwillow.

Prickwillow visitors mooring

After a couple of bumpy nights at Denver and a windy one in a Ely it's nice to be moored up in the tranquility of the open countryside. An early night with a good book is next on the agenda.

Return to Ely

After checking with a few of my friends it appears the Ouse is running fast and high at Hartford and the Nene is onto the grass at the embankment in Peterborough, the kyaker's we're enjoying the course below Orton where the fall is only around a foot I'm told. Clearly not going back to Oundle for a week or two, particularly as there us more rain forecast.

I've decided to return to Ely to stock up on supplies and explore the smaller rivers off the Ouse.

When I opened the curtains this morning I was greeted by the sight of a fantastic dawn light through the trees across the river and found my camera just in time to catch it.

Dawn over Denver

As rain was forecast for the afternoon I set off around 8:00 with a frost on the roof and frozen ropes. It took almost 4 hrs to cover the 15 miles to Ely as I was heading against the flow which was running at about 2mph against me. Had a couple of stops en route to warm up by the fire and get the feeling back in my toes - I know I have thermal socks but must have left them at home.

On arrival at Ely I found a space, quite busy today, and popped into town. After lunch I tried out my new telephoto camera lens, a post Christmas treat, by chasing some gulls and am very happy with the results given it was a grey overcast day.

Expect to see more bird shots appearing on the blog. Particularly if I get down towards Wicken Fen.

 

A day at Denver

After yesterday's failure of the lock I decided to stay on the Ouse for a while longer. The Nene is still on red boards and the embankment at Peterborough is flooded so no point in rushing back as I doubt the Nene will be safe for at least a fortnight. Once the rain eased I decided to travel a mile down to Downham Market to buy some kindling and catch the train to Cambridge. After dropping through the lock it was a straight run down the man made relief channel which is very wide and very straight.

Relief Channel

The garden centre was only a half mile walk and we'll worth it as I picked up a sack of kindling for £3.50. The supermarkets charge that for a small bundle about a tenth the size so I was very happy as I carted it back to the boat.

I then headed to the station and, as I had 40 minutes to wait, decided to grab a coffee and find the waiting room. I'm not normally a fan of railway waiting rooms as they tend to be occupied by old ladies who smell faintly of wee, but it was cold and wet on the platform. However I found the waiting room at Downham Market station a delight. It was like stepping into the 50's, I expected Bernard Cribbins and the Railway Children to appear at any moment.

The rest of the day was spent travelling to and from Cambridge with a couple of hours walking around the shops in-between. This included another expensive trip to John Lewis - damn your tempting clearance sale.

I'm now settled back at Denver quietly roasting at 22c as I seem to set the fire to blast furnace mode.

My latest revised plan is not to plan as it's pointless. I'll spend a week or so on the smaller rivers: Little Ouse, Wissey and Lark and have a trip to Ely to restock the larder.

Bumpy water

After a bumpy noisy old night on the river I was looking forward to going through Denver and onto the middle levels to find a more sheltered mooring for the weekend.  I had booked to go through at 9:30 but was advised that it might be later due to the high spring tide.  By 10:15 with the tide falling I thought something was amiss and called the lock keeper who wasn't aware of my booking. He turned up 10 minutes later apologising for the mistake, which was unusual, and went to prepare then lock while I readied the boat.  The lock gate remained firmly closed and a the lockie explained there was an electrical fault and the lock was for want of a better word locked.  The duty electrician was called and after a couple of hours the electrician still hadn't solved it, the tide was falling quickly and the weather was turning nasty.  Not wishing to push my luck I decided to return to the visitors mooring to await better weather.

Choppy water at Denver

This proved to be the right decision as the wind really strengthened in the early afternoon and is still whistling around the boat this evening. The waves are lapping against the boat which is gently rocking.  As the forecast is pretty poor over the weekend I don't plan to move too far although I will head for somewhere a little more sheltered if possible in the morning.

A New Year

I saw in the New Year quietly with a wee dram while watching Jool's Holland's Hootenanny as I do most years.  I had moved out of Ely for a quiet night, only disturbed by unruly weather rather than unruly revellers.  I moved back to Ely on New Years day as I needed to stock up the larder having finally finished the leftover turkey and gammon joints. After another stormy night I woke to a calm morning with blue skies.  More rain is forecast so it's unlikely I'll be able to get to St Ives for a week or two so I've decided to make my way back through Denver and explore the middle levels for a few days while I wait for the Nene to settle down.

Ely

I left Ely mid morning on a sunny day with only a slight breeze to take the edge off.  The trip up to Denver was uneventful and took around 4 hours.  The highlight was capturing this photo of a  Cormorant on a power cable - another common bird on the river which has alluded me until now.

Cormorant

Journey's end is the visitors moorings at Denver sluice which are on the left.  The actual lock is directly behind my chimney with the lock landing on the right bank.  I'm booked through on the tide tomorrow morning around 9:30.  The tide will be quite high due to the strong wind due so I may be delayed until the water level falls to a suitable level to cross to Salter's Lode.

Arrival at Denver