Monday 3rd August - St Neots to Godmanchester
Today we begin our return journey, we have reached the mid point of our river licence and need to be back in Northampton by 16th August.
We turned the boat, Dave did some food shopping and we began cruising to Godmanchester.
We had two visitors on board today, an enormous dragonfly and a very delicate butterfly, they each hitched a ride for about 2 minutes each!
We moored up at the visitors moorings beside the lock and went for a walk on the meadow opposite. Portholme Meadow is probably the largest ancient water meadow in the UK. The circumference is 2 miles and it is three quarters of a mile across the middle. A huge flat space of grass!
Our eldest daughter, Lizzie, came to find us and we enjoyed a lovely catch up in the sunshine.
9.5 miles, 3 locks, 3 hours 6 mins.
Tuesday 4th August - Godmanchester to St Ives
A very attractive church at Hemingford Grey, we moored here on the way out and it was absolutely heaving with river cruisers. Today it was empty except for a couple of narrowboats.
The lock at Hemingford was just as busy with boats flying around in all available spaces.
We shared the lock with three hire day boats, none of whom seemed to know what they were supposed to do!
We moored for the night in St Ives at The Waits town mooring. As you can see we had a stone wall one side of us which made getting on and off the boat quite difficult especially for Toby!
Boats could reach St Ives from The Wash, carrying produce from as far away as Holland and the continent. The town became one of the busiest inland ports in the country.
We went for a wander around the town and then a walk out to Houghton Mill. We went through The Thicket, a small area of ancient woodland on the North bank of the River Ouse. A path leads you through the woodland with occasional glimpses of the river below. Quite lovely.
6.25 miles, 3 locks, 3hours 18mins.
Wednesday 5th August - St Ives to Aldreth Moorings
Today we tried to put on water from the water point but our hose wasn’t long enough! Another reason why this wasn’t a favourite mooring! So, we began the slow reverse out of the arm, the turning area at the top of the arm was barely big enough for a small cruiser, so we had no chance!
We managed it without mishap and began our journey towards Aldreth and the visitor moorings there. The wind was fairly high and it was hard work keeping the boat going in a straight line, getting in to locks was quite an achievement, but apart from a few bumps against the side we avoided hitting any other boats.
We arrived at Aldreth and moored up for the night, we had had enough of battling the wind and decided to call it a day. Dave checked the boat and discovered an inch of water in the engine bay. It looks as though the seal on the weed hatch has perished, so careful replacement to get us to Ely tomorrow, then a more permanent fix if possible.
11.25 miles, 3 locks, 4 hours 12 mins cruising time.
Thursday 6th August - Aldreth Moorings to Ely
We left our mooring pretty early and cruised gently up to Ely. We passed a lot of lovely coloured horses with foals, this one looked so pretty standing in the river.
This is the Stretham Old Engine and one of our friends stayed in the cottage adjacent to the engine, it is the little roof visible in the front, the Stoker’s Cottage is a tiny cottage sleeping two people and the first stoker to live in it was a Mr Murfitt.
Ely Cathedral against the grey skies, I still think it looks like two large churches put together to make an enormous Cathedral!
We arrived back in Ely and moored up in the same spot as before, pure luck really but very convenient. We met up with Laura and Lizzie for lunch which was delightful but tinged with sadness as Laura’s little dog Frankie was poorly in hospital, so it was good to see Laura and give her a big hug!
11.5 miles, 0 locks, 3 hrs 36 mins.
Friday 7th August - Ely
We have stayed another day, Frankie passed away last night and we want to be able to see Laura and Amy before we need to move on.
In the evening we listened to this young man playing his trumpet outside the houses behind our mooring. He is Jackson Mathod, a Cambridge Music Student who was working as a session musician for Stormzy and played at Glastonbury last year. He is now back living with his parents in Ely and concentrating on writing and performing his own material.
Saturday 8th August - Ely to Hilgay Bridge
We left Ely and called in at the water point to put on water, another calm sunny day, so we expected a calm voyage out towards Denver Sluice. The river was busy with rowers having rowing lessons, some looked more confident than others, they had to dip their oars and rock the boat from side to side, looked very scary to me?
We got as far as Hilgay Bridge, just before the junction with The River Wissey and we pulled over to moor up for the night. The wind had got right up again and we were cruising through a continuous wind tunnel, it is quite hard work keeping the boat in a straight line when the wind is blowing like that.
We went for a walk along the river to the junction, then a little way along The Wissey and then back down a drove to join the Ouse again, very pleasant.
By the time we got back we had been joined by Di and Mark on nbEnbilulu and we spent a pleasant evening catching up with news and happenings since the last time we saw them in Stratford last year.
13.25 miles, 0 locks, 2 hours 54 mins.
Sunday 9th August - Hilgay Bridge to Upwell
We woke to grey skies and light winds, so waved goodbye to Di and Mark and headed for Denver Sluice. Today we cross back over the Tidal Ouse and begin the journey back across the Middle Levels and then back along The Nene.
This is the entrance to the River Wissey, we continued past the entrance and watched Di and Mark turn into the entrance. We have run out of time to visit the Wissey, Little Ouse and the Lark, so next time we visit we shall make sure they are our priority.
We moored up at Denver Sluice and waited for the high tide to begin to recede before we were allowed to go through the lock and down to Salter’s Lode. We were joined by a hire boat returning to March for 9am tomorrow morning, so we went through the lock together and they went through Salter’s Lode lock first whilst we waited on the lock landing.
We passed one other boat on our crossing, it was reasonably calm, but you could definitely feel the current of the tide pulling you along especially when we had to turn the boat across the tide to the left in order to enter Salter’s Lode Lock.
We cruised as far as Upwell and moored for the night beneath the impressive looking church. We have some friends who refer themselves as ditch dwellers and this photo certainly shows you why. This part of the Middle Levels is very shallow so progress is fairly slow, but once we are through Upwell it opens right out again and we can pick up speed again.
9.5 miles, 2 locks, 3 hrs 54 mins
No comments:
Post a Comment