Grandparents Gadabout Week 9

 Monday 19th July - Southampton

A super day with Alba, visiting Lepe Beach, play park and cafe before returning home for fun and games in the paddling pool.

Tuesday 20th July - Southampton 

Today we went to Romsey to feed the ducks, but unfortunately we couldn’t because there is a rat infestation due to the amount of food left lying around for the ducks!  Instead we played in the play park and returned to more fun and games in the paddling pool!   We then drove back to Ely.

Wednesday 21st July - Queen Adelaide to Ely

Today we returned the boat to Ely and moored up on Jubilee Gardens.  Dave then drove back to Worcester and left the car there before catching a train back to Ely.  I spent the day with Laura, Amy and the twins until it was time to meet Dave from the train.

Just one of the many elephants which have been installed in Worcester for the summer - there are about 60 elephants, large and small, to be found on the 6 mile trail around Worcester. 

1.75 miles, 0 locks, 42 mins

Thursday 22nd July - Ely to Aldreth GOBA Moorings

Today we start our cruise from Ely to Bedford and back again.  We left our mooring and headed out past The Cutter Inn and towards Pope’s Corner.

Here we turn right and continue along The Old West River as shown on the signpost. A beautiful morning for some peaceful cruising. 

These are a pair of grebes with a baby, it’s the second I have seen, yesterday I saw an adult grebe with two tiny babies riding on their back, but unfortunately the photo wasn’t clear enough to include here. 

Coming round the bends of the river and meeting a convoy, everyone going sedately so no problems!

 We moored for the night at Aldreth GOBA moorings, a lovely secluded mooring, very peaceful and spent a quiet afternoon in the shade of the boat, it was very hot! 

11.5 miles, 0 locks, 3 hrs 42 mins.

Friday 23rd July - Aldreth to St Ives

Today we move onto St Ives, our first lock is Hermitage Lock, it is a manned lock because you lock up onto a tidal section of the river.  It connects to the New Bedford River which goes 20 miles back up to Denver.  We passed through the lock just after 9am, but the lock keeper forgot to close the paddles on the gates so we weren’t going anywhere fast!  I did promise not to tell anyone! 

A cormorant taking a rest after flying in front of the boat for quite some time.  I do think they are an awesome sight, quite primitive with their long neck.

We noticed these reed beds along much of this stretch of the river, a programme of planting to increase the habitats available to many different aquatic species.  They also help to limit the erosion on the river from boats travelling at speed.

A view of the Old Bridge as you come into St Ives, the 15th-century bridge is noted for being one of only four bridges in England to incorporate a chapel. The chapel was restored in 1930, having previously served as a toll house, inn and as a private residence. It had originally been designed as a chapel, though, and dedicated by the monks to Saint Leger. By 1736 it was being used as  accommodation, and in that year two extra floors were added. During the 1850s and 1860s it was turned into a notorious public house, then a doctor’s surgery. By 1930 the structure was found to be weakened so the extra storeys were removed and the chapel restored. As a result of this, the roof is modern. An unusual feature is the crypt, about two metres above the river’s water level. 

We moored on the edge of Hemingford Meadow, only just fitting at the end.  We went for a walk and explored the town and then did a circuit of the Meadow.  In the distance is St Ives and our boat!  

11.25 miles, 3 locks, 4 hrs 18 mins.

Saturday 24th July - St Ives to Godmanchester

A cooler start to the day, perfect for cruising, we came through Hemingford Grey with its picturesque church.  Last year we weren’t able to moor here as all the moorings were occupied, today it was really quiet, but we don’t want to stop! 

A beautiful wildflower bed at one of the locks, very pretty.  There was an Environment Agency employee at the lock, he was keeping an eye on things as last week they had to call the police because too many youngsters were playing around the lock!  

The bridge at Huntingdon, another picturesque bridge, with a newer bridge just visible behind it.

We made our way through Godmanchester lock and moored on the EA moorings on the other side.  Very happy to get this mooring as it is so convenient.  

We went for a walk on the largest meadow in England, Portholme Meadow is classified as a humid, mesophile grassland. It is a species-rich hay meadow on a moderately fertile river and tributary floodplain. It is cut annually for hay, with light aftermath grazing. Seasonal flooding maintains an input of nutrients.

We arrived at Brampton Mill and had a cool drink in the garden looking over the river.  We have been to this mill many times when my mum used to live in Little Paxton and we would visit her and take her out to lunch at the mill.

In the evening we heard jazz music being played, so after supper we followed the music and it led us down this little path, a bit like a fairy grotto, and we found...

a jazz ensemble on an island and an audience of people listening to the music.  As we felt we might have gate crashed this event we only stayed a short time and made our way back out again. 

This is the new fish pass on the old mill steps, fish passes help eels and fish migrate more freely up and downstream.  They work by letting fish and eels ‘climb’ barriers, providing a gentle slope with slow water that’s deep enough to allow the fish to travel. Resting pools along the way allow the fish to rest before continuing on their journey!

Later in the evening a boat moored below the lock on the lock landing and was very noisy!  They eventually went through the lock at 11.30pm in the dark and headed up the arm into the town, I was pleased they had gone, but it was worrying that they should have been using the lock in the dark! 

6.5 miles 3 locks, 2 hrs 48 mins

Sunday 25th July - Godmanchester to St Neots

A cold and drizzly start to the day, we left Godmanchester and set out for St Neots.  It was incredibly quiet all the way, only sharing Offord Lock with a tiny narrowboat called Lilliput!  This is St Neots lock, 177ft long and 14ft wide, not particularly deep but incredibly long! 

As we approached St Neots we realised that there were a lot of rowers on the river, gradually it dawned on us that we had arrived in the middle of a competition.  They had to halt the races so that we could continue down into the town and find a mooring space.  We wanted to moor on the Riverside, but it was completely taken over by hundreds of rowers, boats and officials.  The first time we have ever taken part in a regatta! 

We ended up in the town side moorings and discovered that it was the annual National regatta with two full days of racing over the weekend, with teams attending from as far away as Newark!  

We went for a walk through the town and the riverside meadows and found another jazz event, sat for a little while and listened, then headed down to watch the racing from opposite where we were moored.

I have never been so close to these racing boats, they are enormous, so thin and light weight, I am amazed that they stay upright in the water.  The competition was thrilling to watch with over 170 races throughout the day.

9.5 miles, 3 locks, 3 hrs 54 mins

Grandparents Gadabout Week 8

 Monday 12th July - Little Thetford to Ely

Today we have cruised in from our overnight mooring and found a spot to moor in Ely just before the Cutter Pub.  We joined Laura, Amy and the twins for lunch at The Prince Albert, then Dave and Amy went and did some shopping in Tesco’s.  

Tuesday 13th July - Ely

Today we are going to look after the babies by ourselves whilst the girls go for a long walk by themselves.  So after making sure they were fed and changed we took them for a walk to the golf course and back through Ely.  A lovely afternoon, topped off with a refreshing drink in the Cutter Inn before returning to the boat.

Wednesday 14th July - Ely to Little Ouse GOBA moorings.

Today we resume our exploration of the rivers off the Great Ouse, and we visit The Little Ouse.  Unfortunately it was very cold and windy for most of the journey but we made it safely to the GOBA moorings near Wilton Bridge.  These moorings are the equivalent to wild mooring on a canal, you need to use mooring pins and in our case a gangplank to get safely on and off the boat.  We went for a walk along the raised bank, but it was cut short by Toby rolling in a very fresh and very smelly cowpat!

We decided to take Toby to the river and throw a ball for him to retrieve, hopefully washing most of the cow dung off him before allowing him back on the boat.  However, he had great difficulty actually getting the ball in his mouth, and ended up across the other side of the river still chasing the ball and gulping large quantities of water at the same time.  So I stripped off trousers, watches, shoes and swam out to rescue him, I collected the ball and pushed him back to Dave on our river bank.  Fortunately neither of us suffered any ill effects and we both went back to the boat and had warm showers.

17 miles, 0 locks, 4 hrs 18 mins.

Thursday 15th July - GOBA Moorings to Brandon Lock

We left our mooring and continued on towards Brandon Lock.  On the way we came through the Little Ouse Sluice Gate.  The gate is kept open except during flood conditions, we were able to pass through with no problems.

We moored for the night at the visitor moorings just before Brandon Lock, the lock is only 45ft and we are too long to use it.  From the 1700s the navigation on the Little Ouse was maintained by the building of staunches, primitive locks to bypass weirs. These generally raised the water level upstream allowing a consistent water depth for boats. Now there is only one lock, close to Brandon Leisure Centre that raises the water level by about one metre allowing boats of less than 45ft to pass through to moorings in the town upstream of the road bridge.  From there it is no longer under the jurisdiction of the Environment Agency and deemed to be the end of navigation.

We went for a walk along the bank of the river to Santon Downland, this photo is the bridge that we crossed over the river at the midpoint of our walk.  The path was a little overgrown, but it was a delightful walk.  

Once we had crossed over the bridge, we walked through Santon Downland and then through Thetford Forest back into Brandon.  Towards the end of the walk it began to drizzle so back to the boat and a nice cup of tea! 

5.5 miles, 0 locks, 1 hr 48 mins.

Friday 16th July - Brandon Lock to Littleport Visitor Moorings

After a very pleasant evening at Brandon, Dave turned the boat round in front of the new fish pass.  It has only been open a few weeks and it is there to improve fish passage on the Little Ouse River for both migratory species and coarse species, connecting them to important habitats.

As we were cruising along The Little Ouse I was able to capture a heron in flight, it had been flying in front of the boat for about 10 minutes!  

We stopped at the junction of the Little Ouse with the Great Ouse and had lunch at the Ship Inn, very pleasant indeed!  The mooring we had was right under the A10 so very noisy, so we moved on, but moorings were difficult to come by, lots of white cruisers mooring irresponsibly and taking up too much space.  We eventually got to The Swan on the River EA Moorings and managed to get two cruisers to move up, thereby creating enough space for our 57ft!  By the end of the evening, cruisers were mooring all over the place, made us think of Gaios in Paxos in high summer!  

17.25 miles, 5 hrs 24 mins.

Saturday 17th July - Littleport Visitor Moorings

Today we have spent the afternoon helping Amy out with the twins whilst she went and had her second vaccine, it meant a bit of juggling but we eventually ended up with the car in the right place and had a lovely afternoon.  Sunset in the evening was delightful! 

Sunday 18th July - Littleport to Queen Adelaide

Today we left Littleport and moved the boat back to Queen Adelaide, Dave had to drive the car and I drove the boat.  He was able to stop on route and take these photos of Ella cruising between these two points on the river.  

When we got to Queen Adelaide we moored up, packed our bags for three days down in the south to help look after Alba, and set off for Annie and Pete’s for a lovely bbq and playing with Alba.  

3 miles, 0 locks, 0 hrs 45 mins.

Grandparents Gadabout - Week 7

 

Monday 5th July - Southampton

Spent a lovely day with Alba playing on the beach at Lepe Country Park, not quite the weather for swimming but great fun playing in the waves.

Tuesday 6th July - Southampton 

A wet and muddy walk through Itchen Valley Country Park and great fun playing in the mud kitchen!  Tonight we return to the boat hopefully where we left it at Queen Adelaide! 

Wednesday 7th July - Queen Adelaide to Judes Ferry, West Row

Today we are having a few days exploring the rivers off the Great Ouse.  Dave took the car into Ely and left it with Laura and Amy, then walked back to the boat, before setting off back towards Denver Sluice and taking the first turning right onto the River Lark.  These are the GOBA Moorings before the village of Prickwillow.

The only lock on the River Lark that we go through, it is 1.1 feet depth and automated although it took some time to work out how it worked! 

After the lock the river became narrower and very windy, but eventually we arrived at Judes Ferry, Dave turned the boat and we moored up on the pontoon at the bottom of the garden.  The pub was making preparations for the match between England and Denmark tonight, but we were pleased to see that it was all very quiet and civilised! 

We went for a walk into West Row and found the church, again with no tower.  West Row had a Methodist church and a Baptist church. The few Anglicans had to go all the way into Mildenhall to attend divine service at St Mary, so in 1875 the village school was extended and converted into a church. The school had been built 25 years earlier as a National School, but soon turned out to be too small. It constituted the nave of the new building.

This was the space for turning the boat, with a blustery wind blowing and the narrowness of the water, it took several reverses and forwards to bring her round, but Dave did it brilliantly!

A lovely photo of the boat on the mooring taken from further up the River under the bridge.  The current navigation ends at West Row where a minor road crosses beside a pub which provides moorings alongside its garden. This used to be a commercial wharf and was known as Jude's Ferry.

12.25 miles, 1 lock, 4 hrs 12 mins

Thursday 8th July - Judes Ferry to Prickwillow

We left Judes Ferry and began to make our way back up the river to Prickwillow.  I spotted a deer in the shade of the willow tree, but it was well camouflaged! 

The side of the lock was a mass of colour from the wildflower planting, the number of bees and butterflies was amazing, shame they don’t come out on the photos.  

We moored in Prickwillow before the bridge, another lovely quiet mooring.  Prickwillow Museum, a registered educational charity, tells the story of the drainage of the Fens, the history of the local area, and those doughty individuals who ran the drainage pumps in out of the way places.  

Ella on her mooring at Prickwillow, a welcome sight after a walk along the Hereward Way and the river.  

8 miles, 1 lock, 2 hours, 30 mins.

Friday 9th July - Prickwillow to Wicken Fen

We left Prickwillow after stopping to fill up with water and headed back towards Ely.  I spotted this little egret on the river bank, the little egret is a small white heron with attractive white plumes on crest, back and chest, black legs and bill and yellow feet. 

We stopped in Ely for diesel and water and then continued down the River Cam and turned into the Wicken Lodes and through the lock called Upware Ship Lift!  We moored just before the turning into Wicken Fen on the visitor moorings.  The water was incredibly clear and very weedy, and at this point we decided not to try and cruise the three lodes, Wicken Lode, Burwell Lode and Reach Lode, but to explore them on foot instead.

We walked along Wicken Lode and did come across this boat sitting in the middle of the water, just watching the fish and the dragonflies, looked very peaceful!  

We stopped at the National Trust Visitor Centre for tea and scones and then walked back across the fen.  We saw these ponies in the fields, they did look amazing, a lot of foals.  Wicken Fen is home to the beautiful Konik ponies who help by grazing the scrub, stopping the wetlands from turning into woodland.  On the back of their legs they have zebra stripes and on their back is a thin stripe and their mane is both blonde and dark.

Artists Heather and Ivan Morison have built the artwork Mother..., a thatched hut offering sanctuary and solitude in Wicken Fen Nature Reserve.  Heather and Ivan, who together lead Studio Morison, wanted to explore how the natural world might be used to improve people's mental health.

Ivan Morison said - Mother... makes us think of the sculpture as a vessel that might take us places; this could be on an imaginary journey around the solar system, it could be a journey connecting the past with an imagined future, making the work a time machine of sorts, or it could be a journey within our own minds, a rehabilitative journey from upset to calm.

13 miles, 1 lock, 4 hours, 18 mins.

Saturday 10th July - Wicken Fen Junction

This morning we saw the trip boat, Mayfly, which comes from the National Trust centre at the end of Wicken Lode,  comes up the lode, turns in the junction and goes back again.  All with an on board commentary.  

 

Once the rain had stopped we set off to explore the Burwell Lode and Reach Lode.  This is Burwell Lode from the footbridge, very narrow and quite long, about 4 miles from the lock! 

On the way we saw these cattle grazing on the fen, they are Highland Cattle and the hardiness of the breeds means they are more than capable of withstanding the rigours of life on the fen throughout the year and thrive on the available forage.  The Highland cattle originate from the Highlands and Islands of Scotland, they are tough and robust with a placid nature. 

We walked along Burwell Lode, stopped for a drink at The Five Bells, then carried on to Reach and walked back along Reach Lode, up to the lock and then back to the boat.  A total of 10.5 miles!  

Sunset from the side hatch of the boat, stunning reflections in the very still water.

Sunday 11th July - Wicken Fen Jumction to Little Thetford Moorings

This morning we decided to move the boat off the Lodes and back onto the Great River Ouse. This is Ella entering the lock at the entrance to the Lodes, which we managed easily this time.

We moored up at Little Thetford Moorings and spent the afternoon watching the Men’s Singles Final before going for a walk back down towards the Fish and Duck Marina.  It had turned quite cold and blowy, so it was a short brisk walk!  

4.75 miles, 1 lock, 1 hour 48 mins.