Ely to St Neots
Trip Start
Apr 26, 2011
1
18
27
Trip End
Oct 31, 2011
St Neots, England, United Kingdom
Sunday, August 21, 2011
After a peaceful night at Little Thetford moorings, we discovered that Andy and Sue had arrived back during the night and were on their boat Springwater. They hadn't realised in the dark that we were moored there as well. We caught up over teas and coffees on board Gabriel. It was almost midday when we left, and went past Pope’s Corner, the junction with the River Cam, onto new territory, further up the Great Ouse. This section is called the Old West River, being the original course of the Great Ouse, before Vermuyden cut a straight channel from Earith direct to Denver, called the Old Bedford River in 1637, followed by another parallel channel called the New Bedford River in 1651. The Old West still has high banks to contain the river in flood conditions. We passed Stretham Old Engine, a steam engine built in 1831 to lift water up into the river, and still working until 1941. It is only open at weekends, so we couldn’t visit. We paused for lunch at a GOBA mooring a little further on. The Lazy Otter pub is mentioned in the Imray guide as having overnight mooring, meals and a water tap. When we got there, there was a sign saying no boats over 35ft. As we are 55ft, we carried on past! A marina further on still, called Twenty Pence marina, looked impenetrable by narrow boat. We ended up mooring for the night at a GOBA mooring by Aldreth High Bridge. Some kind people from Balmaha helped us tie up. Meandrine and Pipedream were already there. This is the site of an ancient fenland causeway, where, according to an information board nearby, William the Conqueror crossed the Great Ouse to attack Hereward the Wake. The author of the Imray Guide disagrees and suggests an alternative location. I have no opinion either way, as it all happened before I was born.
Tue 16th August
We completed the rest of the Old West River, arriving at Hermitage Lock, where there was a queue for the lock, as it is only about 13’6" wide, just too narrow to take two narrowboats side by side. The New Bedford River starts from Earith, just above the lock, making this next section nominally tidal. We paused at Westview Marina for water, elsan and rubbish. We saw a seal in the marina. Apparently there are three that frequent the area. There was a fierce wind blowing onto the pontoon, and getting off again after using the facilities was a challenge. First we tried pushing the bows out and going upstream forwards, but the wind blew the bows back again sideways towards a cruiser which was wider than the pontoon and moored just beyond it. We had to abandon that idea and return to our position on the pontoon. We then tried pushing out the stern and going backwards as fast as we could. The wind again caught the bows and we blew round to face the other way! We went downstream a little further to where there were no boats, and turned into the wind to face upstream once again. At Brownshill Lock there was another lock queue, with five narrowboats, and three cruisers all waiting. Balmaha was one of the boats and he said he had taken photos of some of our antics at the pontoon.
Just after the Pike and Eel Inn, we noticed some lovely GOBA moorings, with grassy areas and trees providing shade and shelter from the wind. Sadly they were all taken, and we spotted Meandrine and Pipedream there. A little further on there was another GOBA mooring where we stopped next to Balmaha. It was much more exposed and windy.
Wed 17th August
An early start (0740) brought us further West past Fen Drayton nature reserve. We discovered there is no place to moor on the same side as the reserve, so we couldn’t stop. At Holywell we took a photo of some thatched cottages, and later found that the picture includes a kingfisher sitting on a branch. St Ives Lock widens out in the middle, so that two boats can get in side by side. As we were leaving the lock, Meandrine and Pipedream were arriving behind us. At St Ives, the town quay looked very difficult, with a high wall, so we went under the historic bridge, with it’s chapel, and turned up a side stream where there is another mooring called the Waits. Again a fairly high wall, but we moored with some steps at the front. St Ives was a lovely place. We visited the Norris Museum, just by our mooring, and then wandered through the two parallel shopping streets. We found the statue of Oliver Cromwell and had an early lunch at a café. We took a bus to Houghton, where we visited the mill, run by the National Trust. While there, a party of walkers spotted James’ BCF shirt, and said they had seen the banner on our boat at St Ives. In the mill we found a working model of a lock, with water in, but it had a few problems, as the top pound was not long enough. We could really do with a decent set of model locks for the BCF stand at rallies. We returned by bus to St Ives where we bought provisions at Waitrose before walking back to the boat. There we had two more conversations as a result of the banner. The first was with the local town crier, and the second with two ladies, one of whom goes to the local New Frontiers church, and the other was from the Methodist Church. Festina Lente was moored behind us. We have met them a couple of times elsewhere.
Thu 18th August
We had to reverse out from our mooring, as there was insufficient room to turn. Our first stop was Hemingford Grey, which was full of lovely old thatched buildings. The manor house dates from 11th century and was the setting for the Green Knowe children’s books. We moved on to Houghton, where we moored on an island by the mill. There is no access to or from this island, which is why we had visited Houghton Mill by bus from St Ives.
Fri 19th August
Meandrine and Pipedream passed by at 0805. They had been at Hemingford Grey. They must set off at 0800 every day. We went through Houghton Lock on our own, and then called in at Hartford Marina to empty our cassette. We also needed water, but knew there was a tap at Huntingdon, so we refrained from using their hose. Later at Huntingdon we were to regret that, as the tap was nowhere to be seen. We shared Godmanchester Lock with another narrowboat, and then we turned down the backwater to the public mooring on the park so that we could explore the town, which was historic. A 70ft narrowboat called Olive moored just beyond us, and it turned out they are Christians working amongst Muslims in North Africa. Interesting discussion then, as James has recently been reading the Qur’an. We spotted Balmaha just before Brampton Mill, and stopped to "borrow” his photos of us at Earith. We shared Brampton Lock with Royal Ruby and moored on a GOBA mooring a mile further on. A dog from a cruiser nearby kept barking for no apparent reason. Thankfully they moved on an hour later.
Sat 20th August
We had planned to go to the GOBA mooring at Paxton Pits so that we could visit the nature reserve there. We found that there was only space for two boats, and two were already there. As there was no other mooring, we carried on. Plans are there to be changed! St Neots lock was already in use, with some boats in front going up. This lock is quite deep, and the guillotine gate is extremely slow, so it took some time to get through. At St Neots we moored opposite the town, on the meadows. This was fine for Hugo. We spent some time in the shops. We noticed some equipment being set up on the meadow, and discovered it was a triathlon the next day.
Sun 21st August
We were up early to watch the triathlon, which started at 0800 with about 200 swimmers setting off downstream, and returning again, to jump on a bicycle and disappear for a while. Then they returned, jumped off the bike and ran two long laps round the riverside park. The first to finish had a time of under an hour, but the last took over two hours. Each to their own is what I say! We walked across the bridge to the Priory Centre opposite where a New Frontiers church called Open Door had their meeting at 1030. Lots of people came up to make us feel welcome. The musicians were good, and taught us another new song which we might try. The talk was about entering into God’s rest, and finding peace. We had a meal at a Wetherspoons pub afterwards. It was a very hot day and we returned to the boat and set off back the way we had come to try once again for a mooring at Paxton Pits. Back through the very slow St Neots Lock, and after an hour we arrived. There was one boat there, and just room for us as well. Apparently another boat had left the mooring 15 minutes earlier. When the day cooled down we had a walk round the reserve, which was lovely. One of the hides overlooks a gap between two lakes, and we had close up views of birds in flight going from on to the other – cormorants, swans and Canada geese. Back at the boat, Hugo was in hunting mode, and caught two mice.
Comments
What a wonderful time you have on these journeys. Your experience trying to get away from moorings in strong wind conditions reminded us of our experience on the the river Yare about 40 years ago. We had hired an old wooden cruiser and had moored facing upstream against a strong head wind and a very strong flow of water. The boat's old engine only just made it - anxious moments !