3 May 2012 Prickwillow Mile End Road

We woke to a beautiful mooring, bright sun and not a breath of wind. The river was flowing much slower than last night which meant the level had come back up a bit.

We pushed off at our normal 10-30 swinging in a large circle and headed to the lock that would drop us to the relief channel. As we approached the gates there was the sign “Lock Closed” , so it was back out and turn back up stream. I thought The Jenyns Arms looked nice in the sun as we passed. The wooden rails show the shallow water at the end of the peninsular that houses the Denver sailing club.

At Ten Mile Bank by Hilgay Toll Bridge I spotted the first goslings I have seen this year, all yellow and fluffy still. Not a good picture as they were right on the top of the bank.

A short while after this a rather nice cow caught my eye laying in the sun chewing the cud. It was one of a heard but this one was supporting a fine pair of horns. Buy now the breeze was picking up and it wasn’t long before I had gone from Tee Shirt to Tee Shirt, Shirt and Fleece. and by the time we reached the The Ship it was blowing just over 25MPH and gusting 30.

We had noticed this swans nest as we have passed over the last couple of weeks, today both swans were in attendance, it must be getting close to hatching day now. Last time we were out Mrs. Swan was getting very irate with the white plastic drum in the bottom right of the photo.

We did see a few more boats about today, one of them a Narrowboat with a Cratch Cover so big and tall the steerer couldn’t see over the top of it as he made his way down the wrong side of the river. We considered stopping at Little Port but then decided to carry on to the River lark, we have to be back at the moorings tomorrow night.

When we reached the first lot of moorings on the Lark there was a short Narrowboat moored right in the middle leaving 3 mooring posts at each end, so we continued on up to the village. Atone point the banks were covered in this blue flower, I thought it may be Dead Nettle but I am not sure. The water now had lots of brown floating scum which breaks up as you boat through it. It looks like what I would imagine a load of sewage is floating on the water would like, but I think it is decaying plant material floating up from the bottom. It is actually brown in colour.

A pair of Grebes where busy showing off to each other have dived as we approached them and then resurfaced together some way behind us. We finally moored up on the

Mile End Road EA moorings at 2-30pm. It is much more sheltered here than out on the Gt. Ouse but the wind is still taking the edge of a nice day blowing at a steady 15 MPH.