Little Thetford Sunday 19 May 2013

Yesterday evening the wind died to nothing giving some lovely reflections. A Black Prince Narrowboat came down stream and moored at the moorings the other side of the bridge.

This morning the sun was streaming in, there was no wind and it was warm. We set to and washed the boat roof, this was so we could see the rust spots easier as in places all that is visible is a small crack, but scrape it and great lumps come off. Once that was done we wandered down to the Pumping Museum.
In the car park they had three steam powered Fire Engines all in steam with there copper, brass and paint work gleaming.

 

 

I shot a bit of video of the steam fire engines running.

 

 

They also had an old what could best be described as a pickup to tow it with instead of horses. It is actually a first world war Royal Flying Corp lorry.

The were serving a mean “Hot Dog” in the museum cafe as well as bacon butties, we resisted these and home made cake, washed down with mugs of tea. As it was a special event they also had the engines running, these are all air start and beautifully turned out, with many hours of work spent on them. I shot this piece of video as they started the Hot Bulb twin cylinder engine.

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here is a bit of video of the 2 stroke diesel engine running with its twin valve arrangement.

They also have a good collection of hand tools that were used on the land. 

Some of the other engines running.

One thing I must mention before we leave the museum is their Local Weather Forecasting System which is considered by some to be very accurate.

Once we had our fill of engines we wandered over the road to the river side moorings, there were now three Narrowboats moored there so we stopped for a short chat, one of them managed to flick his Life ring over the side but planned to collect it before they left for Isleham. We then headed back to the boat to treat all the rusty bits on the roof with Kurerust, I scraped while Diana painted. While we were doing this the three Narrowboats came by.

At twenty past four we set off towards Ely for the night, coming under Prickwillow bridge there floating opposite the moorings was the Life ring, so we picked it up and will drop it off to them next time we go to Isleham.
At the end of the Lark we turned left on the Great Ouse, by now it was a bit chillier with the breeze coming down the main river. Ely Cathedral looks like a castle on the sky line from this angle.Passing through Ely we spotted that Kev and Debs were in so we drew alongside to be invited in for tea and meet the new puppy. While we were with them a steam train left Ely crossing the bridge just ahead of us, not only did the engine look splendid but so did the carriages. They get a lot of steam trains calling at Ely. After saying goodbye we headed a little further upstream for the night to the Little Thetford visitor moorings, we have not stopped on this one before.Just before mooring up we passed this young lady sitting in the sun.

Prickwillow Saturday18 May 2013

Last nights moorings at Station Road are in my opinion the best ones in Littleport. They are well away from the main roads and also the most distant point from the railway.

This morning we were away at 1015hrs. and we could see that the water level had dropped by quite some distance overnight, so the EA must be expecting more heavy rain in Cambridgeshire. Again we didn’t meet any other boats all day. About three quarters of an hour latter we were turning into the Lark. As we turned we could see the moorings at Diamonds were also empty, just like the ones opposite the Swan.

Making our way down the Lark, Tom’s Hole Farm moorings were also empty, such a shame we didn’t want to stop here. It was not long before we were at Littleport. Again all the moorings were empty, not a boat in sight. We stopped just before the road bridge and filled with water. As things were so quiet we decided to carry on upstream for a mile or so. As we left the village we passed the second lot of moorings in the village, again deserted. We approached a pair of Grebes that were totally engrossed in each other and I actually had to turn to avoid them, they didn’t move until our bows were level with them.

We passed the discharge from a drainage pump, in this case with tree pipe outlets, however this one for some reason is surrounded by a plywood housing. This is the only one I have seen like this. 

About a mile further upstream we winded and headed back to the Mile End Road at Prickwillow and moored for the night at about 1330hrs.

Our reason for mooring here tonight is that tomorrow the Prickwillow Pumping Museum have an engine running day as well as a gathering of vintage Fire Engines.

Friday 17 May 2013 Littleport

We arrived back at the boat a little after 2pm. We had bit of a diversion on the way along the old A47 as a coach full of pensioners had caught fire casing the police to close the A47 just west of the end of the Norwich bypass.

Once on the boat we went upstream through the moorings to wind and then back down to the end of the moorings to load up from the car.

Just after we exited the Little Ouse, turning left along the Great Ouse a Narrowboat came from the Denver direction and followed us all the way to Littleport where we pulled in to moor just ahead of NB Balmaha. As Diana adjusted the front rope to give maximum room to moor for any boat to moor ahead of us the passing Narrowboat called out to ask if we were just going. There would have been room for him ahead but he just kept going.

The afternoon was spent drinking first tea and then wine in NB Balmaha while we discussed their trip across the Wash and caught up with other news since last time we stopped for a proper chat 2 years ago in Peterborough.

As we made our way along the Gt Ouse I light the stove, I know its passed the middle of May but it was only 13° in the boat, now its a pleasant 23°.

Tomorrow we will be heading to Prickwillow as on Sunday the engines will be running at the pump museum and also there will be vintage fire engines on display.

Thursday 9 May 2013 Little Ouse Moorings

Last night we had a great pie in the lazy Otter last night. It was made in a dish with a pastry bottom as well as top, not a lump of flaky on top of a spoon of meat and gravy that you normally get.

The wind touched 40 MPH last night and wasn’t much better today. We set of at 10 am. with a bit of a struggle getting off a Lee bank, in the process I managed to snap the radio areal on the back cabin.

Travelling wasn’t too bad as once we were back on narrower

water we were shielded by the banks. As  we passed the new moorings at Stretham they were digging the road up ready to connect the water and electricity supplies. At the Fish and Duck there are also busy installing electricity and water points along the bank of the Old West river. Passing through Ely we passed an unusual Narrowboat that we had seen navigating up the river last week. The top box and cratch are so high that the steerer can’t see straight ahead of him and has to look down the side of the boat. Once through Ely the wind was behind up which made things quite pleasant at times. We stopped for a short time at Little Port where I removed the stub of the aerial and fitted a stainless steel bolt in the hole in the roof, I was concerned to get this done before the rain caught up.

Arriving at the Little Ouse I felt it best to go up the river forwards unlike last time when I did it in reverse. We stop just through the A10 road bridge to load/unload the boat as it by the carpark. just as we pulled in the wind picked up, there were half a dozen spots of rain and a dust cloud came over. I was OK as the stern was under the bridge. We had taken just on 4 hours to get from The Lazy Otter back to our home moorings. Once the stuff was moved from the boat to the car we moved up the river another couple of hundred yards to our mooring.

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Wednesday 8 may 2013 Lazy Otter

Last night was so quiet, there was no wind and not a sound, we were all alone on the GOBA mooring and for those that think its not worth the money joining for just a holiday, where else would you get a mooring like this included.  This morning we were awake at silly o’clock when every bird, animal and insect was shouting its head off. Then the weather was fine, but by 7-30 we had a gentle but steady rain, however it had cleared up before we set off.

Not only do they have some very hansom Highland Cattle to control the vegetation growth there is also a heard of horses living wild on the reserve. We arrived at Upware

Lock to find the EA in attendance, the lock had been playing up and they were waiting until we and the boat in front had locked out onto the Cam before testing it in automatic mode. As you can see the dreaded green weed has started to show its presence.

Once through the lock it was down stream towards the Gt Ouse, by now the sun had gone and the wind had freshened, gusting up to 25 MPH. the sky dark and threatening, but the rain held off. We passed a pair of unlikely neighbours, a Grebe and a Coot   nesting less than a meter apart in what appeared harmony. I wonder if that will continue when the chicks hatch out. You have to look closely but the Coot is on the left and the Grebe on the right.

At Popes Corner we changed plan and turned left along the Old West River, there is just one boat here moored at the Fish and Duck moorings and work is still progressing along the river bank. When the Fish and Duck closed at the end of the year some of the boats took over what was the GOBA moorings at Stretham. It looks as if these are to become permanent moorings as there was a team there laying water and electricity along the bank.

We have moored for the night at the GOBA moorings for The Lazy Otter where this evening we will check for you that the food and beer is still of a good standard.

  

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Tuesday 7 May 2013 Wicken Fen

Last night we had a very enjoyable evening in The Jude’s ferry pub, good food and a nice bottle of wine. When we turned in for the night we were the only boat left on the moorings, it was so warm I had to open the side doors and slide.

You can see from this picture how the landing stage overhangs the piling, not good for paintwork. There is loads of room to turn here by backing in to the entrance to the slipway.

We stopped on the lock moorings above Isleham Lock as we knew there was nobody coming down stream behind us and went to the marina for a chat with John and Cath. We weren’t away long but when we returned a boat had just come through the lock going upstream.
On leaving the lock the offside gate failed to open fully, it was OK yesterday but playing up last week.

 

Around this past of the world there are acres of crops grown under sheeting, from a distance it looks like huge lakes.

This converted property had some interesting chimneys made in a twist. My late dad did a lot of brickwork in this stile for different people.Having seen this old mill from the river it wasn’t until I was standing on the roof of the boat to take a photograph that I realised how big the property is, you normally only see the mill tower, the rest is hidden behind the flood bank.

Diana spotted this chap sitting on a tree stump by the river, he was very tame and we reversed back and took several photos of him, he was quite happy sitting looking at us in his little hole.

We have not seen many aircraft over the weekend but there were one or two biggies around today making up for it.

 

 

 

 

We stopped for water at Prickwillow, all the moorings are empty again now the Bank Holiday is over so we had the place to ourselves. Back on the Gt. Ouse the rowers were out in force well down past the mouth of the Lark. Work is progressing on the railway bridge at Adelaide, it looks as if they are adding electrification gantries so that the line can be electrified.
There were another family of geese with their goslings as we approached Ely, these are the second lot we have seen.
Later we would see our first family of Coots with the parents diving to collect food for their young.

By the time we had reached Ely the rowers were congregating round the boat house, so slow progress was required which gave us a chance to have a word with Balmaha as we passed, but we didn’t really want to overnight in Ely so pushed on.

For a couple of years there has been a wooden cruiser sunk on the Little Thetford moorings, we noticed today that its gone. Last time we were this way they had a barge and piling equipment nearby, so maybe they removed it at the same time.

At Popes Corner we turned left down the Cam passing The Fish and Duck moorings, there are a few boats here now, quite a few of them wide beam moored river side.We met the two Fox’s Narrowboats  coming down the Cam that we met on Saturday as they were heading for Ely.Just passed The Five Miles from Anywhere we turned left again, this time Upware lock was operational and we passed through onto Reach Lode, but not for long, at the end of the moorings it was another sharp left up Wicken Lode into Wicken Fen nature reserve for the night. There was already a boat on the GBOA moorings when we arrived at 6-30 pm. so we moored just ahead of them as I didn’t think there was room behind.
After diner we went for a walk around the reserve and when we returned at about 8-30 the other boat had gone, it must have been after 8pm. when they set off?

Monday 6 May 2013 Jude’s Ferry

Well what a day, 25°C+ wall to wall sunshine from first thing this morning, will we pay the price towards the end of the week?

About 9-30 our Scouting neighbours set off. The river appeared to have no flow at times, but by dropping off their bow rope they very slowly came round and pointed back downstream. The boat is called the Harboro’adventurer II and the bottom of the hull below the rubbing strake dates from the 1930s and is riveted the rest has been added since and last year she had a new engine.

Once they had left we set off upstream, but before I left I took another photo from the same spot as last night. I think last nights was the better shot.

There was even more of the brown scummy lumps floating on the water, it looks disgusting but I am sure its harmless plant matter. 

We were hoping to fill with water at Prickwillow but there were two Narrowboats on the moorings so we would have had to laid outside them to have taken water so we will do it tomorrow. Rounding the corner there were four cruisers where we had been a couple of nights ago.
We continued on towards Isleham Lock, The river between the lock and the Gt Ouse looks as if its had a lot of human intervention over the years as its just a series of long straights connected by half a dozen bends. But when someone said that

East Anglia was the land of never ending sky they were not far wrong.

On the right bank I spotted a small bunch of flowers with a small wooden stake in the shape of a fish. Did a fisherman die here or has someone got their ashes buried at their favourite fishing spot, who knows, but someone looks after it.

As the lock came into view there is a large flash on the right hand flood plain, today it was home to a herd of cows who decided that a paddle was the order of the day.  We had to wait for the lock as a wide beam was just coming down. This lock is fully mechanised with V gates at the bottom and a Guillotine at the top, all hydraulically powered.
We now come to the best part of this river as we continued to our mooring for the night at Judes Ferry. For those that are new to reading my blog I will just point out this memorial stone on the bank to the Rev Spurgeon, as you will see its almost the 163rd anniversary to the day.When we arrived at Judes Ferry there was already one Narrowboat there so we just went passed them and pulled in. This is not the easiest spot to moor as deck of the landing stage protrudes about 500mm over the piling, just making it right to rub a line along the cabin sides. Our method of dealing with this is to use two poles pushed into the mud between the boat and the edge of the landing stage.
We had not been here long when a cruiser came along and moored ahead of us, filling the landing stage.

We walked upstream to the old staunch at worlington, to get to it you have to walk through someone's front garden as the footpath runs between their house and the river, they have a gate at each side of the lawn and right in front of the house is a footbridge across the staunch. There are only a couple of shallow points that would stop you getting a boat up here, but you would be hard pushed to turn anything over 20 foot long.
On our return there were two more cruisers moored up, but they had to moor under the road bridge.

Sunday 5 May 2013 River Lark

This morning we were up early to drive to Bicester as it was my youngest Grand daughters naming ceremony, a civil version of a christening. The was carried out The Garth, Bicester. We followed this by a trip to the pub at Bure Park for a swift one followed by a hog roast in the grounds of the local primary school.

We arrived back at the boat a little after 5-30 PM and by 6 PM we were on our way down Brandon Creek turning left at the Gt. Ouse. We were hoping to moor at Little Port but the moorings were all taken, 3 of the Narrowboats there were also there 3 days ago when we passed as well as yesterday.

We turned up the Lark hoping to get in at the EA moorings at Tom Holes Farm but there were already two boats there, so we joined three other boats on the opposite side moored against a length of piling. By now it was 7-30 but still quite light, the only other option would have been to carry on to Prickwillow but I expect that would also have been full, hence the three boats here.

At about 8 o’clock a Narrowboat came chugging up the river looking for somewhere to moor, so we pulled back a few feet to make room for them on the piling. It was the 3rd Thetford Scout group boat that has a mooring at the top of the Wissey, we often see them about with different bunches of kids onboard, the boaters of tomorrow. Today it was 9 youngsters from the Colchester Area.

The light was good this evening making the reeds look very warm and looking the other way into the sun gave some nice cloud and water effects.I even had a duck and a swan pose for me.

Saturday 4 May 2013 Little Ouse Moorings

The wind died away overnight , but this morning we woke to sun and rain, not much rain but a bit. We spent the morning at Prickwillow Pump Engine museum, unfortunately it was not a running day, but it only cost us a couple of quid each to get in. You will find the engine running dates here. I was pleased to see they have done some work on their old Drag Line, hopefully enough to stop it deteriorating until they can restore it. They also have another engine and pump to rebuild and house somewhere.

By the time we left the museum the wind had freshened and the sun gone on its holiday, to top it all it keeps raining, only short showers but heavy with big rain drops.

We waited until 3 pm and the rain had stopped, but within seconds of letting go it started again, thankfully not to hard and only lasted about 20 minutes. That was the last rain we had for the rest of the trip. Although it wasn’t raining on us we could see the rain around us.

There were a lot moor boats about including three Fox Narrowboats who had crossed from Salter's lode, they were probably heading to Ely for the night, but being late in the day on a Bank holiday weekend I don’t know what luck they would have. We have probably seen more boats on the move today than we have since last October when we left the canal system. Most of the moorings were full in Little Port and like wise the EA moorings at The ship.

Arriving at the junction with the Little Ouse I spun Harnser round and slowly but steadily reversed back up the Little Ouse to our moorings. Cruisers moored on both banks certainly help the concentration when doing this. We tied up at quarter past five on our home mooring for the night. This is not the end of our travels so watch this space.

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.

Thursday 2 May 2013 Denver Sluice

We managed to get away from home a bit earlier than planed so were ready to set sail at 1645hrs. The planned destination, the pumpout at Denver. The sun was very pleasant and much warmer than Lowestoft.

About an hour and a half later we were at the services, a couple of boats had moored outside The Ship while we were getting ready to leave, but other than that we didn’t see anything on the move.

We had a bit of hassle with the pumpout, it is a long way from the boat to the pump, but once it was primed up all went well.

We only went a short way from here to the EA visitor mooring by The Jenyns Arms where we enjoyed a hearty meal. If anyone leaves here feeling hungry its there own fault, again we couldn’t manage a pud.

As we sat eating in the conservatory watching the river go by I noticed that the water looked to be moving quite fast towards Denver Sluice, this was reinforced when a duck swam across the river in quite a large ferry glide. Once we had finished eating we wandered up to the sluice and fount that the sluices were draw on all the “little Eyes” and the pointy gates on the tidal side were blowing fully open with the water flow. The river looked quite low with no obvious flow coming down the New Bedford, but I have never seen such a flow coming through the sluices with a very turbulent flow heading for Kings Lynn. We walked round to the Relief Channel and all the gates on the AG Wright sluice were closed.

Returning to the boat the water level has probably dropped the best part of 2” since we moored up.   So the ropes and fenders will require checking before bed.