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| Lovely mooring at Ferry Meadows |
We enjoyed a quiet evening at Wansford and set off next
morning for Ferry Meadows – a country park with lakes, one of which had some
pontoon moorings in it.
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| Mooring at Wansford Station |
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| Signal Box at Wansford |
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| Lots of trains and a bus at Wansford |
It was really windy and had we been on narrow canals lined
with moored boats, we probably wouldn’t have moved, but we’d barely seen any
other boats, moored or otherwise, for the last week. As we reached the first lock of the day,
another boat appeared behind us, so we were able to share. Like us, they were less than impressed with
the Nene, also noticing the lack of suitable moorings. Onto the next lock where there was a plastic
cruiser heading towards us from the other direction, so we waited as the lock
was set for him. If we were feeling the
wind, this wee thing was zigzagging its way to the entrance, not helped by
having to squeeze past some bouys marking a ‘shoal’ that had to be
avoided. A few hours later we arrived at
Ferry Meadows, making an incredibly sharp right turn almost back on ourselves
to get in the entrance. If it was windy
on the river it was ten times worse on the open expanse of lake, but it was
lovely and we managed to get onto the pontoon mooring.
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| Ferry Meadows mooring - we'd have stayed another night here but we'd run out of food :( |
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| Nice Duck Sculpture in Wood |
The Ferry Meadows are lovely, well worth a visit with a few
lakes, play areas, café and well kept walking and cycling paths. We were very impressed. I enjoyed a run round the lake – twice, to
get in my mileage and we had a quiet evening once the wind had quietened
down. The next morning we had a wee
wander round and then set off for Peterborough.
We moored at the Embankment at Peterborough which was nice and very
handy for the shops. We found our way to
the Waitrose (eventually, we are so crap at navigating off the cut!!), and
familiarised ourselves with the town centre as we decided to spend a couple of
days there. On Sunday we were up
sharpish, had breakfast and headed off for a trip on a steam train on the Nene
Valley Railway, which would follow some of our route over the past couple of
days!
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| Arriving in Peterborough under the East Coast Mainline |
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| Our transport for the afternoon |
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| One of the many exhibits at the museum back at Wansford |
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| The turntable at Wansford |
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| Lots of trains |
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| And the home of Thomas the Tank Engine - who is being refurbished |
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| More trains - for those of you who haven't had enough yet... |
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| Our transport home |
In the evening, making use of being in civilisation, we
cycled to the cinema and saw Eye in the Sky.
It was excellent, and I’d highly recommend it.
As it was a bank holiday the next day, we had a lazy day,
catching up on our shopping at Asda and topping up our wine at Majestic.
On Tuesday we left Peterborough and headed for the
Standground Lock which would take us down onto the Middle Levels – the drains……. Basically these are ditches that were dug out
to drain the water from the land, enabling the land to be used for agriculture –
huge flat expanses of land. At least, we
think there was….. As we were travelling mainly in the ditch, all you could see
was the sides of the banks…. Thankfully
it was a nice day so at least we could enjoy the weather.
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| The more exciting start to the Middle Levels |
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| Me using the special windlass we had to buy - for two locks!! |
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| The monotony broken briefly by the appearance of a WWII pillbox - and some trees |
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| BIIIIIRRRRRDDDDD!! |
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| Lots of windfarms in this neck of the woods |
We moored for the night at the town of March, where we
picked up a couple of CDs in the charity shop in case we couldn’t get a tv
signal, as we were down an embankment.
However, we got lucky and across the embankment there was a gap between
two buildings and we managed to get a signal through there! So ‘Black Swan’ will have to wait for another
signal-less night…
We were booked into the tidal lock at Salter’s Lode, to take
us onto the Great Ouse, on Thursday morning at 8am – no choice of times where
tides are concerned – and advised by the lockie to arrive on Wednesday
afternoon/evening and moor at the lock for the night. We had been watching another few boats
travelling the same direction, and decided we should get ahead, in case the
moorings at the lock were limited. So,
we were uncharacteristically up and away by ten past nine on Wednesday
morning. The boat moored in front of us,
Nineveh, were booked for Thursday too, but decided on a cooked breakfast at the
local pub before setting off.
Not long into our journey two other boats appeared
behind us, one of which was the solo boater we’d followed down the Northampton
Arm. Before the tidal lock there is
another lock that is manned, but you can just ring ahead, when you’re about 40
minutes away, which we duly did. When we
arrived at the lock there was no sign of the lockie but the instructions
advised us to ring the bell. If there
was no response, you just put yourself through…… A few minutes after ringing the bell, the
elderly female lockie appeared and assisted us through. While we were waiting, the other two boats
arrived but it was a narrow lock, so we all had to go up one at a time. On the other side of the lock it
was incredibly shallow through the towns of Upwell and Outwell and trying to go
any faster than tickover just made us go slower as it dug the back of the boat
into the mud. It was really, really
tedious. However, it finally opened up
and deepened a bit and by mid-afternoon we reached the moorings at Salter’s
Lode. The lockie’s wife was very
welcoming and chatty, it was the lock-keeper’s day off, but he’d be around
later, but other than that, they’d just see us at 8am the next morning. We had a wander to look at the lock and then
half a mile up the Great Ouse to look at the Denver Sluice – yes, we’d only be
on the tidal water for half a mile!!
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| Crawling along the bottom through Outwell |
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| The tidal lock at Salter's Lode, with the Denver Sluice in the distance |
The
other boats arrived and there was plenty of room for us all, and Nineveh tucked
herself in behind us, so we had a nice long chat with them and their gorgeous 7
month old collie, Meg. We were up bright
and early the next morning, and ready to go by half 7, which was just as well
as there was a knock on the boat and the lockie was there, “The tide’s come a
bit early and you’re the only ones that seem up, are you ready to go??” We were, and by the time we were in the lock,
the rest were out of their beds and watching.
The worst thing about it was the height.
The lock was taking us up, and there was a stone bridge, pipes and metal
crosswork for the lock. We had to wait a
minute or two for the water to drop to get through and then it was only clear
from our roof by a couple of inches – scary biscuits. The tidal section was a delight after the shallows
of the previous day and Quaintrelle sped up to the sluice, through it and onto
the non-tidal Great Ouse. The river was
wide and deep, but like the middle levels, there was not much to see. Although we could see over the banks, the
landscape was flat and characterless, but it was a nice morning and Quaintrelle
was enjoying the river. We stopped off
after a couple of hours at a water point and filled up, during which time,
Augustus, one of the boats behind us overtook.
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| Coming up the Tidal Great Ouse towards Denver Sluice where another boat has just popped out of. |
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| Denver Sluice ready for us on the left |
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| Coming out on the other side |
We then continued on uneventfully heading for Ely, where we
would spend the weekend.
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| First sighting of Ely and its wonderful cathedral |
Ely is fantastic! We
really, really enjoyed it, helped by the amazing hot, sunny weather and the
fact we got moored about 2 yards from the local ice cream van. We wandered around the town to get our
bearings and picked up a chip butty for a latish lunch, which proved a fatal
move for one of Mike’s elderly crowns.
An exclamation from him and I saw him rake through his mouthful of
chips, now in his hands, to expose the offending crown. My first thought was that someone else’s
tooth was in his chips – euuwwwww…. as I didn’t know he had a crown. But he soon confirmed it was his – he says he
wished it had been someone else’s as teeth problems when you’re hundreds of
miles from your dentist is a pain. We
rang round the dentists we could find in Ely, but they weren’t interested in
helping and the emergency one in Cambridge was only able/willing to help if someone
was in serious pain. Mike wasn’t quick
enough off the mark to start yowling down the phone…… We then phoned our own dentist in Edinburgh
and started looking at flights from Stanstead to Edinburgh on Monday. Our dentist’s first response was, “Isn’t
there a local dentist, all they’ll do is stick it on again…” I then found another dentist in Ely, a
private practice that does cosmetic dentistry and face stuff, so we phoned them
and they gave Mike an appointment for 11.30 the next morning – woohooo!!! The only spanner in the works was that we
were picking up a hire car in Cambridge around 10 to go to a funeral in
Colchester at 2pm! Would the timings
work out??
Thankfully they did.
Enterprise were sharp picking us up and we were back in Ely by 11am
waiting for the dentist, who was done by 11.50 having stuck the crown back on
(it is cracked unfortunately so won’t last forever, but should do til we can
get a new one back up at Edinburgh). And
we arrived for the funeral (with the biggest delay of the journey getting
though Colchester itself!) at 1.40pm.
The funeral was an old colleague and friend of Mike’s, June, who he
lodged with in Knaresborough back in the time when he had hair. I had never met June but still managed to be
the person crying the most…. June was 88, so had had a good, long life but I
still find it sad when someone’s time is up and sad for the loved ones left
behind who will miss them. I think I
have overactive empathy glands…….
We headed back for Cambridge just as rush hour was starting
and expected long delays, but everyone must have taken a half day on Friday as
we got back with no hold ups at all, returning the car and then taking the
train back to Ely, as we were too late for them to give us a lift.
It was the back end of a fairly stressful day and as we
walked back from Ely station to the boat along the riverfront, we were ready
for a pint. So how delighted were we to
spot Jim (who fitted out Quaintrelle) and Ali (Jim's partner) enjoying one in the Cutters Inn. They were meeting up with us for the weekend,
but got there before us. No second
invitation was needed to join their pre-dinner appetiser, then we headed back
to the boat to change and go for a curry.
We had a fantastic weekend being tourists in Ely.
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| Gorgeous big dutch barge heading back to her mooring on the outskirts |
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| The Eel of Ely |
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| Ely Cathedral |
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| Heading up the West Tower of the Cathedral |
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| On top of the world!!! |
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| Looking across to the Octagon Tower - is it just me, or can you actually see the curve of the earth??! |
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| Getting ready to leave our lovely mooring |
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| Great Riverside moorings at Ely maintined by the council |
Our 48 hours on the visitor moorings at Ely were up on
Sunday morning and as we were having breakfast out on deck, the Ely Council
parking warden came over and reminded us.
We said we’d be on the move shortly and he carried on down checking the
line of boats. Jim and Ali arrived
shortly after and as the warden was hanging around, as if waiting to watch us
go, we went for a wee jolly down to the water point to fill up and empty our
rubbish. Jim and Ali then headed off and
we did a quick shop at Sainsbury’s then headed off. We had tickets for the Stained Glass Museum
to use that day, so hoped to get a mooring on the outskirts of town that are not policed by the council, but the EA,
but they were full. A chap was painting
the roof of his boat, so we called out and asked if we could pull up alongside
for a couple of hours. He was happy for
us to do so, even though it turned out that these were no longer EA moorings
(despite the signs!), but had been taken over by the Bridge Boatyard on 1st
May, and were now private moorings. The
new signage is being made apparently….. Anyway, the man was very nice and happy
for us to stay for a couple of hours, so we went to see the stained glass,
which was really good.
We then left Ely heading for the next mooring, which would
just be a riverside one, when Mike noticed that the Stretham Pumping Station
was open today and we had talked about visiting. We turned right at Pope’s Corner onto the Old
River Nene and moored up an hour or so later at the Pumping Station. This pumping station was built in 1831 to
take over the pumping of the water from the land from the windmills. It was steam driven originally then went to
diesel but was finally closed down when electronic pumps were installed throughout
the fens. The boilers don’t work anymore
and are too expensive to repair, but they can run the pump to let you see how
it worked, which was really interesting.
It was interesting to see the same machinery we saw at Crofton Pumping
Station on the Kennett and Avon in 2014 but being used for a different
purpose. This one was to pump water off
the land, the Crofton one pumped water back up to the summit to keep the canal
in water.
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| Stretham Pumping Station |
We turned around and headed back to a lovely rural mooring
we’d passed on the way. There were still
a couple of boats there, but otherwise it was silent, just us and the birds. As the evening came in we could hear a
cuckoo, which I get really excited about as we don’t have them in Scotland.
The next day, our fourth in a row in glorious sunshine and
shorts, we set off back to Pope’s Corner and turned right to continue on the
way to Cambridge. It was really hot and
a great day to be out boating, especially as everyone else was at work!! We came to another junction and took a left
on to one of the lodes – drainage channels – used to let water run off the
Great Ouse when the levels get too high.
We came through the sluice gates (which you just leave as they reset
themselves automatically after 15 minutes – nice), and moored up at the water
point there, where there was a long line of leased moorings (which were full)
and a spread of flat land for miles. We
knew it would be quiet here so decided to wash the boat as she was absolutely
filthy. Going through windy, flat,
agricultural land for the past week meant she had a thick layer of dust all
over her and she was not wanting to arrive in Cambridge in such a state. We gave her a good wash, filled our tank and
headed down the Upware Lode and at the junction half a mile on took a right
onto Reach Lode. It got narrower and
shallower as we went and the mooring at the end was laughable, but we got tied
on and had a look round the little village, which was very pretty but didn’t
have much else going on. The pub was
shut due to a kitchen fire. We had lunch
back on board, then began the laborious task of turning in a very tight,
shallow spot whilst avoiding the moorhen sitting on her nest of eggs!! We did it, using poles at both ends rather
than the engine to pivot her round, but we were glad to get back along this
lode and onto slightly deeper water again.
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| First signets of the year at Reach |
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| The bus stop at Reach - no, I have no idea why Mike wanted a picture of this. It was quite cute though, they had a pile of magazines for you to read while you wait! |
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| Almost moored up, just a bit of a jump to the bank, at Reach. In Roman times, this was a busy port!! |
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| Back along Reach Lode |
The next lode was down to Burwell and although it was quite
a boring cruise, the sun was out and the mooring at Burwell was really pretty,
almost like mooring in someone’s garden!
We wandered into the town, picking up some herb plants from a house
selling them (that makes it sound like we didn’t pay, but we did) and then up
to the Coop for some shopping. I was due
to do a run, but the lure of a pint in the pub in the evening sun was too much
and as I’d done my 10,000 steps, according to my FitBit, I didn’t feel so bad
about skiving off.
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| Lovely EA Mooring at Burwell |
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| Mike tucking into the first Bar-b-que of the year |
We had our first bar-b-que of the year, and just as we
cleared our plates the rain started.
Okay, so it was inevitable; we’d washed the boat AND had a bar-b-que…..
This morning our shorts were put away again and waterproofs
brought out, coal scuttle filled…… We left Burwell and headed back up to the
final lode off this stretch where there was a nice mooring at the end. We intended to moor up then cycle down the
Wicken Lode as it’s very narrow and shallow and we didn’t want to get
stuck. However, it was so wet and the
ground rough so we decided to walk. As
we walked in the rain we could hear a couple of cuckoos, sounding as if they
were making fun of us. Excited as I had
been to hear them the other night, we’ve now heard them everday and the novelty
has worn off….. We got soaked so were
very relieved to reach the National Trust café at the end of the lode and have
a cup of tea and a scone. From there we
went on to the Wicken Mill. There are a
few mills left in the area, some were pumping mills and others, like this one,
were for making flour. It has been
restored over time and producing flour for around 10 years now. It is really, really cute. I have never been in a windmill before and
loved it. The restoration work that has
been done and continues to be done is fantastic and if you are in the area, you
should visit. Thankfully the rain held
off for the walk back to the boat, so my bag of spelt flour survived the journey. I’ll let you know next time how the bread
turns out, as I haven’t used spelt flour before…..
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| The Wonderful Wicken Windmill |
Tomorrow we go back on to the River Cam with another lode to
explore before reaching Cambridge on Thursday.
I really need to try and do this more regularly……meanwhile, I'll leave you with this - hope you're not eating....
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| Phwooooaaaarrrrr.... |
