Further up the Great Ouse

 We are now moored at St Neots and it is time to bring you up to date with our wanderings up the Great Ouse, starting with a day by the seaside!

Last Saturday (17th July) we left Leo in Ely and took the train to King's Lynn and then a bus to Hunstanton to see the Wash. Two years ago we crossed the Wash on Leo from Wisbech to Boston. Here you can just see the church tower of St Botolph's (known as the Stump) at Boston through the haze across the Wash from Hunstanton.

The cliffs at Hunstanton are famous for being stripy. The white top layer is chalk, the one below is a rare iron tinted limestone and there is a lower browner layer, difficult to see in the photo, of carr stone.

Looking south we saw some very strange mirages. Here I think we are looking at trees on the south coast of the Wash seen through a curious heat inversion - it was a very hot day.

The crowds in Hunstanton put us off staying for too long so we had a walk along the cliff tops stopping for crab salad baguettes and then caught the bus back to King's Lynn. We had time for a walk round the medieval part of the port before catching our train. Here we are at Purfleet Quay with the Custom House in the background. The statue is to an 18th century chap called George Vancouver who gave his name to the city in Canada.

In the tidal river Ouse you can see the floating pontoon which is where we would moor Leo if we came down the tidal river from Denver and Salter's Lode about 16 miles away. While we have no such plans this year, we have met a narrowboat that is planning to do just that and then cross the Wash - good luck Girl Ia.

On Sunday after doing some shopping and visiting the services, we headed off up river

About three and a half miles up river we came to Pope's Corner. The River Cam from Cambridge joins here and is to the left while the Old West River goes right which was our route. There is a marina here, hence all the moored boats.

Finding a shady willow tree on this very hot day we stopped on this wild mooring and spent much of the rest of the day in the shade sometimes having an uneasy relationship with passing cows who also wanted the shade. We retreated to the boat until they decided to move on. We did not like to argue with several hundredweight of cow!

Sometimes they came very close to see who was inside this metal box which had appeared in their shady spot.

At 5.30 am I was up for another reason and took this photo of the mist on the water in the early morning light.

We passed Stretham Pumping Engine which used a steam engine to pump water from the fields up into the river. It is open Sundays and Mondays but not when we passed on Tuesday. The Old West is narrow, twisty and shallow with lots of weed which makes for slow boating.

We spent Tuesday night on a GOBA (Great Ouse Boating Association) mooring at Aldreth and on Wednesday we set off to reach the second part of the  Great Ouse, referred to as the Bedford Ouse rather than the Ely Ouse. On our way we saw this strange formation of cloud in the sky. Our daughter Lucy has suggested that it might be a smiley face drawn in smoke by an aeroplane perhaps for someone's birthday. You can just about make out two possible eyes and a mouth within the circle

And so to Hermitage Lock which has a lock keeper. This lock takes boats up onto another tidal part of the River Ouse. A 20 mile straight waterway called the New Bedford River links this stretch with the tidal river below Denver Sluice. It is all part of the system for draining the fens.

Here we are coming out of Hermitage Lock onto the tidal section. The level this far from the sea only goes up and down about one or two feet on a normal tide.

To the right of our route and under this bridge is the New Bedford River heading in almost a straight line for 20 miles to Denver. You can cruise that way but timing is crucial to make sure you do not get caught on a sandbank by the falling tide.

 Seals are often seen on this stretch and just upstream of Earith, we passed a mother seal and a pup and circled round (it is a wide river) to have a closer look.

While Mum was still asleep, the young seal woke up and started looking around.

After about 3 miles on the tide we came to Brownshill Staunch, a lock with guillotines both ends, which lifts boats up onto the non tidal river once more.

Unlike the Old West River the Ouse above Earith is wide, clean and pleasant with no high flood banks to hide the view. It is a delightful river.

We spent Tuesday night at Holywell, a pretty village of mainly thatched houses along the river. The Old Ferry Boat Inn was right behind our mooring and we had a good meal there in the evening.

On Wednesday we went through St Ives lock and a short distance into the town of St Ives. This picture shows its famous bridge, one of four in the country which has a chapel on the bridge. Where are the others? The answer is Bradford on Avon, Rotherham and Wakefield.

The Quay at St Ives has some lovely old buildings. You can moor here but instead we turned right soon after and moored up a small backwater called the Waits which is equally close to town. Because of a possible water problem at home, Ian went by bus to Huntingdon and train back home and returned to Leo on Thursday afternoon. Problem solved, lots of gardening done and new keys cut for other neighbours in case of any future problems.

On Thursday evening we decided to move from the Waits to go back on the river and in search of a breeze to keep us cool. Here we are passing the church at Hemingford Grey just before we moored on open land at the edge of the village. In case you think the spire of the church looks stunted, it is. It was blown down in 1741.

And here we are moored on the open meadow which is another GOBA mooring. Well worth joining GOBA to use their excellent moorings.

On Thursday we came through Houghton Lock where someone has planted lots of wild flowers. It looked wonderful. We've seen lots of wild flower planting this year and it is a constant delight.

Hartford Church, on the edge of Huntingdon, is another lovely sight right by the water.

After a night on remote GOBA moorings near Paxton Pits Nature Reserve where Helen might have heard a nightingale, we carried on through St Neots lock. Although it is less than two narrowboats wide, it is enormously long as you can see here with Helen right up the far end and Ian and Leo back down the other end of the lock. Why individual locks here differ in size so much is a bit of a mystery. The previous lock at Offord is the narrowest on the Ouse and limits larger boats going through.

We've now spent a couple of nights at St Neots moored just beyond the road bridge. Partly this was because we had a visit today from our daughter Lucy plus Becca and our lovely grandson Nathan. There has been a rowing regatta here over the weekend and this shows one of the hundreds of races. Traffic along the river is still allowed and arriving yesterday we were allowed to go up the race course following a couple of racing fours. No way could we keep up with the pace and we had to keep a sharp eye out to make sure we didn't overun any of the buoys marking the route.

Yesterday afternoon we had a lovely walk up river to Eaton Socon, across the lock, and back down the other side. We passed some huge thistles. The plants were as tall as Helen and the spines were vicious.

This is the market place in St Neots - a very large space with plenty of cafes and restaurants around it.

We've had a lovely day today playing in a playground with Nathan and enjoying the riverside gardens as well as a handy cafe for lunch. We spent some of the afternoon watching the rowing and eating ice creams.  We've said goodbye to our visitors now and will get back to boating tomorrow going on up river towards Bedford.