Across the tide and up the River Cam

We left the Middle Levels on Wednesday (15th August) and crossed the short stretch of tidal water to Denver Sluice to join the River Great Ouse.  As I type this we are are Clayhithe on the River Cam and hope to reach Cambridge later today.

But let's start with the last of the Middle Levels and the crossing to Denver:

From the wilds of the south west corner of the Middle Levels we retraced our outward cruise back through Benwick to Flood's Ferry Junction where a sign marks the junction.  We turned right this time to March.

Soon after Flood's Ferry we passed this sign indicating that we were crossing the Greenwich Meridian to go East of zero.  There are not many waterways east of Greenwich and soon we were also to pass into Norfolk, a county more famous for the Broads than the waterways we were travelling.

Here is Leo moored in March with the rather splendid Town Hall behind.

We cycled south from the waterway (here in fact the old course of the River Nene) about a mile to the outskirts of March where we looked at St. Wendreda's Church.  This is famous for the 118 angels on its hammerbeam roof.  The angels are half human sized and were carved and mounted in the 15th century.  

Here is a closer view of just four of the angels.  There are a few other churches where some roof angels remain but these are by far the best preserved and most spectacular.

And here is a carving of St. Wendreda herself.  She was around in the seventh century but the carving is about the same date as the roof angels.

In March Ian was taken with this fountain which was erected in 1911 to celebrate the coronation of King George V.  The Health and Safety folk have taken away the drinking fountain in the middle but the outer structure remains.






































On Tuesday we carried on to Outwell.  The villages of Upwell and Outwell are curious in having a road either side of the central narrow navigation, like a High Street with water down the middle:

A few miles from March we came to Marmont Priory Lock.  The lock keeper is Maureen, now in her 80s, and she likes a few hours notice of your arrival.  This lock takes you back up from the lowest levels and ready to enter tidal water.

Some of the bridges through Upwell and Outwell are quite low!

The moorings at Upwell were full so we carried on to Outwell where we contrived a mooring on the bend (yes it is a public mooring) with the stern held on a neighbour's boat (with his permission).  We later had to relax the stern rope to let the rowing boat out.  As you can see it was towel wash day.

The channels through Upwell and Outwell are pretty narrow.

Here we are on Wednesday leaving Outwell and heading to Salter's Lode Lock where you can enter the tideway.  Our time for the lock was midday and we arrived with time to spare.

On the way we passed over Mullicourt Aqueduct shown in the picture.  This takes Well Creek, the navigation, over the Main Drain which is at the level of the water before Marmont Priory Lock.  Main Drain is not part of the navigable waterways of the Middle Levels.

Wells Creek also passes this Trig Point which may be the lowest in the country, unless of course you know different.

And so to Salter's Lode where other boats were also waiting for the lock.  In total about half a dozen boats arrived in time to be let out.  It is a case of one by one through Salter's Lode, though Denver at the end of the tidal section can take two narrow boats side by side.

Here is the view of boats waiting for the lock which has 'V' gates on the Middle Levels side and a guillotine on the Ouse side.

You can go up or down to join the Ouse, depending on the tide.  Previously we have gone down at near low tide.  This time we went up to go out after high tide and cruised against the ebb tide to Denver.

This view is taken while we were waiting for the tide to fall.  If you look at the entrance to Salter's  Lode Lock you can see a couple of concrete beams over the lock entrance.  At this point close to high tide there was only a couple of feet clearance down to the water and we had to go underneath the beams in leaving the lock.  So we had to wait a while for the level to fall.

Here we are in the lock.  The paddles in the guillotine are pretty fierce.  We held well back in the lock (which is only about 60 feet long) and still got a bow locker full of water.  Yes I know it drains away but still everything inside got wet and covered in silt.

And finally soon after 12.30 we were through and out on the tide.  This shows us leaving the lock.

We cruised against the ebbing tide for just half a mile upstream to Denver Sluice.  This is a huge structure but on the far left is a lock with two guillotines to let you out onto calm water.  There was a boat in the lock as we arrived so we had to wait on the pontoon you can see on the left until we could go into the lock.  There was quite a current pushing you onto the pontoon and, at other stages of the tide, there are mud banks around.  So this is not always straightforward.

But here we are securely tied onto the pontoon waiting our turn.

A few miles up the broad River Ouse we moored on this rather unkempt mooring owned by GOBA (Great Ouse Boating Association) which we have joined to get access to their moorings.  Hope they are not all as wild and covered with nettles as this one!

In the last few days we have travelled via Ely to turn onto the River Cam heading towards Cambridge as these photos show:

The Ouse has three navigable tributaries which join between Denver and Ely.  We are aiming to visit these on our return.  This is the Little Ouse or Brandon Creek seen to the left of the Ship Inn, and the Ouse carries on to the right.  We didn't go far on Thursday because it rained heavily in the morning.

As we approached Ely you begin to see the Cathedral arise out of the flatness of the countryside.  The white thing to the left of the cathedral is a water tower.  The railway to Kings Lynn runs beside the river along the four miles of straight water running towards Ely.  This bit of waterway is a bit boring.

Here is a closer view of the cathedral again taken from the river.

The nave of the cathedral is a splendid Norman vista with a wonderful painted ceiling.

After lunch by the river we visited the interesting museum.  Ian is modelling a fierce face befitting a reconstruction of a roman soldier's helmet.  A bronze age torc in gold is in the case behind and is the prized and recently acquired exhibit of the museum.  Previous gold torcs we've seen have been bracelet sized but this one is 126 cm long.  It is 3,000 years old and worth seeing.  The rest of the museum is quite good too.

Leo is cruising through Ely in this photo taken on Saturday morning.

And here we are approaching Pope's Corner.  To the right is the Old West River and to the left is the River Cam.  We went left.

This is a sign at Pope's Corner.  So it is off to Cambridge for us.

The boring straight bits of the lower Ouse are enlivened by views of cows, but these English Longhorns on the River Cam are something else!  The Cam is wide to start with but soon becomes more friendly with low banks and views of the surrounding countryside.

Our first lock for ages!  This is Bottisham Lock on the Cam.  Above here you need a different licence as the water is managed by the Cam Conservators, not by the Environment Agency.  And Leo has never been here before.

Above the lock we passed this Enterprise dinghy.  We used to own one so it was fun to see sailing on the Cam.

We are moored at Clayhithe not far above Bottisham Lock.  Just the other side of the bridge is this splendid house with its fine Dutch style gable ends.  It is or was owned by the Cam Conservators.

Our aim today (Sunday 19th) is to cruise into Cambridge.  It is not certain that we will find a mooring so it might be a case of there and back again to here.  But we'll see.  After that excursion we will be going back to the Ouse and carrying on upstream ultimately to Bedford.