To Bedford and beyond!

 This posting on our blog takes readers from St Neots up to the navigable limit of the River Great Ouse and even beyond that as you will see. As I prepare this posting we have turned round and are now heading downstream back towards Ely and Denver.

On Monday (26 July) we set off upstream from St Neots to Eaton Socon (apparently pronounced 'Soakon'). This view from close to the lower lock landing shows the Rivermill which now has a restaurant.

At Tempsford we passed under the A1. The 2 carriageways cross on different bridges: we are passing under the new south bound carriageway and you can see the older one bridge carrying north bound traffic in the distance. At one time there was no bridge, only a ferry. Imagine the congestion if that was still the case!

Below Roxton Lock we passed the confluence of the River Ivel (on the left) with the Ouse. The Ivel can be navigated by small boats for some distance. But it is not one for narrowboats.

At Roxton Lock the bridge over the weir and lock was being rebuilt. It carries a public footpath which must be closed at the moment.

Great Barford, where we moored on Monday night is a great source of boating and swimming fun. This picture was taken from the road bridge and Leo is to the left with lots of swimmers and paddle boarders in the river. There is a scout camp too and scouts in canoes appeared later. Quite a noisy place on a warm afternoon especially when the braver swimmers started jumping in from the bridge . The Anchor pub is close to the mooring and we had lunch there and later walked upstream to an old lock where you can also moor on the old lock island.

Great Barford has a fine looking many arched bridge over the river. The downstream side shows a stone built bridge and the upstream side seen here has a brick finish as the bridge was widened in brick. It can be tricky steering through the arches if the river is running fast but it is fairly simple at present.

On Tuesday Ian spent some time changing the engine oil as well as the oil and fuel filters before we set off later than usual heading upstream towards Bedford. The picture is of Castle Mill Lock which we reckon must be the deepest on the river at about 10 feet. Even when the lock is full there is quite a height of wall above the boat. When empty it feels very large and cavernous. The lock fills and empties through the side wall from and into the weir stream. Filling the lock held the boat gently against the offside wall. It's all rather neat.

Next came Cardington Lock. Don't go looking here for the elsan emptying place shown on the GOBA (Great Ouse Boating Association) website - it is decrepit and unusable.  Above Cardington we stopped at the Fenlake GOBA mooring on the outskirts of Bedford, chiefly because we were hungry and needed our lunch. In the afternoon we explored the area which was not very inspiring. The huge pyramid nearby was the Oasis swimming pool which had been in the middle of a large moat. Sadly it all looked a bit unloved with the moat empty and tiles coming off. What was better was the network of footpaths and cycleways around here with many footbridges across the river. This photo was taken on Wednesday morning as we came right into Bedford. The waterfront here is lovely with an upper and a lower river running parallel and joined by Bedford Lock. Here we are on the upper river turned westward to pass under the Town Bridge to reach moorings on the north bank round the back of an island at Sovereign's Quay where there is a water point. There are more moorings on the south side of the upper river but, apart from one other narrowboat Ella, we saw only rowing boats from the two clubs here and a few canoes and paddleboards.

Here we are going under Town Bridge. There are other low bridges on the approach to Bedford and this may be one reason why few boats seem to reach here.

Our two days in Bedford were largely taken up with travelling to the navigable limit at Kempston, on Wednesday on foot and on Thursday by canoe. The bridge shown here is at Kempston which is about two and a half miles upstream from the centre of Bedford. It will be around here where the canal proposed to link Bedford with the Grand Union at Milton Keynes is intended to meet the Great Ouse. The bridge itself is supposed to be closed but people have found ways round the barriers so we copied them in order to return down the other side of the river.

On our way back on foot on Wednesday we decided to play our part in the Big Butterfly Count as there were a lot of wild flowers and the sun was shining. As well as more common species including 14 small whites, we spotted this speckled wood butterfly.

Having returned to Bedford we walked along by the upper river and had lunch at the Longholme cafe by a lake and then walked back into town. There were colourful gardens by the river but black clouds heading our way. Later the shower caught us and the rain came down hard so we sheltered under some large trees.

The castle mound looks down on this huge mosaic showing events from the town's history and a basic street plan.

This is Shire Hall built as a court building in the late 19th century and still used as magistrates courts today.

Towards the end of the afternoon we had thunderstorms and some good rainbows. This strange truncated rainbow is above the Shire Hall and river bridges.

On Thursday morning it was a bit windy but we blew up our inflatable canoe and set out to paddle up to Kempston. It was a much nicer day and we were sheltered from the wind for most of the way.

The notice on the bridge at Kempston marks the end of the Environment Agency Navigation. Could you get a narrowboat up here? We are told that some parts are shallow and it would be hard to find somewhere wide enough to turn round. The water is not clear so it was difficult to check the depth but Helen dipped a paddle in from time to time and it was deep enough for Leo every time she tried it. Some summers we are told the river is much lower than it is at present. The John Bunyan trip boat comes up here somewhere but we're not sure where it turns round. The two rail bridges coming out of town are very low (about 6 feet) too. So perhaps better for canoes until it is dredged properly.

For a canoe there is no problem going under the bridge at Kempston so we did. Soon we passed Kempston Mill which looks as if it has been rebuilt as modern flats but still retains a look of an old mill with the mill pond below it.

Both above and below Kempston the river is attractive.

After another half mile or so our way was barred by a small weir which you can see in the background here behind the swimmers. So it was time to turn around and go with the flow back to Bedford. On Thursday afternoon we visited the Higgins Museum and Art Gallery which was staging a special exhibition about airships. They were built at the nearby Cardington airfield from 1915, including the ill-fated R101 which crashed in 1930 and brought work on airships to an end. A curious arty film show with only a tenuous link to airships did not appeal to us though we did like the exhibition about people involved in the work and also the paintings of the riverfront at Bedford and there was loads more to see in the regular galleries

On Friday (30th July) we left Bedford and returned to Great Barford. This photo was taken in Bedford Lock going down from the upper to the lower river. The silver wheel to the right of Leo is the last wheel from the manual lock guillotines on the Great Ouse. This lock was the last to be converted to electrical operation in 2012.

So that brings us to the end of the navigable river and we are now heading downstream repeating our outward course, though we will be trying to visit the places we missed on our way up the river. We have also reserved some extra explorations for Leo, so watch this space.

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.