Three more excursions off the River Great Ouse

 On our way back down the Great Ouse we have explored three waterways: the Cam, the Little Ouse (or Brandon Creek) and the Relief Channel, and this is the story of those trips.

First we swallowed our pride and paid the extortionate licence fee to visit Cambridge, though we are in correspondence with the Cam Commissioners about this. The River Cam joins the Great Ouse at Pope's Corner and the first 7 miles upstream are covered by either a Gold Licence or an EA licence. However for the six and a half miles further up from Bottisham Lock to just below Jesus Lock in the centre of Cambridge, the waterway is managed by the Cam Commissioners. We would expect to have to pay a small daily or weekly visitor fee for access. By comparison the Warwickshire Avon charges £10 per day or £50 per week: the Wey Navigation charges £23 per day or £91 for 7 days. Prices are for a 57 foot boat and both waterways are considerably longer than the top end of the Cam. So what is the Cam Commissioners charge? The answer is that they insist you buy an Anglian Pass which is an annual addition to your Gold or EA licence and costs £100 when most visiting boats might only need it for a couple of days. It's a liberty and one that we have sought to challenge.

The Cam Commissioners claim that they are bound by their bye-laws to only issue annual licences. They say in an e mail to us: "The Anglian Pass was and still is the most effective, efficient and fair charging model for the vast majority of the region’s boaters." From the perspective of boaters visiting from more distant waters, it clearly is neither effective nor fair. Our correspondence on this continues as we understand that a few years ago the Cam Commissioners were issuing short term licences. Ultimately this will be an issue for more local boaters than us to pursue, but we shall continue to press the issue and take it up with CRT and the IWA. Anyway enough of a rant for this posting: here are some pictures and the story:

In order to get the sunniest pictures on this blog they are taken on our exit from Cambridge so we start here just below Jesus Lock in the centre. You can see the weir and lock in front of Leo. Until October you are not allowed through this lock unless you moor up there. In any event you would swiftly find yourself surrounded by punts some propelled by experts but a lot by newcomers, so probably best to stay here where there are only rowing sculls, pairs, fours and eights to avoid!

Here is the view looking back as we left Cambridge on Thursday 12th August. The public moorings are on the right and there is a water, elsan and pump out services on the left.

As we left Cambridge we passed a line of rowing clubs but fortunately not too many boats out on the river. It might be very different in term time.

Here we are coming to Bait's Bite Lock which has a guillotine on the upstream side and V gates below, though it is entirely electric so no muscles required.

We spent the night on some GOBA moorings just above Bottisham Lock. Well having paid our £100 we were determined to get some value so actually spent 4 nights on the Cam, so only £25 a day for us! The building in the photo is the rather splendid Dutch style house at Clayhithe which is the headquarters of the Cam Commissioners.

Our next excursion was on the Little Ouse which is also called Brandon Creek:

To get to the Little Ouse we had to go back down the Cam to Pope's Corner and then down the Great Ouse through Ely and Littleport. We've called this photo "a strong wind on the Ouse". The lower reaches are flat and tend to be windy but perhaps not strong enough to fell telegraph poles.

Here we are coming back through Ely. The Cutter Inn is straight ahead and worth a visit.

After shopping in Ely on Friday 13th we went another 3 miles or so to an EA mooring called 'Diamond 44'. Why this strange name. I think I might have explained this in an earlier post but it is because in 1944 the Oxford and Cambridge boat race was held on the Great Ouse (as it was also in 2021) and in 2004, the 60th anniversary of the war time race, it was re-contested with veteran university crews. The photo shows the effect of the wind down the long straight coming out of Ely. Some sizeable waves had built up.

A few miles below Littleport we reached the Ship Inn shown here where we turned right onto the Little Ouse. This tributary is the longest of the three north of Ely at nearly 14 miles to the navigation head at Brandon Bridge.

The Little Ouse is wider than the Wissey and deep and mostly weed free and so is the easiest to cruise. For the first mile or two the long line of trees planted on its banks sheltered us from the wind.

We didn't pass many moving boats on the Little Ouse and it certainly looks as if this chap has been waiting a long time for a lift!

We remembered this falling down house from our last visit here but it doesn't seem to have got a lot worse.

Here is the first opportunity for a navigational error as the Lakenheath Lode branches off the right. The Little Ouse goes left. It looks as if Lakenheath Lode is plenty deep enough for narrowboats, but I doubt there is anywhere to turn round. Unless someone knows different. Shortly after this there is a remote GOBA mooring where we stopped for lunch.

We shared the mooring with grazing cows, wildflowers, grasshoppers and teasels growing beside the river ...

... and butterflies, this is a Gatekeeper. Definitely not a Meadow Brown as it has two white spots inside the larger black spot on the wings.

Not far beyond our lunch stop we crossed over the Cut Off Channel. This is part of the wonderful water engineering centred on Denver. In times of flood, the channel gathers excess water from the rivers Lark, Little Ouse and Wissey and directs it towards the tidal Ouse close to Kings Lynn. The channel can also be used to send water the other way to fill reservoirs in Essex. Most ingenious. In the picture we have just come through one sluice (to the left). If there is the possibility of flooding then the left sluice is closed and the right one which connects with the Cut Off Channel is opened.

At Brandon there is a lock on the Little Ouse that would allow boats up to the town of Brandon. I say 'would' because perplexingly it is only about 40-45 feet long and therefore too short to get Leo through. There is however ample room to turn below the lock and a fine, though short EA mooring where we stayed the night on Saturday and enjoyed a visit from Lucy, Becca and grandson Nathan on the Sunday. So, who is the chap in the photo? Brandon is a town just on the edge of the fens in an area known as Breckland which is famous for flint mining. The carving is of a 'flintknapper' who doesn't seem from his expression to enjoy his work. Flints for rifles were produced here for a hundred years or more.

 

And so to our final excursion down the Relief Channel:

Returning to Denver Sluice and Lock which gives access to the tidal river and then to Salters Lode Lock and the Middle Level, there is a second lock to the right which takes boats down onto the Relief Channel. This is a continuation of the Cut Off Channel and runs alongside the tidal River Ouse to discharge potential flood waters into the tidal river close to Kings Lynn. It is navigable for about for nine miles or so to Wiggenhall Bridge. The Relief Lock shown here is about 30m long and falls about 8 or 9 feet down to the Relief Channel.

Here, we have turned left out of the Relief Channel lock and are looking back to the sluice at the end of the Cut Off Channel. So this is where the flood waters from the Lark,the Little Ouse and the Wissey would come.

Soon, on the left is the AG Wright Sluice shown here. This one lets excess water from the River Ouse into the Relief Channel.

Once past that sluice we were out on the Relief Channel itself. This is hugely wide and straight. There are three first class EA mooring pontoons with water down here, the first at Downham Market, the second by a pub called the Heron and the third near the Cock Inn (although this seems to be closed at present). So no shortage of places to go and moor. We stopped for lunch at the Downham Market mooring.

... and carried on to spend Thursday night at the mooring for the Heron at Stow Bridge. From here and the other moorings you can walk over to the tidal river running alongside to thank your lucky stars that you are on stationary water! We ate at the Heron which was very good with fine food and well kept Adnams beer. We were the only boat moored here though we had visits from a couple of canoeists and an early morning visit by some swimmers.

This old house with its characteristic Dutch gable was just behind the Heron pub. The Dutch influence here dates from the 17th century when Cornelius Vermuyden first started the engineering changes that led to flood reduction and to draining of the fens.

The morning on Friday was spent beautifying the boat with Helen cleaning and treating the vinyl covers and Ian putting a coat of Polytrol on the paintwork on the starboard side. Polytrol brings back the paint colour and puts a protective layer of hard wax over the paint to stop scratches. With jobs done we cruised back to the Downham Market mooring and walked into town for lunch. There were flowers everywhere including this planted boat at the entrance to town.

This clock in the middle of town has been restored and looks really good.

Here are more wonderful flowers and behind is a town sign. The horses on the top of the sign are because Downham used to hold a horse fair which was said to be one of the largest in Europe. St Winnold is pictured in red robes and is credited with bringing the horse fair to Downham. The other side of the sign records the fact that Lord Nelson spent his childhood here.

After lunch at Wetherspoons we returned to Leo and cruised back up the Relief Channel to Denver. Here we are approaching the AG Wright Sluice again, with the lock to the left.

By way of a change, on Saturday we walked the long way round into Denver village following the rivers Ouse and Wissey and then the Cut Off Channel. But on Sunday morning we shall go through the Denver Lock down the tidal river for just a short way and then through Salters Lode Lock onto the Middle Levels. But more about this another day.