Brandon to Downham Market

Wed 24^th July Brandon to Lakenheath

After the youngsters had left yesterday there was rubbish everywhere. Plastic bottles and cans, sweet wrappers etc.  This morning there was a man collecting it up and putting it into a sack. Does he have to do this every morning?

The lock next to the weir was built as recently as 1995 but it can only take boats less than 40ft! So that is the limit of navigation for most narrowboats including ours at 59ft.

We left our mooring and turned in the weir stream to start our journey back downriver. It was a very hot day with record highs being forecast tomorrow. We cruised under the railway bridge and came to the road bridge at Lakenheath. We spotted a place we could moor underneath the bridge where we had some lovely shade.

Winding by Brandon Lock

Under the railway bridge

A shady mooring under the bridge

Unusual view from the boat

James scrambled up the bank, and stepped over a crash barrier onto the road, and after walking a short distance along, came to the entrance to the RSPB reserve.

RSPB sign

He walked about 4 miles along the footpaths in the reserve, hoping to see bitterns and cranes. Sadly, he saw neither, but there were lapwings, warblers and a kingfisher, plus lots of dragonflies and butterflies.

Dragonfly

Red Admiral

Cinnabar caterpillars (the third group seen this year)

This place had been a tree plantation for making matchsticks before it was landscaped and converted to a reserve by the RSPB. There are still a number of tall poplar trees, which are home to golden orioles. A few of the trees have been blown over in gales and have left gaps in the woodland, with huge tree roots standing up.

Trees blown over by the wind

Between the reserve and the river are some shallow washlands which fill with water after heavy rain, or when the river overflows the banks. After this hot summer they are drying out, revealing large shellfish on the mud.

The Little Ouse at Lakenheath

Washland drying out

James returned to the boat, and we set off again when it cooled down a bit. Today was the hottest UK day on record, with 37.9C being recorded in Cambridge. We had over 35C on the boat. We moored on the GOBA mooring where we had seen cranes in 2011.

GOBA Lakenheath

At dusk as the sun was setting, James briefly glimpsed two cranes flying silently overhead before they were hidden from view behind some trees. Sadly, there was no time to take a photo, but what a brilliant end to the day!

Sunset

0 locks, 5 miles. Dep 0815, arr 0930 Wilton Bridge. Dep 1935 arr 2025 GOBA Lakenheath

Thu 25^th July  Lakenheath to Wissey Bridge

There were several little egrets clustered together on the bank, but they dispersed as soon as we set off.

A wedge of egrets

Leaving the mooring at Lakenheath

The water was very clear, and there were good views of fish as we cruised along. Others had told us about a problem with weed, but it was only at the edges, so we had no difficulty.

Clear but weedy at the edges

A wake in the morning (get it?)

Dangerous building again. Has it collapsed even more?

Then we saw another Great White Egret, the first being near Ely a few days ago. It didn’t wait to be photographed in the reeds, but it flew round and passed overhead.

Great White Egret

We paused at the end of the Little Ouse for some fuel. We had filled our two 5 litre cans at a BP filling station in Brandon, and we had already poured the contents into the tank, as the level was so low. Thankfully we have a fuel gauge. Why aren’t these fitted as standard on all boats? So now we filled the tank and the two cans, ready for the next time we run low.

The weather was still very hot, and we wanted to sit somewhere in the shade, so we decided to visit the Ship Inn, where we could moor and enjoy a nice cool drink. This pub is where the Little Ouse meets the Great Ouse. We had to wait for them to open at midday, so we took our chairs up onto the bank and sat under a tree, with a lovely view over the Great Ouse.

The Ship Inn

The view from the Ship Inn

After a pleasant lunch we set off once more downstream to find somewhere shady. We turned into the River Wissey where there was a GOBA mooring with trees, where we had a barbecue with Andy and Sue (Springwater) in 2011. We had 5 miles of the Great Ouse to cover first, passing under one road bridge and one rail bridge on the way.

Hilgay Bridge

St Marks Church on Ten Mile Bank

Ouse Bridge (original name isn’t it?)

The entrance to the Wissey

Wissey Bridge (cleverly thought up by the same person)

We arrived at the GOBA mooring and were pleased to be able to tie to a tree to provide some shade in this very hot weather. Thankfully there was a cooling breeze and we slept with the front doors and many windows wide open.

A tree for shade on the Wissey

Sunset on the Wissey

0 locks, 13 miles. Dep 0840, arr 1105 Ship Inn. Dep 1350 arr 1500 GOBA Wissey Bridge

Fri 26^th July  Wissey Bridge to Downham Market

We had been warned about the high temperatures and possible thunderstorms, but they hadn’t mentioned the very high winds which rocked the boat. At 4am James was on the bank in his dressing gown armed with a boat hook, retrieving one of our folding chairs which had been blown into the river!

When morning came, we continued upstream, as there was nowhere wide enough to turn the boat. We had to go for two miles, and we arrived in Hilgay, where we finally managed to turn. We moored for a while on the visitor moorings, while we used the water tap, and James emptied two cassettes. James also checked the propeller and discovered an item of clothing wrapped round it.

Leaving the GOBA mooring on the Wissey

Hilgay

Clothing on the prop

We cruised back downstream to the Great Ouse, where we turned right and moored on some EA moorings on the right bank near Denver. After an hour there, we moved on to the moorings by the Jenyns Arms, where we enjoyed an early lunch.

Jenyns Arms

We went from there through the lock that connects with the Relief Channel. The lock is interestingly called the Relief Channel Lock.

Into Relief Channel Lock

Relief Channel Lock

Into the Relief Channel

We cruised then for a mile and a half, dead straight, to the EA mooring pontoon at Downham Market. There were four boats moored there already, but there was room for us at the end. There were also some swimmers in the water at the end which made mooring up quite tricky, as we didn’t want to pollute the nice clean water with human blood! In the end one of them took our bow rope and we were able to use that to power our stern round.

We had some welcome rain later.

1 lock, 7 miles. Dep 0850 arr 0935 Hilgay. Dep 1005 arr 1105 EA Denver right bank. Dep 1215 arr 1230 Jenyns Arms.  Dep 1535 arr 1625 Downham Market.

Sat 27^th July Downham Market

From our pontoon mooring we had a wonderful view of Heygates flour mill opposite. (!) Rain was forecast, and when it came it was heavy.

Heygates flour mill

Rain!!

We went to do some shopping and explore Downham Market. We took our trolley and some umbrellas. The town is quite interesting with some old buildings. We a drink in a Turkish café whose menu was not very Turkish. We had a long chat with a butcher about boating and then went to Morrisons to stock up. We had bottomless coffees in Wetherspoons, and James went to explore the best way to the church we want to visit tomorrow.

Downham Market mooring

Castle Hotel in Downham market

There was more heavy rain in the evening, and more is forecast for tomorrow.

No boating today

Next: a visit to Downham Market Christian Fellowship tomorrow afternoon. A short tidal link from Denver to Salters Lode on Monday.  A trip to Aylesbury by hire car on Tuesday for a dental appointment for Hazel. Then moving towards Peterborough for New Wine, a Christian event on the agricultural showground there.

Ely to Brandon

Sun 21^st July Ely to Littleport

After church this morning we needed to move on as we had used up our 48 hours on the mooring. We set off and cruised a short distance down river to the facilities block. This was fairly urgent as three and a half out of four cassettes were full. We also needed water.

Leaving Ely

Moored nearby was Euston 73, from Aylesbury. We had a chat with Tony and Sue while we were using the facilities.

Euston 73

There are not many facilities on this river, which is why many of the cruisers have sea toilets, which discharge directly into the river.  By the time we left there were three boats waiting. We passed the entrance to the River Lark, and we had hoped to moor at the Black Horse at Littleport, but the moorings there were full, with large cruisers moored stern on. This was a boat club outing from Upware Boat Club. The EA mooring opposite was full as well, so we moved on down to the next mooring a mile further on, where there was just one other boat.

The entrance to the Lark

The River Lark

Moored at Littleport

Later, the boat club boats came past one by one, turning round downstream from us, and cruising past us again, back to the pub where there was a lot of horn hooting. We guessed they were saluting the commodore or something similar.

Boat club manoeuvres

Evening light at Littleport

0 locks, 5 miles. Dep 1145, arr 1345 (including 30 mins for water etc)

Mon 22^nd July  Littleport to Lakenheath

There is some hot weather heading our way over the next few days. Today started off cloudy but was soon clear blue sky.

We left our mooring at Littleport to head for Brandon Creek (or Little Ouse). We passed under the line of pylons that we had seen from the middle levels.

Pylons

James noticed that our fuel was getting low, and we had planned to fill up half a mile into the Little Ouse. However, we had discovered that the Little Ouse moorings facilities are closed on Monday and Tuesday. We decided to stop and use our two spare 5L cans of diesel. We stopped on moorings at Black Horse Farm, and James retrieved the two cans from the engine hold and poured the contents into the tank. The boat should now get us to Brandon and back.

We set off again and in half a mile we came to the moorings by the Fish Inn, and were delighted to see Samos there. We hadn’t seen Tom and Muriel since 2011, when we were last on these rivers. We met them first because they had broken down on the Little Ouse, and we towed them from the Lakenheath GOBA mooring to the Little Ouse moorings, and it took about three hours in rainy weather. Subsequently we saw them at Littleport a few days later, and more than three weeks later we were on the same bus as them from St Ives to Cambridge. The buses run every ten minutes, so this was remarkable.

Samos

Hazel, Muriel, Tom

We stopped and got the chairs out on the bank and caught up. We decided to have lunch at the Ship together, but when we got there, there was a sign on the door saying, “Closed on Mondays and Tuesdays”. So we returned to the bank, where another boat, Steel Away, arrived. They were Ian and Lynne, friends of Tom and Muriel. Ian is the chairman of GOBA.

Muriel, Tom, Lynne, Ian

After a lot of chat (yes- subjects included toilets!), we departed to continue our journey up the Little Ouse.  There were lots of boats moored onto farmland, and it seems that the owners, who were new in 2011, are very enterprising. We will call in for fuel on the way back on Thursday.

Into the Little Ouse

DIY project

We had heard stories of lots of weed on this river, but there was nothing to prevent our progress.

We stopped on the GOBA mooring, where cows are free to wander, opposite the RSPB reserve. James saw cranes here last time, plus several bitterns. He had a wander along the top of the flood prevention bund and saw plenty of different species but not cranes or bitterns.

Lakenheath GOBA mooring

Evening light

0 locks, 11 miles. Dep 0930, arr 1615 (including 4 hours with Samos)

Tue 23^rd July  Lakenheath to Brandon

James went for a short walk on the ridge and saw 14 cormorants in a flock (they are usually solitary). Perhaps when they are swimming underwater you can them a shoal. Looking them up online, a group of cormorants is called a gulp. Not a lot of people know that.

Also spotted ; reed Warblers, an oyster catcher, marsh harriers, Egyptian geese, greylag geese, little egrets. Sadly, still no bitterns or cranes, although Hazel thought she might have heard cranes flying over at about 4am.

Ragwort

It was very warm, and we both had cool showers before we set off.

We passed over the cut-off channel, a flood relief feature that takes excess water to Kings Lynn. After this we noticed that there were no more high artificial banks.

Crossing the cut off channel

Cut off sluices

The water was very clear and we could see lots of fish. We arrived at the EA mooring in Brandon. The final lock is too small for most narrowboats (length 12m max).

Moored in Brandon

It was very hot, and young lads from the village came to swim, fish, paddle canoes, throw other kid’s bananas and shoes into the river, and frighten any wildlife that might have ventured out.

High spirited locals

When it cooled down a bit (not a lot) we ventured into the village via a footpath and visited the Brandon Tandoori for a very nice meal in pleasant air-conditioned surroundings. We then called in at the BP garage to fill our spare diesel cans in case we don’t make it back to the Little Ouse Moorings.

Back at the boat we discovered that James had left his keys on the back locker, and someone had been aboard. We didn’t notice anything taken except possibly a 50p coin, but there was water on the floor from someone’s wet feet. Valuables such as computers, binoculars, and musical instruments were all present and correct.

0 locks, 5 miles. Dep 0905 arr 1045.

Next: back down the Little Ouse with a visit to RSPB Lakenheath on the way. Denver and Downham Market at the weekend.