Ely

 Today's Navigation : River Great Ouse

We were aiming today, provided that the rain held off long enough, to get to Ely (partly so that we could make a return visit to the same restaurant as on the way up) We set off at 8 with bright blue skies but with a sometimes quite stiff breeze.

For quite a while we cruised with few landmarks except for the mechanics of land drainage - pumping stations, drainage outlets and the occasional larger drain joining the river.

It was just over two hours before we passed under the first road bridge of the day at Twenty Pence.

Just beyond is a small marina - only moorings as far as we can see - and only taking river cruisers, no room for narrowboats like ours!

We were startled by the sound of gunshot which only became more frequent. We couldn't see very much as the flood defences are high along the Old West River but we later discovered that here is Cambridge Gun Club. Clay Target shooting seems to be their main activity but there is also a rifle range and they offer raining in various small arms as well. Business certainly sounded brisk this morning.

There are two boatyards at Streetham, one is called The Lazy Otter just provides moorings but the other, Streetham Ferry Marina, seems to have both a dry dock and engineering facilities.

Shortly passing The Lazy Otter we could see a large industrial unit nearby but it is low lying so only the hint of it is in this photo! Its purpose was not obvious but we later found that it is home to NutraGrow, an organic plant fertiliser. The farm grow material that is fed into a biodigester and after some processing out comes either a liquid feed or fertiliser pellets.

One day we will pass Streetham Old Pumping Station when it is open but as it currently only does so on Sundays and Bank Holidays we missed again (but close with the Bank Holiday bit!)

After nearly four hours of cruising we arrived at Pope's Corner where the main river flow joins from the River Cam. The speed limit now goes up from 4mph to 7mph (one oncoming cruiser was taking full advantage!) We, of course did not quite match that, but nevertheless completed most of the remaining reach to the edge of Ely very much faster than earlier.

The next landmark is the entrance to Soham Lode. At one time it was possible to navigate to the village itself but alas no longer. It certainly looked very weed-clogged.

After passing under a couple of railway bridges and two bypasses (the first edition and the recent replacement) and the popular Riverside Inn, we came to the centre of the city but would we find a mooring? With almost all of the EA visitor moorings all but unoccupied this morning we had hopes of being able to return to the spot we took a few weeks back. The town moorings had space but we could then see that the open area opposite the entrance to Cathedral Marina was all taken so it was the town mooring this time. The down side is that the wall is rather high above our boat gunnel - much more suitable for giant cruisers!

11.7 Miles - 0 Locks