St Ives, Tesco and what I hoped to see on the way up!

St Ives to Aldreth, Rivers Gt Ouse and Old West, 12 miles, 3 locks

Pulling the pins this morning, we cruised down to St Ives Quay to wait for a Tesco delivery….

A busy little place this, lots of mums out with their youngsters arming them with loaves of bread for the multitude of ducks waiting for their daily fix!   The town itself is just up a little alleyway from these moorings, the main EA moorings are upstream under the bridge in the pic and then to the left.  We are faced the wrong way because there was only a very tight space left this morning, with the wind blowing towards the quay.  Rather than flirt with that hireboat tart cart, I decided to swing round and come in the other way.

We left St Ives by 11am this morning heading for another of my favourite moorings at Aldreth some 12 miles away. I am enjoying this river very much, and today was again wonderful just drifting down stream on low revs.  On through two locks today and along the tidal part of this river before it reaches the manned Hermitage Lock.  It was here that my day was made… take a look at what I saw on a slipway!..

Right pair of posers too!  I had hoped last winter when this trip was planned that we would see some seals on this stretch of the river.. being tidal from this point it is possible to get right through to Denver on the New Bedford River without having to go through Hermitage Lock.. but we will bide our time and take the Old West River through Ely.

The moorings at Aldreth are so very quiet and remote… a couple of days here would suit me, but we need to be somewhere accessible soon.. the holidays are nearly over for the two visiting dogs.