Trickling along the Great Ouse during the Olympics

Houghton to Aldreth, River Great Ouse, 14 miles 4 locks

We don’t normally move at the weekends, but we decided to just that for once, and trickled back down the river in short hops so we can watch as much of the Olympics as possible.  We stopped at St Ives for one night, and popped into the town to replenish milk and vegetables before leaving the following morning.  We had just pulled the pins when we were overtaken by a canoe!!…

Some canoe!!  See how Meg enjoys nosing out the side.. this can be a real pain sometimes as she gets in the way when I want to hop off to moor!

Continuing on through St Ives lock I met blog reader Dave, who keeps his boat in the nearby Marina... hey nice to have met you Dave!

I wanted to stop at Holywell, and booked a meal at the Old Ferryboat Inn pub,  Their menu is available on the internet and their prices seemed very good.  Plus they were giving 10% off for GOBA members.  I say ‘were’ because we could not get into the GOBA moorings close by, they were too shallow.. very annoying to say the least.

Going on from there, it was mid afternoon on Sunday then when we approached the ‘upstream’ Pike and Eel GOBA moorings.. absolutely no chance, all full.  If we had been there an hour later most of the boats would have gone back to the marinas.. ho hum, so we had to stick No Problem into the GOBA moorings that are on the ‘downstream’ side of the Pike and Eel.  Now that was an art and a half I’ll tell you.. It is virtually impossible to moor on these totally inadequate moorings.  This is a flood plain and the cows have decimated the bank side, and with a little bit of luck our long plank just about reached a dry bit of shore… A couple of boats came in to try and moor, but gave up..

But interestingly, along the floodbank, the Ouse Valley walk actually crosses the Meridian line at this point, and there is a stone to mark the place..

The pic is not that clear, but it says “Greenwich Meridian Line” on there somewhere!

Moving on today, I was interested in what the Environment Agency were doing near Brownshill Lock…. “What do you think we are doing”.. he was teasing me!.. “Err fish survey”.. well I had seen something similar going on near Godmanchester last week, so thought that would be a good guess.. “Close!.. look at this”.. and he showed me what he had in his bucket thingy…

Now that was a big crab!.. It is a Chinese Mitten Crab which the EA are trying to track and control.  “We are looking to see if these have got to St Ives yet”

They have travelled from the sea up the river from the wash.  They live in the rivers, burrowing into the sides of them, and that is why the EA want rid.  To breed they go back out to sea, and after breeding the males die and once the eggs have hatched the juveniles travel back up the rivers.  They can even travel across land to infest other rivers.. I certainly wouldn’t put my toes in the water around here!!

We stopped at the Environment Agency services at Earith, sighting a black swan there too….

The dogs are not too sure about this one!… But I spied a head in the water as we left.. albeit briefly.. for sure it was one of the seals that are in this area, but he was gone even before I could get the camera in my hand

Put the pins in at Aldreth this evening and met Heather and her three dogs.  Heather was very interested in our way of life, and she was delighted at a walk through.. After walking the girls I put up the back canopy, sides and all.. I think it is going to be very wet tonight and again tomorrow..