Off the Fens, back on the real Great Ouse

A river of duckweed this morning

Close-up view of duckweed

Late yesterday afternoon the invasion started.  Little green leaves of duckweed started floating down the river, stopping around the boats moored at Aldrith Drain Moorings.  By the morning the whole river had turned green, contrasting with the dry yellow grass to be found on the bank.

With some trepidation we set off at 9:15 uncertain as to whether it would hinder progress causing frequent visits down the weed hatch.  Fortunately, although we weren't able to travel faster than about 2 mph we only had to stop once to clear the prop and that was because of general waterweed.  After about 0.75 miles the duckweed cleared and we were able to continue at a reasonable speed.

Bercause of the hot sun we put up our large umbrella/sunshade attached to the tiller which allowed the steerer to travel in relative comfort.  But there wasnt room for two so the other person sat in the front of the boat which povided some shade, the sun being behind us.    Whilst I was at the front I was pleased to see a kingfisher which sadly Denise missed, only our second one in the past 7 weeks.

Approaching Hermitage Lock

Our stay on the Old West River ended with Hermitage Lock, which took us up to the tidal waters at Earith taking us out of the Fens and into the Great Ouse floodplain.  Here the river is almost back to its former state, wide and fairly deep, permitting effortless cruising at over 3 mph.  Brownhills Staunch raised us out of the tidal section and we reached the Goba moorings at Holywell not far from St Ives at lunchtime.

Moored at Holywell, gangplank is behind rope

Actually mooring took some time as the water was too shallow for us to go alongside the bank.  So we are resting 2-3 foot away from the side and have to use our gangplank to get ashore, the first time its use has been a necessity.

Today: 7.9 miles 2 locks 1 kingfisher 4 hours travelling.