Brandon - 4 hours journey to Tesco and back

Today we completed our aim of reaching Brandon in Suffolk which marks the end of the of the Little Ouse at least as far as it is possible to go on a narrowboat.

Lock and weir at Brandon

We set off at 9am and cruised the 6 miles up the Little Ouse through quite attractive countryside in hot sunny weather. We were disappointed to again fail to see a kingfisher, nor any Golden Orioles.  Arriving at 11am we moored up just below the lock which prevents any further progress, it being 40 foot long whereas we are 57 foot. We had thought about staying the night here after shopping for the next 3 days.  However we decided to return to yesterday's mooring as it seemed more interesting.

Twin floodgates to divert the Little Ouse water away from the Great Ouse

After lunch we left Brandon and travelled with the stream back to our mooring.  The peace and quiet of the morning was not repeated thanks to the repeated low level fly-past of a couple of US fighter jets, Lakenheath and Mildenhall being close-by. On the way I took the photo of the flood gates where the Cut-Off channel passes beneath the river.  During times of flood the flow down the river is blocked and the water is allowed to flow into the Cut-Off channel which collects flood water from all of the tributaries and sends it directly to the Wash.

12.14 miles, 0 locks, 4 hours 5 minutes