Tuesday 17th July 2018

Today we moved from the Middle Levels onto the Great Ouse. This involved some critical timings balancing tide height and time with the flow of water. On Monday evening we walked down to have a look at the Ouse from the lock exit. You can clearly see the mud bank which must be avoided and also the wooden posts on the left of the photo and the walkway on the extreme right.

We went back a few hours later and you can see the difference with the wooden stakes covered and the walkway flooded.

We had to wait until just after high tide when the river is starting to ebb. We entered the lock and the lock keeper started to let the water in to raise the level to that of the river.

As we started to rise it was obvious that we were not going to be able to exit until the river dropped more as we were going to hit the front beams! I ended up at the front keeping an eye on the roof line until it was safe to move forward into the river. Eventually we were able to leave and this is the view looking back. We had quite an audience from the boats that were due to follow us seeing how it was done. You can see how the level is now dropping as the posts are becoming visible.

About half a mile upstream is Denver Sluice where the gates were open for us and we sailed in. The lock is on the left.

This time we were going to go down from the tidal to the non tidal Ouse. Graham looking back whilst in the lock.

The gates opened and we were in a wide river where cruisers are definitely the preferred type of boat.

Some of the houses seemed to have been influenced by the Dutch style of architecture.

Just to finish today’s blog we have a little quiz for any readers. What do you think this notice is supposed to say?

At Littleport tonight and deciding when to enter Ely as you are only supposed to be there 48hours and we don’t want a £100 fine!