Bedford

Leaving Lazy Otter by the middle of the morning, we aimed to be at St Ives in 6 hours passing Hermitage Lock half way. We had a short wait at Hermitage while the Lock Keeper finished his lunch and then carried on to Brownshill Staunch.

This stretch of the Great Ouse is very attractive. Once you get through the rather tight and weedy corridor of the Old West River, the Ouse widens out at Earith covering the short length of tidal waters. The seals are still wallowing about with their young which makes this an interesting section.

From Brownshill, the river becomes much more varied with traditional water meadows and hedges becoming the norm. Interestingly, EA have started to reintroduce Eels to the part of the river. Over the years their numbers have reduced by up to 90% because their movement upstream to spawn has been blocked by the lock structures. I saw quite a few of the young eels (the elvers) in the Brownshill Lock gates. These 3" tiddlers were already 3 years old and would grow over the years to 12" or more. We even saw a young seal eating one of the adults on our return trip. He was having quite a job keeping the eel in his mouth while he chewed chunks out of it.

St Ives was attractive as always and not too busy. Following a quite night on the town moorings, we headed for Huntingdon, stopping off at Hemmingford Grey just to have a look at all the posh places in the village. There's not much else to do in HG. Even the lone pub was closed.

Huntingdon waterfront was full so we went on. We stopped at St Neots to find we had stumbled on the annual rowing regatta.

We stayed overnight, spending a very nice evening with a couple of friends in a local Greek restaurant. The next morning the regatta people started to arrive on the opposite side of the river and it was quite interesting to watch this but, as the competitions started, it became obvious that the event was really only of interest to rowers and their supporters as there was no real 'public' stuff going on. Once we had seen a dozen crews going down the river and returning out of breath, we thought we'd seen enough so we unhitched ourselves from the Priory moorings and continued our journey up the river.

We hoped to over-night at the very attractive Great Barford moorings but all the places were taken. The EA moorings next to the Anchor we taken by 5 narrowboats and the GOBA moorings on the opposite side were taken by about 20 cruisers attending a GOBA event. So we went on and decided to visit on the way back.

In contrast, Bedford was quiet and we appeared to be the only visitors. We went through Bedford Lock involving a sharp right-hand bend followed by a sharp left-hander.

We moored at the 48 hour Sovereign moorings just past the County Court.

If you're interested in fairly recent English history, this is where James Hanratty was convicted of the A6 murders in 1962 and was later hanged at Bedford Jail. He was the last man to be hanged in England ending thousands of years of capital punishment.

While the moorings were quite near the city centre, we were not disturbed at any time. However, if we moor here in future we will probably find a more secluded spot on the Victorian 'island' near the lock chamber. This photo shows where I waited for Lady Saga to prepare the lock. It gives a good impression of the attractiveness of this whole area...

There's nothing much else to say about Bedford from my point of view though I guess the local Tourist Board could think of something positive to say about it. By the way, the Imray Guide says public navigation is possible right up to Kempston Mill. As I was not sure about this, we took a walk along the river to see for ourselves. Apparently the Mill was burnt down about 20 years ago and the area is now built up with trendy houses. The river is narrow and shallow, and I could not see anywhere to turn a boat longer than about 20 feet. I was glad I had not tried to get there in Skylark - it would have been a stressful operation reversing a 60 foot boat back down the river for almost 2 miles!

Our return journey to Lazy Otter gave us the opportunity to stop at Great Barford (below), St Neots, Huntingdon and St Ives.

At St Neots we saw the best sunset of the trip and, yes, I had to photograph it above one of my newly polished mushroom vents!

Not wanting to return home too soon, we went down to Ely for a couple of days. Being a fairly vibrant 'arty' sort of place, the local folk had organised a couple of bands on the Jubilee Gardens on the Saturday and then another couple on the Sunday. It gives the place a real sense of community activity.

Incidentally I read in the GOBA magazine that East Cams District Council is waiting for some Government chappie to sign a document handing over the ownership of the remaining bits of waterfront to them. It may take him more than 48 hours to sign it but once this is done, they will enforce the 48 hour mooring conditions much more vigorously. This will probably upset some of the 'over-stayers' who have set up home there.

When we left on Sunday afternoon, we passed the Fish and Duck Marina and had a brief opportunity to speak to a resident there about the crane that had fallen into the water. He said the jetty had collapsed under the weight of the crane - a nasty surprise for the driver! He fortunately survived the accident.

So, that's it. A very pleasant 10 days cruising in a very tranquil and attractive part of the country.

I would recommend it but, shhhh, don't tell everyone!