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Thursday 3 November 2011

Littleport 3 Nov 11 day 6

The weather was not so good this morning so we made a slow start at 1040 am. This worked well as we didn’t see any more rain all day.

DSCF7126The rivers are down by a good 4” as can be seen by the bottom of the air draught board below Prickwillow bridge.  Just by this bridge is the DSCF7125Prickwillow pumping museum which houses a large collection of diesel driven fen drainage pumps. The museum runs these pumps on special days through the summer months.
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Once back on the Great Ouse we turned left and headed upstream towards Ely. Its a long wide straight run alongside the DSCF7133railway line on the right and a road on the left. As you travel along this straight there is a good view of Ely Cathedral which looks as if it is standing on a high hill, not just the low bump that takes it above sea level.

 

We continued our journey through the town and went as far as Soham Lode which is not navigatable. We turned here and DSCF7138headed back to town, on the way we passed under the railway bridge that had a goods train derailed on it shortly before IWA National festival at St Ives. The result of this was that all visiting boats had to go via The New Bedford River.

We stopped in Ely for lunch, while we were there we decided to do a pump out and also fill the water tank. This unfortunately made us a bit late getting away and made our chosen destination for the night, The Ship at Brandon Creak just out of reach, so we moored for the night at the Station Road, Littleport moorings, these are the other end of town from where we moored to visit The Swan.

DSCF7147On this stretch of rive the Environment Agency have installed a couple of markers so that boaters can check their speed as they hammer down the straight.

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