Eye Spy Part Two

Now that we have a Plan C for our summer holiday we have had another game of eye spy using both Google Earth and Google Maps. This time to have a look at our back up destination of Ely and the river route leading to the city.

The trip would start with a salty water excursion across the Wash Estuary from Boston on the River Witham to Kings Lynn on the River Great Ouse. This isn’t a straight forward passage as one has to follow the buoyed and marked navigation channels to avoid running aground on the many sand banks in the estuary.

The start of the River Great Ouse

The Great Ouse flowing through Kings Lynn

Upon reaching Kings Lynn, one continues upstream on this badly silted and grossly under used river. The journey upstream will be a long and laborious trip with many shallow silted up sections to avoid along the way. The tidal Great Ouse is in desperate need of some use to keep the channel silt free and in water. The end of the tidal section of our journey will be marked by the sluice complex at Denver. Denver sluice is a complex system of sluices which serve to keep the water levels above with in safe limits. The river below Denver Sluice is again very badly silted and even getting to the transit mooring can be a challenge.

The Denver Sluice Complex

Once through Denver the river opens up and becomes non tidal, flowing gently through the Cambridgeshire countryside. It appears as though there are plenty of riverside pubs to keep us watered and fed with plenty of pleasant countryside and towns and villages to explore along the way. Our final destination will be the cathedral city of Ely. Passage any further upstream will be restricted by low bridges, not a problem for us as we can reduce our air draft by folding the arch but our cruising buddies have a fixed height of around nine feet.

The Great Ouse at Ely

The Great Ouse at Ely

From what we have seen from our quick scan of the internet, Plan C will make a good holiday if the trip to Norfolk and Suffolk is a no go. So it looks like we have two excellent options to choose from and even if we don’t visit the city of Ely this time around we certainly will in the near future. Maybe one for next year’s list if Norfolk is a goer for this summer.