Down The Little Ouse

 

 

With feet wet from the dew soaked grass and with three peacock butterflies hitching a ride on the roof we set off from The Ship Inn on a sunny morning to travel along the Little Ouse to Brandon.

‘What do we do when we get to Brandon?’ asks my travelling companion

‘We turn around and come back again’

We pass the everlasting line of boats on The Little Ouse Moorings. Then we meander onto a quieter stretch of river where yellow waterlillies float and stacks of rosebay willowherb, bindweed, reeds and grasses grow densely along the banks. Then we pass more boats on The Piggery Moorings (spaces available).  The river widens then narrows again. Masses of indigo and turquoise dragonflies dart over the surface interspersed with needles of turquoise damsel flies. The water is so clear that I can see the fish the grebe is diving for and the weed the swan is stretching it’s a long neck underwater for. Herons flap, swallows swoop and a pair of kingfishers scurry past.  In the fourteen miles of the tranquil Little Ouse only two moving boats pass by. 

Good moorings are hard to find on The Little Ouse

Then we arrive in Brandon.  It’s the school holidays.  Kids are fishing, shouting and jumping into the river from the EA mooring.  We think it might be quieter if we go through the lock where my map says there more moorings. The map also says the lock is only forty foot long but I don’t notice that bit of information.  I put the boat in the lock, find it doesn’t fit and have to reverse out again.  I turn and moor back on the EA moorings pulling as far forward as possible to give the boys room to enjoy being boys on a hot summers day at the start of the school holidays.

Coming back from town we talk to a woman who comes regularly to swim in the river.  Ten minutes later she taps on the boat and gives me a bag of walnuts and leaflets from The Jehovahs Witness. I thank her for the walnuts and assure her I will read the pamphlets.

The ‘jump in the river contingent’ ask if they can jump off the back of my boat.  I say ‘Yes’ but tell them if they injure themselves I’m not going to administer first aid.  Then they ask if they can jump off the roof.  I say ‘No’ because the river is too shallow so they say can they use that ‘big stickie thing’ on my roof to measure the depth of the river.  They troop into the water with my boat pole on their shoulders and pronounce that the river is very deep. I still don’t let them jump off the roof.

It’s nearly 10pm when there is a shout of ‘Aaron your mum is looking for you’. They all pick up bikes and fishing rods and wet clothing and disappear in the direction of Brandon.  Peace reigns.

 

Dragonflies? Damsel Flies? Insecty things?