Bartimaeus

When we were heading towards the tidal Trent, I joined the Try The Trent group. While reading some of the posts and comments I read a discussion that suggested if someone was fazed by the Trent, they’d better not go in the Ouse. We were now planning to do the Ouse. Perhaps it was a different part.

We had arrived a day early. Plenty of time to see the lock keeper, get water, go shopping and pump out. The tide was early so we couldn’t fit any of those things in, if we just arrived the evening before. A look at the Ouse showed some fast flowing water.

When we got up it was raining – more water for the river. I ventured to do some shopping as it eased. We started to to get ready to move on to the water and pump out but saw another boat go on just as we had been preparing to cast off. Shane went across and they offered their long hose for water and he told them it was pump out we needed and that hose would not reach. They said they needed to go away with an unwell friend for a couple of hours. So we decided to enjoy the town rather than wait.

Selby is not a huge place and an abbey was unexpected but it was apparently because the founder had been told to build an abbey where he saw three swans on the river. (We had seen seven the day before, clustering round our hatch.) That would explain why there were three swans around the town, but a pretty random reason for establishing something so big. Sometimes something random or silly helps to make a decision though.

Bryn and I  enjoyed seeing the Lepers’ Squint inside the abbey though oddly it was set up so you could see through to a painted leper, rather than go round to the leper viewing point. People were not meant to see the lepers but they were permitted to see in. Nobody wanted them near, They would not have known then that the infection rate is very low, but the stigma and risk was great.

I was sure I had read there was some crazy golf in Selby but when I tried to find information about it, I only heard about places that were in Yorkshire and none mentioned in Selby. Was this some figment of my imagination? Was my memory playing tricks? It was a nice day to spend time in the park. I noticed two lads carrying putters. I was not going mad. There really was crazy golf here. We all really enjoyed it and the pavilion sold ice cream too.

Back at the moorings we found the same boat still on the service area and now they were settling down in a group on the bank with chairs and a table – a most strange choice when it was a service space that others want to access and also we were surprised anyone would choose to socialise beside the pumpout station! We decided we did not need the service urgently enough to evict them, when they seemed so happy there.

Bryn had spotted another attraction for later on, a curry restaurant near the boat with a crazily cheap midweek meal offer. We shared a very enjoyable meal at Lawai Spice. The don’t have an alcohol licence and we hadn’t brought a bottle but the large carafe of mango lassi was great. Bryn found he enjoyed an alcohol free cider too. 

I had already chatted to the boat ahead of us and found we were both booked for the Wednesday.  Alarms were set and we managed our early rise. The guy from the boat in front knocked on the window as I was finishing breakfast to let us know the lock gates had opened so we grabbed our life jackets and set off. Shane had had a few chats to the lock keeper, including hearing that the RIB rescue group gets called out several times a week, but without details on what for which wasn’t filling me with confidence in the venture. Both Shane and Steven (? Stephen) on Lingalonga were experienced helmsmen having done the Ribble Link and Thames so up for a challenge but Shane was still talking about it as something one might be nervous about beforehand and Lingalonga skip also was saying how good it was to follow another boat, when taking on a more challenging trip. I said it was recommended  to buddy up on Try The Trent. The Ribble staff had put six of us in order based on experience and speed. As the lock gates opened they each said “After you!” We went out first and I promised to keep them in sight. 

This trip had no chart or guidelines but a lot of debris and it looked like the edges could be shallow. There is a balance between holding the centre, being on the outside of a curve an avoiding picking up debris The bridge was catching debris but it was still wide and caused no problems. 

Behind us I saw Lingalonga take a wide sweep round a corner and when I saw him duck for a tree I feared they were going to be grounded but they seemed to be continuing smoothly.

All seemed fine then I spotted a stowaway that was hijacking the throttle. Shane is a cocky driver but he didn’t want to put his hand on the throttle while a spider was on it. Bryn managed to save Shane’s nerves from shredding by capturing  it so the controls were all in hand again, but reluctant to throw it overboard the spider spent the trip in a glass beside Bryn. He took note when I gave him a mug of tea that he shouldn’t pick up the wrong drinking vessel by mistake.

We were keeping a look out for the evidence of the tree that had been blocking the whole river. Given the size of the river, it must have been a huge tree – orr perhaps it was two trees.

We picked up a large log which could affect steering and catch other debris. It was at least twice as long as the boat was wide, so I went to try to dislodge it. Shane was slowing to reduce the pressure and after a few pushes a bit at a time I shifted it round to one side of the boat. I hoped it wouldn’t catch Lingalonga but they had watched carefully and knew to avoid it.

The river was slightly slower later  and just past a side channel, an accumulated load of sticks was across the whole river. There was no place that would avoid it. I went down the front hoping to be able to shift any bits we caught on but it being many sticks rather than a solid object I could get no purchase. There were more ahead too. They stayed together and picked up more.

Shane tried reversing. I turned to see the back end seemed grounded. Lingalonga were trying to slow down but the water kept them flowing. The sticks were breaking up at the side which allowed them to move past us. They offered to tow us off if we were stuck but I could see Shane had managed to get us floating free again so called that we were off. We had now swapped places and Lingalonga were in the lead. Meanwhile Bryn did some sweeping of the branches that had arrived on our back deck while we caught up too near the edge.  

There seemed to be no further hitches and it wasn’t long before we reached the weir and lock entrance. We seemed to have gone from the ridiculous to the sublime.

The lock was long enough that we were directed to come behind Lingalonga rather than alongside. I was able to debrief, now that the drama was over and swapped photos. She had taken some very nice ones of us, better than my ones of them, many thanks. 

We wanted water and a pump out but found that the pump out at Naburn was not working. We were advised of another at York marina so we relaxed and enjoyed a chat with our Ouse buddies while Bartimaeus got filled with water and then parted ways and went for lunch in the nearby cafe. It turned out to be an absolutely amazing place that was plant based but serving delicious fare. The cheese scone was hugely tasty whatever was replacing the cheese and covered in tasty veg. Bryn’s sweet creamy choices went down a storm too. There was a nerve wracking glass display and the staff had a long walk with the soups that seemed as scary a trip as our cruise. As we left she met me and said she couldn’t stop carrying the soup but a little later she was coming back as it had slopped a little despite her best efforts, the staff were certainly not sloppy. We would have been crazy to pass this cafe by.