Paddle from the historic Houghton Mill along the Great River Ouse, spotting wildlife and historic churches, before reaching the medieval market town of St Ives and turning back. (Waterways licence required. Find out more).
Distance: 8.6km (5.4 miles)
Time: 2 hours
Sat Nav: PE28 2AZ
What3Words: ///scrolled.havens.animals
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We began our day at the historic Houghton Mill, close to the River Great Ouse, near Huntingdon, in Cambridgeshire,
The National Trust site has free parking if you’re a member of the organisation – for everyone else it’s only £3 for three hours (maximum stay).
Houghton Mill has toilets, a cafe, and a campsite, with camping pods, which is ideal as a base for exploring the Great River Ouse.
There’s also mobility parking and an accessible toilet.
The start point is located in the basin near the mill.
The concrete slipway is a little uneven in places, but adequate to launch from.
The National Trust welcomes paddlers, but urges common sense, particularly when the mill’s water wheel is in use.
Paddling away from the mill we took a left up a tributary towards the Great River Ouse, passing the Trout Stream weir.
From the weir it was about 350m until we got to the main part of the river.
We kept to the right as there’s another weir to the left, you should avoid.
We continued, keeping left of an island, and paddled past the village of Hemingford Grey.
The magnificent St James’ Church is the highlight, it was bathed in sunlight with its image reflecting in the water.
We paddled for another 350m until we reached Hemingford Lock, which is maintained by the Environment Agency, and had to portage.
There are signs here reminding everyone of the need for a waterways licence or risk a fine.
Back on the river, we continued for about 2km towards St Ives, spotting red kites overhead, herons, Egyptian geese, grebes, swans and ducks.
At St Ives, we paddled back on ourselves with Holt Island Nature Reserve to our left and more of the town to our right.
There are various portage points in St Ives to get out and visit the free to enter Norris Museum, All Saints Parish Church, and the pubs and cafes.
The river got a little narrow at this point, and there were hundreds of fish swimming beneath our boats.
Back on the Great Ouse, we headed back to Houghton Mill for a coffee and some delicious hot food in the National Trust cafe.
We also had a fascinating tour of the mill which dates back to the 18th-century.
The tour, which is only available between March and October, is £8 for adults and £4 for children.
