Ely

The Fens from the water

Ely sits at the northern edge of one of England's flattest, strangest landscapes — a drained wetland where the horizon runs uninterrupted and the sky does most of the scenery. A week on a Black Prince narrowboat here is a quieter proposition than the more obvious canal routes of the Midlands. You're on rivers rather than canals: the Great Ouse, the Cam, and a handful of tributaries that slip off into reedbeds and grazing marsh. Expect wide, slow water, big skies, grazing horses on the bank, and a serious amount of birdlife.

Cambridge, Wicken Fen and the south

Heading south from Ely, you pick up the Cam and follow it into Cambridge — a rare opportunity to arrive at a famous university town by boat rather than queueing on the A14. Three days is about right for the round trip if you want to mooch the colleges and Backs before turning north again. On the way back, mooring at Upware puts you within easy walking distance of Wicken Fen, the National Trust's oldest nature reserve. The boardwalks cross genuinely undrained fenland — rare stuff in this part of England — and the birdwatching here is as good as any reason to come.

West of Ely, the Old West River traces the original course of the Great Ouse towards Earith, which is popular with anglers and has 36 acres of lakes fringing the village. It's a quiet, unhurried stretch — more bird hide than tourist trail.

North to Denver and Downham Market

Head upriver and the Ouse takes you into Norfolk, via the Ouse Relief Channel, to Denver and Downham Market. Denver is worth a proper stop: the Grade II-listed Norman church of St Mary, the working Denver Windmill, and the sluice complex that keeps a large chunk of the Fens from flooding. The visitor centre at Denver Sluice is genuinely interesting if you want to understand the landscape you've been cruising through.

Downham Market sits a little further on, a Saxon-era market town with a Friday and Saturday market in the Town Hall car park and enough cafes and pubs to make it a sensible lunch stop. On the way back, the tributaries — the Lark, the Little Ouse and the Wissey — each repay an afternoon of pottering. The route east towards Brandon, on the edge of Thetford Forest, is the quietest of the lot: Cambridgeshire countryside giving way to Suffolk, with a small, market-day town at the end and a 13th-century church to poke around.

Picking up the boat

Black Prince's Ely base hires narrowboats sleeping two to five, for short breaks or full weeks. The fleet suits small groups — couples, families, two-couple trips — rather than larger parties. Routes divide roughly into the southern run to Cambridge and Wicken Fen, and the northern run to Denver, Downham Market and the three tributaries; most people pick one or weave a longer holiday across both.

This is a good route for first-time hirers. The rivers here have far fewer locks than the Midlands canals, the going is slow and forgiving, and the pubs along the bank — for a lunch in the garden or a cosy evening — are a real part of the appeal. Anyone after dramatic scenery and constant variety should look elsewhere; anyone after space, birds, big skies and the oddness of the Fens will find Ely a sensible place to start.