Goodbye to Ely 'till the next time..

Stretham Old Engine to Littleport, River Gt Ouse, 10.5 miles 0 locks

Well after yesterdays constant rain it was nice to wake up to the sun again, although it was a bit breezy, it was coming from behind.  It didn’t take too long before the Fish and Duck pub at Pope’s Corner came into view.. a lovely pub this one, although during the number of times we have passed it this summer, we never actually tasted the beer!

Our last stop at Ely this summer too.  I had some library books to return that Kiera borrowed while she spent a week with us.  It’s very easy to join any library, all you need is a couple of bits of ID and a home address, which doesn’t have to be in the county that the library is in.  It’s great too because you can return books to any library in the county without having to go back to the actual one books were borrowed from.

Called in at the butchers to stock the freezer for a couple of weeks and got some winter pansies from the market.  My poor plants never did recover from a late frost back at the end of May.. I will put the pansies in early hoping to get a good show of flowers before the winter sets in.

I don’t like the bit between Ely and Denver, it’s just plain boring, well I think it is.  High banks on both sides and a very wide river… but I was lucky today to see a great egret.  It was the first one I have seen this year, and managed to get a pic of it in flight, albeit a bit of a long way off, but I got it!   Not long after that a Pochard..

We had hoped to get a bit further downstream today, but wet stuff started to fall just as we approached Littleport, and what with the two soakings I have had within the last seven days, didn’t fancy another one, so we moored and settled mid afternoon.  This gave me a chance to have a nice long and relaxing walk over the fens with Lucy.  I have grown quite fond of walking the fens, it is very different from normal countryside walks, so flat, but the views are stunning, and the way they farm the fens is interesting.  There is always a lot of wildlife with the ditches/drains surrounding very large areas of agriculture.  A thunderstorm passed across in front of my view, very stunning in the fens… here is the view I had with a rainbow behind the fork lightning.. amazing stuff!

I am extremely stiff this evening.. see I have got out of practice with walking, well it is either that or I am right off fitness with all the whooping it up last weekend with the family visit!