Local Knowledge from Weeden..

Comment by John Wilshire on the Blog about Weeden back in November last year

Glad to see your used the local facilities at Weedon. The butcher has retired and is now our district councillor. The guy looking in the bins is not the guy in the "wanted" poster. His name is Bobby and he has lived around Weedon for many years.

I always try to use the local shops to buy needed supplies, maybe they don’t get too much because I shop with Tesco Home Delivery, but I always use butchers and bakers wherever I can….

Ha looking back at that blog last November had me rolling up again about those two blokes with the stop go boards at the bridge.. I have yet to see something to beat that on my travels so far!

Tim Coghlan has written a bit about Mr Finch called The Remorseful Day which makes interesting reading.. and also I noticed that Chris of NB Sirius seems to believe he had been broken into at the end of May this year by this cheeky and annoying man..

While I writing this, and looking at Chris’s blog, you must take a read of his hairy ride down the River Trent last winter… here’s a bit…

We then carried on under our own steam, albeit too fast for the engine, and we overheated, and the engine cut out in the middle of the river, with the tide flowing out we quickly started to drift backwards out of control!! Panic stations!! Anchor! After a few tense minutes the Anchor had turned us facing up stream and dragged us onto the river bank.

Anyway, thanks John for your comment

American Blogger Honeymoons on our Canals!

Having a bit of a relax tonight, and browsing the net for a while, I came across this blog post by a librarian from Massachusetts, USA.  Obviously on honeymoon here in the UK enjoying a narrowboat holiday… or trying to!!

 

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 Hello everyone, say "Hi!" to Elvind!

Hi, Elvind!

Elvind is a Narrowboat. Can you say "Narrowboat?" Yes? Can you say "Bitch?" You can?! Great! So say "Piloting a Narrowboat is a Bitch."

Sure, you start out on the boat all smiles and giggles:

But before you know it, the narrowboat makes you its bitch! And the narrowboat is quite heavy, so it hurts when he's on top. And he likes it on top, oh yes! He likes to randomly steer to the left at all times, especially if there's another boat there! Naughty Elvind! He also likes to run aground every six minutes. Have you ever seriously considered pulling a damn narrowboat five miles down a canal just so you won't have to pilot it any more? No? Well la-de-da, Miss Prissypants!

Elvind has some rules. He's a jerk, sure, but a jerk with rules, dammit.

Rule 1:
Elvind Always Steers to the Left
This is constant and only trumped by..

Rule 2:
Elvind Always Steers Towards Other Boats
Again, this rule is trumped by..

Rule 3:
Elvind Will Always Run Aground In The Presence of Two or More Other Boats
While obeying Rule 3, there's also..

Rule 4:
While Run Aground, Elvind Will Be Passed By Multiple Other Boats Offering Scant Help
This is a sort-of lie, as many, many kindly people helped Elvind out of the mud, shallows, brambles, branches, clutches of underwater mermen, sand, stones and gravity vortii that he became stuck in. Finally..

Rule 5:
Elvind Must Pass A Dead Rabbit Floating In The Canal Once Per Day
The Bunny Mafia is pretty damn tough in England and is prone to send warnings, such as "Deady Bunxkin Sleeps With The Fishes" and "Thumper Squealed" to Elvind to keep him inline and on schedule with his secret carrot drops.


So, we're back. It was actually fun, running aground besides. Now to settle into a post-wedding bliss of trying to make sure we get all our thank-you cards sent out in a timely manner, making sure we didn't lose anyone's gift (may have happened, eep!), and stocking our new barcart/bar toys with sweet, sweet liquor.

What's up for Friday? If nothing, would folks like to come over? We need to the impetus to actually unpack our luggage.

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It is obviously very busy on the canal system, although we could have done with seeing a narrowboat yesterday to tow us back to Ely after our breakdown, not one came a long… I see by our librarian’s blog that nothing much has changed on the canals then while we are away!!

A Week away then back to Ely

Thurs 23rd to Thurs 30th – Moored Waterbeach then on to Ely, 7 miles, 1 lock

We both decided to take a few days down south and join the family for a very long weekend.  Once again one of our typical family days last Sunday, and the weather was good enough for the BBQ to be dragged out of the garage… Here Wendie, the master BBQ chef at work..

We took Lucy with us this time, and she braved not only the trains, but also London Underground.  She was just brilliant, just as if she had been a Londoner dog.  We travelled in London during the quieter times, so there wasn’t too much overcrowding for her to cope with.

When we arrived back onboard Lucy slept for a good four hours.. dunno if she was totally exhausted or just pleased to be home

On our first evening back, I let Lucy out as usual.  Unfortunately both front flaps of the cratch cover were rolled up as it was so hot.. I asked her if she wanted to go out…she leapt out of her basket and three strides later had landed in the canal having taken an exit left from the boat instead of exit right onto the towpath!..  Still, she got a lot of TLC after that and wrapped in a blanket for the night….

We had a problem the following morning… Vic did his usual engine checks only to find the fan belt broken on that problematic alternator.  We were about 4.5 miles from Ely, but when Vic checked the water it was very low indeed… of course, the fan belt pully also ran the water pump!!

Phoning the boatyard in Ely, we were advised to just tick over back to the yard for repairs… but I wasn’t too happy, and we stopped at Popes Corner and asked him to come out and put a belt on..

By this morning we were back in Ely once again for the fitter to try and find out the reason for the misalignment of that alternator, and the reasons the belt broke.  We were both disappointed that we didn’t turn left to go on up the River towards Bedford.  Never mind, I am sure we will be on our way in a couple of days

Fishing today, I spied a family of weasels  on the far bank… 5 of them all playing.  I have only ever seen two weasels in my life before, and by the time I had told everyone walking along the waterfront path, there was quite an audience.. Too far for the pics to have come out unfortunately though

Back on the River Cam....

 Moored somewhere nice on River Cam

OK, so the Mutt is intelligent…. well I liked her description of our mooring tonight, so I will go with that and have to agree with her!

It’s been one of those days today…. retired or not, you will always get one of ‘those’ days, and as I write a cruiser has just gone past at some great speed knocking poor NP about.. now they are turning… no they are doing bottom plates… well I can’t say wheelies can I?  This is a live blog tonight… Gawd it’s all been happening this evening at this spot… the guy in the house opposite deciding to use his motor strimmer for a couple of hours.. the boat in front is still partying very loudly, they guy in the field opposite has just put his gun away after running out of ammunition.. the guy with the strimmer stopped strimming then decided to top his batteries up and run the engine at 9.50pm, that has just shut off…. I wouldn’t have minded, but it smoked like hell, and with the weather the way it is, it just drifted a couple of feet above The Cam and went nowhere… Lucy attacked the cat a couple of boats away because the gunfire frightened her and she wanted something to take her mind off it …. and that was just since 7pm tonight!! My day of stress started at 8.50am this morning!  HELP!!!!

I have been trying to calm my awful day by relaxing and fishing this evening… desperately looking for some peace and quiet… Spose I am spoilt after my couple of weeks in ‘the sticks’.. well it is summer I suppose!

Anyway… The Five Miles From Anywhere pub… yes it was OK.. probably not one I would return to… but an interesting notice leading to the lovely garden area there….

“In the interest of safety, strictly no crockery, cutlery or glasses beyond this point” says the top bit if you can’t read it.. underneath it says “If taking drinks to the garden or play area, please return glasses to the bar, thank you”….  Seems there must be two people in charge of putting up notices!!

On going from our nightmare on Burwell Lode with all the weed.. we met the lockie who is in charge of some of the locks on the Cam, famous again we were.. he recognised NP as the one pulled out.. he told us that the Environment Agency have hired the Cams Conservator’s weed cutter to go and cut the weed today!!  Hey great stuff… today he said…

Well this is what we saw today…

Ah the Cams Conservator’s weed cutter!  Well and truly moored securely late this evening… this is the only vessel that can deal with the weed, there is only one, so I guess it didn’t get done today then!

Fishing… Well Andrew Denny on Granny Buttons is of the opinion that boaters and fisher-people don’t talk to each other, don’t like each other… well I have had no problem with fishermen… I do have problems with narrowboats with I am a fisherman though…. I fish off the back of NP, she is a cruiser, and the main reason we bought a cruiser stern is so that I can fish off the back in comfort.. but even if I am out there fishing narrowboaters never say to me… “Hey I gotta run the engine for a while, you OK with that?”  I am always OK with that, just would be nice if they would just ask… The biggest problem fishing off a narrowboat is people on the towpath behind me bringing all the left over bread and chucking it in the canal to attract ducks who skid in from miles away to feast… I wonder sometimes if I am seen at all!!

I am always cheery with fishermen on the bank… and they are with me.. I also scrounge of them.  It’s not easy to get good bait, usually having to use what ever is spare in the larder.. but late in the day, I will approach one nearby for some juicy live bait by swapping that with a cuppa and a piece of homemade cake..usually does the trick!

A Blog from a Dog!

Moored somewhere nice on River Cam

She’s fishing, so I got her computer out and thought I would show you my new scarf that my friend Annie of NB Moore2Life sent me.

I had to complain to her you see, well it’s not that my Mum doesn’t look after me properly, but she can’t sew to save her life!

My scarfs are just getting far too tatty for a canal dog to look her best… I wrote to Annie, and today I took my Mum to the Post Office to collect some mail that I knew contained some nice new scarfs from my friend.

Then I got Mum to take some before and after pics… here is the after one..

Thank you so much Annie, now I am the smartest canal dog round here!…… all I need to do now, is find that flower thingy she uses sometimes!!

Ah found it!! 

Post by Lucy

Busy ol' day today...

Wicken Lode to Junc River Cam and Reach Lode – 2 miles 1 lock

Realising that we actually had our very own private swimming pool, we ended up having a good cool off yesterday evening, even Lucy joining in the fun, but someone had to take that pic, and with me and Lucy on the bank, Vic was left to be the centre of attraction!

Today though, we just had to leave.  Well we only had one slice of bread left, which we promised ourselves we would share at breakfast this morning… Vic was in charge of toasting it… he never let his eyes away from watching it slowly brown, and with a smidge of marmalade, it was the best bit of toast I had in ages!! 

Water was low too, and we were on our emergency supply of milk, longlife stuff and only half a spud left .. soooo forced to leave we very slowly made our way back along Wicken Fen..

I had arranged for a nice Mr Tesco to visit us at the waterpoint by Reach Lode Lock, but in fact it was Miss Tesco who brought our delivery today! … Fresh bread, milk and veg among other supplies… well needed too.

Stayed on the waterpoint while I did all the washing… then refilled the tank again before going through the lock and mooring just round the corner at the “Five Miles From Anywhere” pub… I remember back in the winter when I was having a look at this trip wondering just what this pub might be like… Well I will find out tonight for sure… hope their guest ale is a good one! 

I was so sorry to leave Wicken, I know we will be back before the summer is over… anyway, the barn owl was hunting on the other side of the fen yesterday evening.. I could see him in the distance.. I will have to come back now to get a closer look!

Going through Reach Lode Lock, there is a sign there warning of the weed towards Burwell… well I am glad the EA has done that… it was really bad.. Oh and we are now famous round these parts!  “Ah, you are the people towed out of Burwell!” was called over at us as we passed the moorings in Reach Lode!

It’s cooler outside now…. definitely time to put the rod over for an hour or so..

Corr What a Scorcher!

Fri, Sat and Today – Moored Wicken Lode, River Cam

‘Ot innit!?

Not complaining of course.. just what is needed after the winter, ‘tis the longest day today and the hottest day of the year.. all downhill now heading back to winter daylight hours!

Vic did a good check of the engine yesterday only to find one of the alternators was ‘hanging’ off!  We have two alternators, one large one for the domestic electrics and one small one for the starter battery.  The smaller one has been giving us grief since the new engine was fitted last November, it seems to be just out of line, and no matter how Vic adjusts, it just won’t behave.

We called in to Bridge Boats in Ely to have them take a look at the problem, and the guy fitted a spacer thing… The engine isn’t my department, so my terminology leaves a lot to be desired.. Anyway, whether he left a bolt underneath undone or whatever, but one of the bolts on the top had actually sheered right through!

It seems OK now, Vic put a new bolt in and tightened the loose ones on the bottom.. but we will call in somewhere shortly to let them take a good look at it, and on our return to the Grand Union, will take a run down to Calcutt for them to double check it.

Well as for the last few days for me, I have been doing absolutely nothing, apart from my usual walking as much as I can during the cooler evening hours…

This from one of the high hides overlooking Mere Lake, in the foreground is Wicken Lode… and this of the konig wild ponies that roam the fen…

These ponies are have been brought in from areas in the Broads, and are used for keeping the scrub down.. although they are starting a breeding program at Wicken Fen.

Not all walking though, been relaxing in the shade under the handy tree right by NP having a bit of a go at my cross stitch pic of L.S.Lowry’s The Docks.. ha the finished size is only 4”x4”.  I started this back last year I think! … I’ll do a bit more today when he sun has gone behind the tree in an hour or so… For now it is too hot to go out there!

The flowers have at last picked themselves up a bit… although ‘Something’ has eaten one of the strawberries just as it was ripening! .. How dare it!! .. they all caught the frost you see, and I thought I was going to lose the lot… but I have been giving them a lot of TLC, looks like they will be OK now.

Andrew Denny is very brave… he blogged that Caen Hill Locks, all 26 of them was on his agenda for yesterday afternoon.. he wanted to do the lot on his own.. maybe to prove his fitness after his minor heart op lately.. or maybe he just wanted to do them at his own speed, instead of having to rush about upsides a hireboat.. Also on that particular blog, some interesting information about WiFi spots, I really must try to get my head round that, I expect I could learn how to find them…

But for now, the shade is spread beneath the tree, so that’s me for today.. Lucy will get her walk this evening when we will be in search of the gorgeous Barn Owl, I know where it frequents now

Wicken Lode

Yesterday and Today – Moored Bottom of Wicken Lode

A couple of feet behind where we have moored is a little wooden bridge.. we had to back into here after turning where Wicken Lode ends and Monks Lode, our mooring starts.  This is the most wonderful mooring, and has overtaken my number one favourite mooring of Gateforth Landing up on the Selby Canal.

I am absolutely in my element here, such is the outstanding natural beauty of this place, there can be no where like it anywhere on the Inland Waterways.  Yesterday was taken up with washing the boat the best we could in the morning and walking for miles upon miles with Lucy… we were both very tired on our return, but well worth it!

Today we rubbed down the first coat of undercoat, and applied another…. well I did the rubbing down and Vic got to work with the paint brush… This afternoon…. hey guess what?  I didn’t go walking!!

Instead the rod came out!! It’s the first day of the new fishing season… well Lucy and I needed a rest after our very long jaunt of yesterday!   She was a bit miffed though, and I felt guilty, so after catching my first fish of the season, a roach, we wandered off for a couple of miles into this lovely National Trust area.

We have had the end of the Lode all to ourselves this last couple of days, but by late afternoon a narrowboat arrived, and another about half hour after that.  There isn’t that much room here, NP was as far back as possible to the little footbridge behind her, so the first boat having moored giving himself some space, had to move back to let the third one in… it took quite some doing to get three in the very limited space.

If it’s not too hot in the morning the top coat of non-slip will go on the roof… mmm now where did I put that masking tape?

 

Rescued and on to Wicken Lode!

Today – Burwell to Wicken, Burwell and Wicken Lodes, River Cam
Sun and Mon – Moored Burwell, Burwell Lode

We sent a great weekend at Burwell, a rather odd village by way of shopping!  There are plenty of shops, that isn’t the problem.  The problem was that very few of them were actually next door to each other over a stretch of a mile and a half!

My “I’ll pop to the butchers” yesterday morning turned out to be a three mile plus hike to the other end of the village and back.. For sure there was a Vets, Post Office, Chemist, Curtain Shop, Co-Op, Electrical Shop, Fish and Chip Shop, Florist, Baker… to name but a few, but not one of them were next door to another!  The butcher was not the furthest either… just another 50 yards more was the Bakers.

Anyway, I phoned the Environment Agency yesterday and told them of our plight.. said that I considered Burwell Lode as unnavigable at the present time.  I really didn’t want to stress the boat trying to blast our way out from the visitor mooring through that blanket weed.. “Be there at 9.30 in the morning to assess the situation” said the nice man from EA.

Yes, he had to agree, it was unnavigable.. and he phoned the office to get some notices printed to stop boats from coming up the Lode… then…..

Hooray!!  Good job there was some sort of path along the side, and NP had no choice but to be dragged through the weed by our super hero!

Our very long 60ft rope tied to the back of NP and the bow rope both attached to the towbar of the van kept us in a straightish line.  We were pulled for as far as you can see in the pic, and on round the corner too, that is how bad it was!

Once clear, all was let go, and we happily went on our way stopping to finally clear the prop back at the visitor moorings at Reach Lode near Cock Up Bridge. 

This afternoon we have cruised the one and half miles along Wicken Lode to moor at the GOBA moorings at the end.  Lucy and I couldn’t wait to go off and have a good look at Wicken Fen for a few hours… happy in the fact that our exciting day turned out so well.

Here then my backyard today…

Burwell Lode... bit slow going!!

Today – Junc with Wicken Lode to Burwell, Burwell Lode, River Cam
Yesterday – Moored Junc Wicken Lode

With all the preparation and first undercoat applied to the roof yesterday, we promised to give ourselves a rest today, and gently cruise down to Burwell Village at the end of Burwell Lode…

Things never really work out as planned sometimes…

Yes a restful early morning before pulling the pins to do the short 3 mile trip, normally taking about half an hour at the speed we tend to go..  All was fine, we were enjoying the low lying areas on each side of the Lode, spying that marsh harrier I took a pic of the other day, and a buzzard having a right go at each other in flight, such awesome power they have..

Well everything was fine until we got to within a quarter of a mile of the end of the Lode.  NP started to struggle, the blanket weed was trapped at the bow, and getting itself wrapped round the prop… Nope, no good this, Plan A then, all stop and into the weed hatch to clear the prop.. Gawd this stuff is chronic!  I cleared as much weed from the front bow as I could, it was so heavy to shift.. and with the prop clear again, we had another go… got another 50 yards or so.. same again… and yet another repeat of this fiasco getting no further this time than about 20 yards!

A boat came past us going back to the safety of ‘non weed’ while we took turns clearing the prop.. he didn’t get very far either until he got stuck!

OK then so plan B… Vic can play horsey on the bank and pull us the 300 yards.  We had to do it, the Lode is not wide enough to turn you see.. It looks like there is a clear track in the pic, but all that floating stuff you can see, blanket weed, is just below the surface as well!

Plan B didn’t work either because more of the stuff was trapped round the bow again, being so heavy just stopped NP in her tracks.. OK Plan C then

I remembered back a couple of weeks ago that I fancied doing a punt down the River Cam by the colleges, well with Plan C I would get my chance to have a go!

Inch by inch we made very slow progress.. no good turning on the engine, no sooner than the prop was engaged, it was tangled in weed again.. we punted!!

Just 200 yards to go, we could see the safety of the visitor mooring, there was a plastic boat there… thankfully.. because Chris and Sue the owners of it saw our plight, and walked along the towpath to help.  Chris took a long centre rope, wrapped it round himself and hauled… Sue hauling on the back rope, Vic punting from the stern, and me punting and clearing weed at the bow.. Thanks you two!

It took 2 and half hours to do that 400 yards.. here then my backyard today pic..

Pushing and pulling we turned here.. Lucy missed out on her walk this evening, no strength to even pick up my walking stick!

This will do for a few days.. we need to regain some energy before having to do much the same on our return out of here me thinks!

Springs it is.. and Oxford Blue too

Today – Moored Reach Lode, River Cam

Almost finished the roof today… just one section left.   I say almost finished, well the preparation is.. still got to do the job of putting another non slip undercoat on before the final coat of blue.  We talked and talked about what colour to do the final coat in this time.. and decided in the end to keep it as it was.  A lighter colour doesn’t hold the heat so much.. but when I finally said,”Hey if we have a light colour we will miss out on having cooked eggs for breakfast during the summer holidays when the kids throw em at us!”

We laughed and laughed… so decided to keep it good ‘ol Oxford blue..

Springs then… Well lots of comments and suggestions…

From Ron.. 

Springers is easy to describe...
They are ropes which go from the boat/target/whatever to the shore, one from the stern of the boat to the mooring pin at the bow of the boat and one from the bow of the boat to the mooring pin at the stern.
This stops the boat moving too much when tupperware tart carts blast by at speeds in excess of the speed limit, moving most of the water out of the channel.
now, of course, Sue will post and tell me that I am wrong.

Nearly right Ron

David B

I think they are more commonly known as just "springs".

Ron…

I knew them as springs as well, but I guessed that the Narrow Boat world may have invented another name for them...
I learned the name, and what they did, off a trawlerman here in sunny Weymouth.

Pat..

.. Springs is the word, E indoors as his seamanship Manual, page 147, any spring which prevents the boat from moving back (aft) is known as a back spring, and one that prevents a boat from moving forward(ahead) is known as a head spring, when a boat is secured alongside, the head and back springspreventher from urging ahead or astern at her berth, and together hey assist the breast ropes to keep her close alongside. 

So know I know its Springs, I think Ron,  it wasn’t the narrowboat world that invented that name for them but me!!

And finally….. From Tony by email, that diagram to do it the Canadian way!…

this will save the trouble of drawing.
The proper name for the type of mooring you mention is a 'Spring'. This
actual diagram is a Canadian one and is labelled incorrectly; the proper
names are 'Fore Spring' and 'Aft Spring'.  I spend 4 years at naval college
and four years at sea many years ago but do remember that!

So now it is all explained.. thanks!

Male fish are changing sex - rubbish!

Waterways News Snippets

 Health alert over chemicals in rivers

Following my blog about rubbish in the rivers the other day ….. an interesting study published yesterday!

THE cocktail of chemicals entering British waterways may be causing far more damage to humans and wildlife than previously thought.

Well now, a research program has been carried out by scientists, led by Professor John Sumpter of the institute for the environment at Brunel University… but the amazing thing is that no tests have actually been carried out in rivers or other waterways!

They seem to be very worried about the dumping of contraceptive pills .!

However the study did find that animals suffered more serious adverse effects..  

These effects include reduced fertility, low sperm counts and changes in gender. Oestrogenic chemicals – which imitate oestrogen, the female sex hormone – are also associated with breast cancer and testicular cancer in humans.

Yet another study from  the Department for Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs found that ….

Male fish in the Clyde and Forth rivers were taking on female characteristics as a result of hormones and pollutants in the water

I wondered if anyone had done a study on how many male fish there are to female fish.. maybe the dumping of all these pills will even things up!.. I think another study is needed.  

A bit of a ‘tongue in cheek’ blog from me this evening, but I am sure all these studies will still not force the environment agency to clear the rubbish from the rivers… !

Wicken Lode and Fen tires me..

Tues and today – Moored Reach Lode

We spent about 4 hours on the roof on each of the days we have been here.  Luckily nobody has arrived at the visitor moorings, so we have been able to say in this wonderful place and work and play…

The boats in the background are on the private moorings here, and I walked down when Vic had the grinder going to see what the noise was like… could hardly hear it from the boat in the background, and anyway, such a friendly chap.  I spoke to him about us doing the roof, “Ah that is no problem at all, you carry on”  same reaction from the people a couple of boats down who couldn’t hear it anyway.  Well we are only using it for about an hour during the day just to get the worse stuff off the roof.

It seems that the old owners of the boat might have just put paint straight on without any preparation just to tidy NP up before selling her.. it’s not as bad as we had originally thought though

The bridge I am standing on to take that pic above is the entrance to Wicken Lode.. the water is crystal clear around here.. oh the white blob by the boat is a sheet covering up the plants that usually live on the roof, removed and covered while we use the grinder etc.

Wicken Lode itself is very narrow.  At the end is just about enough room to turn round and also at the end is a GOBA mooring big enough for a couple of boats.  Once we have finished the roof we will venture up there.  I have walked for miles around this place already, but not actually been on Wicken Fen yet.  I am saving that till we moor at the end of the Lode maybe next week

Wicken Fen is on the other side of the Lode in this pic…

Pretty remote place this.. good job we got plenty of stores on

Return trip to Ely but back in my element

Today – Ely to Reach Lode – Gt Ouse, Cam and Reach Lode, 6.5 miles 1 lock
Sun 5th June – Waterbeach to Ely, Cam and Gt Ouse, 10.75 miles 1 lock
Sat 4th June – Moored Waterbeach, River Cam

We couldn’t continue on the roof on Saturday, it was raining on and off all day… the evening was better, and I decided that a walk across the fens was much better that getting sore knees on the roof!

Big plans were made on Sunday morning… decided to go back to Ely to empty the loos, top up with diesel and water and get enough stores to last us for three weeks, so that we could ‘hide’ ourselves up one of the lovely lodes in the area, earmarking Reach Lode for a wonderfully quiet way of spending June.

Blimey, June, I am wondering if we will actually get to Bedford at this rate before the summer is over!

We arrived back at Ely on Sunday in the late afternoon.  I didn’t want to get there much earlier, thinking that maybe it would be busy with boats out of marinas taking all the moorings – rightly as we went through not a lot of space left! … and while filling up with water I spied a place we might be able to fit in… NP is just 24 strides long.. its handy to know how many strides length your boat is you know!.. Anyway the space was 26 strides, and a quick reverse upstream, poking the bow into the vacant space, NP slid in neatly.

I couldn’t resist the call of the fens in the late evening, and Lucy and I took to the paths and tracks to the northwest of the town for a couple of hours across some spectacular fenland countryside… no hills round here.. magic

We spent most of the morning in Ely, it really is a delightful town, and we have grown fond of it after only a couple of visits.. Lunched out today, collected from the butcher to fill the freezer compartment of the fridge, and left late afternoon for Reach Lode collecting diesel on the way to last us a good month and half..

Ha, yes got my camera data lead back from Wendie, so back to normal on the blogs now…. two pumps here, one for diesel and one for unleaded petrol for those speedy, expensive to run tupperware tart carts!

It’s really lovely to be back in Reach Lode, and we are moored in exactly the same spot as we did on our fleeting visit a couple of weeks ago, right by ‘Cock Up Bridge’… the left turn into Wicken Lode…. I love the name.. it is a bit rickety that bridge, but its OK!

Tomorrow we will venture a little further to try find somewhere to finish off the roof.  I don’t really want to start using power tools, ie the grinder in this nice visitor mooring here disturbing others… its very remote around here, but I love that… no roads, no railways, no nothing…

 

River Rubbish - What a farce!

Waterways News Snippets

Town fury over litter clearing farce says the East Anglian Times…..

“A town council chairman has told of his anger at an "amazing" situation where no organisation is prepared to take responsibility for clearing rubbish from a prominent river”

This is one of the biggest problems on the waterways, especially in urban areas.  The Environment Agency say that the Councils in the area should clear the rubbish..

Alan Holzer said..

“..officials told me they (the Council) had contacted their legal department and it had been confirmed they were only responsible for litter in the park and on the river banks but not for litter dumped in the river”

"A spokesperson for the Environment Agency said that litter in rivers was the responsibility of local authorities.”

The article goes on to say that the Council will collect the litter from the river bank if it is taken out first and dumped there!   So for a town to have a clean river running through it, they have to come out of their houses, don their wellies and take it out the river themselves!!

Unbelievable!

Roof repairs started at Waterbeach

Moored Nr Waterbeach, River Cam

We started on the roof today… I was delighted!

It has to be done this summer, we really should have done it last year.  A daunting task to think about doing ourselves, but I knew once we started it, all would be OK   So that is a quarter of it done, spending about 4 hours with the grinder and sandpaper.  Ended up covered in blue ‘dust’ by the end, good job I put on my worn out jeans and shirt. We now have a multi-coloured NP with a nice grey ‘undercoat’ colour on part of the roof.

The weather was good here most of the day, unlike other areas in the country, but by the time I went walking with Lucy it was already beginning to look as if some rain was on the way.  I got half way across an open field when I saw black clouds with thunder and lightening heading straight for me, so curtailed the evening walk, managing to get back to NP before the heavens opened and a full blown storm rocked us.

The headache of yesterday never really went away, and came back again as the storm crashed in over the boat with high winds,, hey it’s suppose to be June!

We have had to put on springers tonight, a trip boat out of Cambridge has been up and down a couple of times, firstly this afternoon with a live jazz band aboard and this evening again with a full blown disco, everyone was having a great time… it sure does draw a lot of water though, and earlier when it went through it had pulled the pins from two narrowboats moored further upstream, leaving their bows stuck in the middle of the river!   The trip boat is going a bit fast though, but time is money I suppose…

Ha, I went to look for a link to explain ‘springers’ to you, and typed into google narrowboat springers ropes and the only site that came up was my own!!

OK then, springers is a term used for securing a boat.  I don’t do it really properly, but basically …. no, no, I can’t explain.. I’ll sleep on it and maybe draw a diagram tomorrow…. unless, of course, somebody finds a link that explains and posts a comment!

 

It's muggy along the Cam

Baits Bite Lock to Nr Waterbeach, River Cam, 1.5 miles 0 locks

I have had a headache for most of the day today, its muggy and humid here on the Cam. No sun or rain, just an overcast sky.. We got our Tesco delivery this morning from a very cheerful chappie who was intrigued as to how we managed to order online!

Not long after we packed it all away, Vic and I went to the Milton Country Park, Lucy was delighted, she loved it there yesterday.  Well at least today it wasn’t raining… had a nice cuppa at the Park Centre, it really is a delightful place.  A couple of lakes that were once working pits.  Great for families, and there were a lot of youngsters enjoying the playparks as well as the walks and lakes.  I thought the facilities for fishing were great there for families, although at the moment it is closed season, the fishing platforms are well made and flat, and the charge for a days fishing is just a fiver, very fair.

We have some post to pick up at Waterbeach on Saturday, well as well as post, Wendie is sending me the data lead for the camera that I left at her house at the weekend thank goodness… At least there will be some pics on the blog next week!   Anyway, we moved down just a bit today for a different back garden.  We might just start on the roof tomorrow if the weather is OK… Ho hum, yes the roof needs stripping and repainting.  I think once we have made a start it will be done quite quickly, it’s just a case of getting started

Yesterday evening there were moorhens taking turns sitting on their eggs, this morning there were three moorhen chics exploring the river… ah such is life on the river, there is always something of interest, something that makes being retired to the waterways such a fabulous way of life.

Cambridge Eights change our minds

Today – Fen Ditton to below Baitsbite Lock, 1 mile 1 lock

Decisions were made today to turn round and not venture on up to Cambridge.  I was disappointed a bit to be honest… I knew we could only go to Jesus Lock, but I also knew there were punts on the other side of the lock.  I had asked Vic last night whether he would punt me up the river past all the universities and colleges… but the way his mouth dropped open I realised that I would have to get one of those handsome university students to do the punting bit for me!..

But this morning we made that decision to turn back.  Yesterday we met a couple on our way through Baitsbite Lock who warned us of the rowing eights… “There have been no fatalities, but they bump into boats and it turns their rowing boat over” “They don’t like boats between here and Cambridge” “You will be OK, just try to keep out of the way” “You might get shouted at, but don’t worry about it”…

I know, believe only half of it!!

But we had experienced the rowing eights yesterday evening… guessing, there must have been 70 of them in just a few hours passing our mooring at the Plough at Fen Ditton… they were bumping into each other, some going upstream some downstream and some going across stream… it was quite funny really…

Anyway……. I don’t particularly want to be the first to kill a crew member!

So we turned when we saw a quiet moment and went back down through Baitsbite Lock to safety… The rowing boats turning back to Cambridge above that lock.

I spent most of the rest of the day walking with Lucy at the glorious Milton Country Park… about half a mile from the River from our mooring below the lock.. There is a narrow road from the towpath to the park… just perfect, in fact, for a Tesco Delivery in the morning.

On the Road to the Concerts

Tues 31st May – Waterbeach to Fen Ditton, River Cam, 3 miles 1 lock
Sat 28th May to Mon 30th May – Moored Waterbeach, River Cam

I was back down in the south of England on Saturday…. At St Mary’s Stadium, the home of Southampton Football Club to see Elton John in concert… Being a Portsmouth supporter, I never ever thought I would see the day that I would venture into that stadium!   It was a fabulous concert, and my daughter, Wendie, and I had a wonderful time, just a couple of rows from the front, the best place to be!

Spending the weekend at Wendie’s house, we had a big family get-together on the Sunday, all four grandchildren enjoying a day in the garden, and a visit from my father for a few hours made it a day to remember.

Leaving the family home on Monday, Wendie and I travelled to London to see Mark Knopfler (vikki’s review is so right) at the Royal Albert Hall… again totally enjoyed.  Wendie and I decided to spoil ourselves and find a place for dinner before the concert… scanning the local map’s adverts for places to eat, I was almost tempted to visit ‘The Phat Phuc Noodle Bar’ just because the name made me laugh so, but we ended up eating at the Royal Albert Hall.. wonderful meal washed down with a good bottle of wine.

By Tuesday late morning I was home… I was knacked!

Decided as it was such a nice day we would pull the pins and travel up the river for a while until we found somewhere we liked eventually deciding to stop at the riverside moorings of The Plough at Fen Ditton.. very nice pub garden… nice setting.  After an evening walk with Lucy,  I suddenly realised that I had left my data lead for the camera still attached to the computer at Wendie’s house!! … so until I get that back to be able to download the pics, my blogs will be pictureless!