Wicken Fen, there really is no place like it..

Today – Ely to Wicken Fen, Rivers Gt Ouse, Cam, Burwell Lode and Wicken Lode
Last couple of days – Moored Ely, River Gt Ouse

Well Orange.net seem to have their act back together again, the last couple of days have been impossible trying to get data off them!  Some pages would load, some wouldn’t, and I couldn’t get pictures or a blog post on to my server.  Anyway, seems to be OK now.

I enjoyed a couple of days in Ely.  Wilkinsons have just about everything, and I managed to top up on some bits and bobs that I never seem to be able to find elsewhere.. such as a sellotape dispenser, a small one I wanted, and I been looking for a couple of months.. but Wilkinson had one!  I also got a couple of white shirts in a sale, which should help on the hot days when I am walking.. bit cooler for me hopefully.

Went to the market this morning just to browse before pulling the pins and filling with diesel at Ely Marina at a respectable 53p ltr.  I was cross with Oundle Marina when we called in there last month.. they charged me £20 for a bottle of gas.. at Ely it was £17.50.  I always thought that the bottled gas was a regulated price, and that you paid the same wherever you bought it from.. obviously not the case.

We passed the Fish and Duck at Popes corner.. the junction where the River Cam goes off the Gt Ouse to make it’s way to Cambridge…

Really overgrown it is and almost derelict.  I was warned by Gail who moors her Narrowboat just round the corner..

“Sue, The Fish and Duck pub is closed at the moment. They are going to knock it down and build a new one as far as I know.”

I loved that place last year.. a very laid back pub it was.. hope they don’t make it a plastic food establishment when they rebuild it.

And so on to Burwell Lode.. the lock there must be the slowest lock in the whole country.. with a guillotine at both ends.. but once through that we tied up for water and to wait for Mr Tesco to deliver some groceries..

This afternoon it was left turn about half a mile from Burwell Lock into Wicken Lode and Wicken Fen.. this is National Trust property, and is more like a drain than a waterway!  Here NB Moore2Life in front of No Problem inching along this shallow channel. 

For me Wicken Fen is my most favourite place to be on all of the waterways.  I definitely have a love affair with it.  There is just something about it that is different to anywhere else that No Problem has been.  The tranquility, the narrowness of the channel, the wildlife and the fen itself.  I very much doubt I will ever find anything to beat it in my mind.

It took an hour to do the one and half mile trip, but oh so well worth it.. woodpeckers, marsh harriers and the ponies greeted us today, and appropriately the sun came out after an overcast morning. 

It is always a bit of a lottery, we have found, to guess whether the GOBA moorings at the end have enough room for us to moor.. and of course this year there are two narrowboats to accommodate.  We were delighted to see just the one narrowboat moored which meant that we would both fit in easily.

Plenty of walking to do here.. barn owls to see this evening I hope across the fen.  I will take Lucy with me, there are no stiles, and tomorrow I will explore another part of the fen around here that I have not seen before.