Saturday 17 March 2012 5 Miles from Anywhere

This morning we woke to the tinkle of rain on the chimney, we it was forecast and we do need it, but by 9-30 it had stopped, so not a lot of good.
We took Magic for a work and met our first foreign fisherman who first engaged me in conversation and then nearly poked Diana’s eye out with his rod. He said it was the first time he had ever been fishing, I tried to explain it was the closed season with no luck, so we left him to it, I expect he will have less impact on the fish then we do in the boat, I can’t see him actually catching one.

We pushed of at about 10 past 10 leaving an empty mooring as the other boat had gone some time earlier, he was towing a work shop/ex lorry back and behind that a dingy with outboard so was the best part of 90 foot long overall. At Upware we turned right through Reach Lode lock, this lock is also used for flood relief so resets to automatic use 15 minutes after its used and can’t be used at all in some circumstances. Just through the lock is a run of long term EA moorings with a couple of visitor moorings just prior to the junction of Wicken Lode. Here we turned left up Wicken Lode that runs deep into Wicken Fen the National Trust nature reserve. The national Trust pump water from the Lode into the fen in the winter months to keep the water level up using a wind pump, years ago these fens would have flooded naturally in the winter time, but with all the drainage schemes the fen needs a bit of help. At the end of navigation there is room to turn and some very nice GOBA members moorings where we stopped for lunch, needless to say as soon as we stopped it started to tip it down with rain again.

Following lunch Diana wandered to the visitors centre in the rain and by the time she returned it had cleared out again so we took the dog for a walk finally starting the engine again at quarter past three. It is a slow run down the Lode as its only about 14 feet wide and has a few bends, but hour later we were moored outside The Five Miles from Anywhere and No Hurry for the night. We have also booked here for lunch tomorrow so it will be late afternoon before we are off.   http://www.freewebs.com/fivemilesinn/