Sunday 24 June 2012

Even with all the recent rain, we have recorded 30 mm in the last week it seems its not enough for some people and they were busy irrigating a field just south of Ely.

Last nights moorings wee not the most peaceful of spots with two of the resident geese shouting at each other until well into the early hours, then a little after 5 am it was people walking by talking loudly.
Whilst walking the dog in the rain we saw the two Type 47 engines pulling the Pullman type carriages back through Eye after their trip to Settle yesterday. We decided to top up with water again as we don’t know when we will find another tap, said goodbye to Matilda Rose who’s engine was in bits and Yarwood before heading south again. A quick wave to Noproblem as we passed and away.
Looking back at the Cathedral the sky looked very unfriendly, even so we didn’t have any more rain all the time we were moving.
At Little Thetford we were waved down by the Fire Brigade who had just retrieved a calf from the river. I am not sure what they were trying to do as we passed as they had poles like shepherds crooks and were poking the straps around with them.

The Great Crested Grebe looks to have had a  good breeding season in these pasts as we have seen lots of youngsters and the parents taking them small fish.

 

At Popes Corner we turned left into the River Cam where in one of the flashes I was able to photograph a White Egret landing in the water. Lots of people, especially those who have fish in a pond at home believe that Heron will only land on land and walk into the water, this is not true, they will happily land in shallow water.

Last time we were this way I contacted the EA to tell them there were two trees down half way across the river, as you can see they have done nothing about them.

When we arrived at The Five Miles from Anywhere all there moorings were full so we left the cam via Reach Lode Lock on to Reach Lode. This is an automatic lock with a difference.You operate it manually with a guillotine gate at each end, but 15 minutes after you  leave it the upstream gate drops and the down stream one opens to just above water level. it then operates as an automatic flood control device. We where going to moor on the visitor moorings at the end of the long term moorings but needles to say there was a boat right in the middle, so we turned up Wicken Lode and are now moored on the GOBA moorings right in the middle of Wicken Fen Nature reserve. There was one other boat here when we arrived but the moorings are long enough for 3 Narrowboats or several cruisers. We arrived at about 3 30 pm and walked to the visitor centre where we supported them by drinking coffee and eating cakes.