Wednesday 27 June 2012

Well it stayed dry all evening for us to walk to The Dyke’s End pub for a meal. What we didn’t realise until we were leaving was that they have their own micro brewery out the back and sell their own Dyke’s End Ale. We had an enjoyable meal and wandered back to the boat for a very quiet night.

This morning we set off about quarter past ten on a warm but overcast  morning, looking back at where we had been moored last night you can see we completely blocked the arm to the left.

 

By the new cycle way bridge I saw some picnic tables and chairs but there was also something else that I could not make out, so took a photo to look at later, I still don’t know what the figures are made of.

At the junction of Reach and Burwell Lode there is a pond with a tern island in the middle. For those that don’t know a tern island is a man made platform that has shingle on top of it for terns to nest on, they are often rafts of on legs to make it harder for rats etc. to get the eggs or young. The better ones also have a low wire netting fence around them to stop the chicks falling off. We could see two good sized chicks on this one and they were getting regular visits from some adults to feed them. When a Harrier passed on the other side of the Lode the adult bird was off like a shot after it and harassing it until it went elsewhere.
We met a Narrowboat just after the junction with Wicken Lode, but by the time we reached the lock it had already turned its self ready for flood control. Once through the lock we turned left up the Cam meeting one or two boats on the way. A farmer was spraying his potatoes as we passed, he had to drive quite gently to prevent the tips of the spray boom catching the ground. There are some excellent blackberry bushes in flower on the banks of the Cam and they are in such a position that they can only be picked by boaters.
The Cam Conservers were hard at work doing some spot dredging and putting it behind the flexible piling.
At Baits Bite Lock the lock keeper came out of his office to check our licence to make sure if we were correctly licenced for the Cam now that they have their own charges. There is a small concrete frog mounted at the moth of the lock under the steps. Not all boaters on the river get on with each other as can be seen by the signs on the side of this Narrowboat. There are quite a few rowers about this evening and we are moored on the visitor moorings outside The Fort Saint George pub. Its quite surprising the effect of them passing at speed has on the boat and to make it worse there is a concrete ledge below water level we keep clipping.

I have just one for the aircraft buffs tonight, I didn’t even realise it was a Biplane until I downloaded the photo.