Monday 12 July 2010

From St Ives, River Great Ouse to Ely to The Five Mile From Anywhere Inn, to Cambridge and back to Waterbeach, River Cam

Since our last blog we have spent another very enjoyable day in Ely, where we came across a folk festival and 10th celebration of their farmers market. A hot sunny day, lots and lots of people enjoying many of the visiting morris dance teams, some with very young dancers enthusiastically performing in uncomfortable outfits and clogs along the cobbled streets.

There was also a beer festival in the town, and we had feared a rowdy evening ahead, as we were moored on the water front, but amazingly all good clean fun, and no real noise beyond 11pmish and no glasses or litter around the next day. Good old Ely again.

We then moved back down the Ouse and on to the river Cam, heading for Cambridge. We are now under the auspices of the Cam Conservancy. At lunchtime and this is true, we couldn't find a mooring other than outside the 'Five Mile From Anywhere Pub' where the smell of Sunday lunch cooking was wafting down to the pub jetty! So, what else could we do but tie up and enjoy lunch in their riverside garden area. Lo and behold a band then set up in the garden, and we went on to enjoy music in the sunshine until the late afternoon, and lots of families stayed to listen too, and watch passing boats, some in sail. It was therefore sensible to stay on the pub moorings for the night.

Today was overcast, and try as it may to rain, nothing, though we see from the weather reports that heavy downpours did fall all around today, but not on us as we made our way down to Cambridge. The university college boathouses were an attractive feature as we moved into Cambridge, but most of the towpath moorings are for permit holders only, and whilst we expected that the visitor moorings at the end of the navigation, below Jesus lock , would be difficult, we hadn't expected the uninviting and unattractive situation that we found. No space for visiting boats, winos on the bank, and not an area we would have felt comfortable about leaving the boat, even in daylight. So we had lunch partly moored on the water point until another boat turned up, and then moved away feeling very disappointed at not being able to get into the town.

This evening we are moored alongside at Waterbeach, alongside a nature reserve - that's more like it!