This weekend I went to my friend Steve’s house in Cambridge and we went for a overnight cruise to Ely which is 21 miles up the river.
Left is the very famous Ely Cathedral, the weather was very good on Saturday and on the way we stopped at a pub by the river and had some Aspel’s cider which is becoming my drink while I’m here.
The pub was very popular with boatie’s and there was only one birth to pull the boat into and it was the same when we got to Ely.
Along the way Steve had a problem with hay fever and had to lay down and close his eye’s so right he is chilling out on the front of the boat while I steered it along.
By the end of the day I was getting good at steering the boat along following the river rules, as a boat came the other way I passed on the right of the river and when we passed moored up boats I had to slow it down because of the wake, not that we were going fast anyway as the max speed is 8 and 11 knots depending where you were between the lock’s.
The bird life was beautiful all weekend, lots of Swan’s some with their young, left.
There was lots of Moor Hen’s on the River Cam then on the Ouse it was Koot’s which are similar but with different coloured beaks.
There was a lot of fish in the river and you could see them amongst the river weeds, occasionally we’d see a big fish but not very often.
Of course there were Heron’s here and there and I managed to get a good shot of one taking off (right)
I’ve tried this a lot of times, some have been good but the one right I think is the best one I’ve taken getting it just as it was about to leave the water with wings fully extended.
When we got to Ely we went to a pub where Steve knew the Landlord, he used to run the local pub where Steve lives in Cambridge, we had some dinner there which was very nice then we got back into the boat and headed off for another cruise along and another river which went to St Ives, unfortunately there were no empty births there so we headed back towards Ely.
It was really nice just cruising slowly along the rivers enjoying the peace and quiet and watching the scenery and bird life.
We decided to head back to the pub where we stopped on the way to Ely and birth up for the night.
On the way we had this lovely sunset (left) and when we got to the pub we had another drink and then had a bottle of Pinot noir from Wairau cove, NZ and socialised with some other boaties birthed up for the night.
Normally on a Sunday I lay in till 8-30 ish but this morning I was up at 6-30 enjoying the peace and quiet of the river and we set off back for Cambridge about 8-30.
Then back at Steve’s house his wife Toni joined us on another cruise a few hours later into the city where we stopped and had a pub lunch.
I then headed back to Norwich at 6 after a very enjoyable and relaxing weekend cruising the rivers in Cambridgeshire.