Is this the most remote mooring on the waterway network?

Since the last posting we have been working our way back downstream on the River Great Ouse.  The danger here is offering readers the same pictures once again.  So I am trying here to offer something different.

On the way back we went up a backwater at Godmanchester (near Huntingdon) and found a lovely place to moor and a most interesting little town.

The Chinese Bridge at Godmanchester.  The mud bank in front of the bridge is to enable workmen below it to build new flood defences for the town.

The Gables, one of the wonderful historic buildings in Godmanchester.

This house is dated 1600 and is a splendid Elizabethan mansion.  Godmanchester began as a Roman town.

This gravestone relates the sad story of Mary Ann Weems who was compulsorily married and then murdered by her husband!

And here is our mooring place on the backwater above the lock.  You can see some of the old buildings behind us.











And here are some more of the sights along the way:

We've been impressed with the clarity of the water on the Ouse and this view is looking down into the water in a lock.  I think the long fingers are of freshwater sponges which depend on clean water.

This spectacular sky greeted us yesterday.  Though it looks spectacular, I think it precedes a change in the weather and now we have rain with worse threatened for Sunday!

On the stretch of river at Earith which is tidal and the reach above that which is not we saw three seals.  Here is one of them and you will see that he (or she) has a beady eye on us as we cruise past.

And here is another seal also watching us.

Here is the fish pie that Ian made on Wednesday.  This is worth recording because Ian does not cook often and this is his signature dish!

Cruising the canals on a narrowboat you do not usually come across sailing vessels, so we were surprised to see this chap on the River Great Ouse this afternoon.


















So what is all this about a remote mooring?  Well we deviated from our outward route and had a most interesting cruise to Wicken Fen.  Where the River Cam joins the Great Ouse at Pope's Corner we turned up the Cam for a few miles and then passed through Reach Lode Lock (a rise of all of 6 inches).  A few hundred yards along Reach Lode a very narrow channel goes left for over a mile towards Wicken Fen (a National Trust property preserving an original area of fenland).  It really is a very narrow channel so we were concerned first about any boats coming the other way and also as to whether there was anywhere to turn a 57 foot boat at the end.  So we explored by bike first and then took the boat.

Here is Reach Lode Lock.  The lock will only take a boat up to about 63 feet long, perhaps 65 feet at a pinch diagonally.

Here is the junction of Wicken Lode (under the bridge) with Reach Lode.  Lodes were originally Roman canals linking villages near the river to the main channel.

This gives you some idea of how narrow is the channel of Wicken Lode.  Leo made pretty slow progress up here, though the water was plenty deep enough.

Here is Ian standing on a step as this is the only way to see the channel ahead, rather than a sea of reeds.

Here is another picture of the narrow channel.

And here is the mooring at the end of the Lode.  There is plenty of room to turn where two lodes meet and there is a well kept mooring for a couple of boats.  Leo was the only boat there and it was wonderfully quiet yesterday evening.  We hoped to see an otter but didn't though we spotted more whirligig beetles this morning.  So we think this is the most remote mooring ---- unless of course you know different.


Tonight we are back at Littleport where we were a couple of weeks ago.  Tomorrow we are taking another diversion by cruising up the River Little Ouse to Brandon.  After that we have to return on the tricky tidal crossing from Denver to Salters Lode.  Ian spoke to the lock keeper today and we are now into Spring Tides so we have to fight a strong incoming tide in making the crossing.  Fingers crossed.