Lodes of Fun off the River Cam

 No, we haven't spelt that heading wrong. On our way back down the River Ouse we have turned off up the River Cam partly to explore three waterways that branch off from the Cam at Upware just a few miles up from its junction with the Ouse at Pope's Corner. These are Reach Lode, Burwell Lode and Wicken Lode and are believed to have been dug originally by the Romans so they may be amongst the oldest human made navigations on the connected waterways system. You may have doubts about taking a longish narrowboats on these narrow weedy waterways but it can be done. Leo is 57 feet long and has a draft of about 2 feet 3 inches or 0.7 metres if you wish to compare.

Before getting onto the Lodes we want to share another canoe excursion. Coming back down the Ouse we moored on Monday (2nd August) at Hemingford Grey with the intention of exploring the back water which runs parallel to the main river. This back water took us past Hemingford Abbots to two weirs bringing water from the main river. In this photo we have reached one of these weirs and in the background, on the other side of the river, you can see the boat lift and a crane at Daylock Marine which is close to Hartford Marina and one lock above where Leo was moored.

This is Hemingford Abbots church seen from the back water.

We turned right at Pope's Corner onto the River Cam and this little boat came out of the Fish and Duck Marina there and followed us. After a while we decided to let it past us mainly to see what it was all about with its tall blue post. In fact it is steam powered with three buckets of coal in the stern to provide the motive power.

So now to the Lodes. A few miles up the River Cam we came to the splendidly named pub - the Five Miles from Anywhere, No Hurry Inn. Just past this is Reach Lode Junction and this is the sign at the junction. We were heading left to Burwell initially. Just past the junction is Reach Lode Lock.

And here is Leo about to go into the lock which has a guillotine each end. The rise was a mere 6 inches.

Above the lock we were in Reach Lode. There are two junctions soon after the lock. The first has a branch left to Wicken Fen, the second has a branch to the right to the village of Reach and the left branch at the second junction leads to the large village of Burwell. As this picture shows the waterways are relatively narrow and full of weed. So why venture up here at all? We think there are two answers to this question. First it is always a challenge to go to remote places on the waterways which few boats visit and secondly, as we will show, each of the three destinations has something interesting to see.

Our aim was first to go to Burwell and Burwell Lode, at over 4 miles, is the longest of the Lodes. Here we are approaching the second junction and turning left to Burwell on a grey, windy day.

As we've said weed is a problem with reeds and lilies closing in from the sides and blanket weed in the middle. We have found with Leo that there is an optimum engine speed at which the weeds mostly get broken up by the prop rather than wrapping round it. All you have to do is find that speed. Here it was about 1600 rpm when we normally cruise at 11 or 1200 rpm. But you still have to reverse periodically to clear things and, occasionally pay a visit down the weed hatch.

Because the Lodes are far too narrow to turn there is always a  fear that there won't be enough room to turn round. Here is Leo at the end of Burwell Lode on a fine Environment Agency mooring. Behind, you can make out a fork in the Lode which is where we turned. Leo is 57 foot long (17.4m) and we reckon you could turn any boat that can fit through Reach Lode Lock which is about 63 feet long. We turned into the branch to the left and power the stern over to reverse into the right branch. We were told the left branch gets shallow quickly so don't try going up there.

Apart from shops and pubs (although the Anchor at the end of the Lode seems to be closed at the moment), Burwell has an excellent museum which is open on Thursdays, Sundays and Bank Holidays. Fortunately it was a Thursday. The museum is next to Burwell windmill and is run by volunteers.

The museum is housed in a number of old buildings, some of which have been moved to this site. This one was full of old vehicles. The bus is one of the last from the local bus company - Burwell and District. Other buildings house agricultural machinery, tableaux of rooms in old houses, research into buildings in the town, an Anderson Shelter, a reconstruction of a Roman Kiln, Bronze Age remains and much more. There is even a refreshment place doing teas.

We left Burwell on Friday going back down Burwell Lode and turning left at the junction into Reach Lode to the village of the same name. We passed this old hovercraft which we remember being there when we last came to Burwell three years ago.

There are no high flood banks and so there are quite distant views from these waterways. These are Fenland ponies (we think they are Konik ponies).

When we came in 2018 we didn't take Leo to Reach mainly because we were uncertain of being able to turn at the end. Our guide says that boats up to 13.7m can turn at the end and Leo is 17.4m. Helen had sought some advice from other boaters on Facebook who assured us that longer boats could turn. The chief difficulties with Reach Lode is that it is a lot narrower and more overgrown  with reeds than Burwell Lode and the last few hundred yards are pretty shallow (our draft is about 27 inches or 0.7m). In this photo you can see that we are touching the reeds on either side and Ian is standing on our stool so as to see where the water is ahead of the boat.

This view ahead of Leo gives a clear idea of just how narrow Reach Lode is. We are 7 feet wide and the gap down the middle here is barely a couple of feet.

At the end Leo was ploughing a furrow through the watery mud going very slowly. Beyond two crossing power lines the depth is barely deeper than the boat. Right at the end the Lode divides into two at a fork and it is here you must turn. Again go left with the bow and power the stern round into the right branch. A large weeping willow opposite makes this more difficult but we managed it without having to trim the willow. Reversing into the right branch we found that Leo stopped pretty soon as the rudder dug into the mud. Surprisingly there is a GOBA (Great Ouse Boating Association) mooring here. We could get the bow close to the shore but the stern was a long way off because of the shallow water.

Reach is a small village with a long green where a fair is held every May. This cottage, called Bull Cottage, has two plaques above the door with a bull on each.

This is looking down from the far end of Fair Green. On the right is a good pub with an appropriate name - Dyke's End - where we ate in the evening. At the top end of the green is the Devil's Dyke, a defensive rampart and ditch of impressive size that was built by the Saxons in the 6th century and stretches for 7 miles. Given the land is so flat, climbing the Dyke gives distant views. We could see Burwell windmill and buildings and cranes in Cambridge. We've read that you can see Ely Cathedral but we couldn't.

The Dyke is built of chalk from hills to the east and has its particular flora with some rare plants. We think the butterfly in the photo is a Chalkhill Blue which we've never seen before. We'd be interested if any experts can confirm this (Neil that means you!).

On Saturday we left Reach to try the third Lode, Wicken Lode which leads to the National Trust's Wicken Fen. Wicken Lode is probably the narrowest and twistiest of the three but as a trip boat goes up and down, it is not as overgrown as Reach Lode. It is about a mile long and, to give you an idea of the difficulty of cruising this, it took us nearly an hour to travel that mile. There is ample room to turn at a fork at the end and here again there is a well kept GOBA mooring where you can see Leo.

The sign from the National Trust on the left fork leaves no room for doubt that you have reached the end and there is a very low footbridge on the right fork just beyond the mooring.

On Saturday afternoon we walked round Wicken Fen. Unlike the rest of the Fens, some of the land has never been drained and we saw loads of butterflies and other insects. We think this dragonfly is a Ruddy Darter. We were impressed by the numerous information boards identifying some of the plants and butterflies to be seen along the way.

This lovely yellow flower is Greater Bladderwort which is an insectivorous plant. Bladders under the water are kept with negative pressure inside. When investigated by an aquatic insect the bladder opens and sucks the insect inside to be digested. Amazing.

We're pretty confident this butterfly is a Gatekeeper. It looks similar to the Meadow Brown but the black spot on the wing has two white spots within it. The Meadow Browns has only one white spot.

The water where we were moored at Wicken Fen was exceptionally clear. This photo was taken looking down into the water. Near the top of the picture is a fast moving and a bit blurry fish.

This picture taken as we were going back along Wicken Lode on Sunday (8th August) is from inside the saloon on Leo looking forward. Notice the narrow channel in front of the boat and the fact that the tub of geraniums is not on the roof where it normally lives. We found that the plants on the roof made it impossible to see the channel ahead so they had to come down.

Here again is an idea of the narrowness of the channel. What do you do if you meet someone coming the other way? We don't know as fortunately we didn't. Not many boats come up here. We did take the precaution coming into to Wicken of phoning the National Trust office to check that we wouldn't conflict with the trip boat. That was probably a good idea.

Here we are nearly back to Reach Lode. The bridge crosses Wicken Lode at the junction. From here it was a right turn and less than half a mile back to Reach Lock and access to the River Cam.

So an expedition onto the Lodes has kept us busy for three days but we are now back on slightly more popular waterways as we cruise up the River Cam into Cambridge. You have to buy an extra licence for this but more about that another time.