Date - 14 /07/08 Day - Monday Start - 0850 End - 1900 Harnser's present position http://tinyurl.com/harnser-14
We started off in reasonable time in reasonable weather and made out way back to the Great Ouse, turned left upstream and made our way through Ely noting mooring spots for our return journey. We carried on up the Great Ouse untill we came to the now closed Fish and Duck pub at Pope's Corner, here we turned left up the Cam. At Upware we locked off the Cam onto Burwell Lode for a short way before turning left yet again up Wicken Lode, this narrow waterway takes you right into the hart of the National Trust Nature Reserve, Wicken Fen. Although this waterway is very narrow it is quite clear and provided you don't try to speed it's quite an easy journey to the head of navigation where there are GOBA moorings. We stopped here and had lunch before heading back to Burwell Lode, turned left and carried on to Reach Lode, this started wider but got narrower and shallower as we progressed, but we knew this would be the case, for the last quarter of a mile we were cutting a grove in the silt bottom, again at the end is a GOBA mooring but just about large enough for a small cruiser, so we turned and headed back to Burwell Lode. Burwell Lode is quite wide and deep. It ends in the village of Burwell where we thought we may eat at the pub, however as we made our way along the Lode the fibrous blanket weed got thicker and thicker, it got to the point when hitting reverse just sucked as much weed on as it through off and when I did give in and go down the weed hatch it was packed so tight I couldn't turn the prop by hand. In front of the bows we had built up a floating island of weed big enough for a swan to nest on. Once it was all cleared we set off again, we had no option as it was not wide enough to turn. When we reached the end the weed was fairly clear so we didn't have to much trouble turning, however we found the EA moorings already taken by a narrowboat, as we turned the occupants of the boat peeped out from behind their Venetian blinds at us and then quickly disappeared from view rather than inviting us to moor alongside, so we made our way back along Burwell Lode for about a mile, through the worst of the weed and moored on the open bank where I had another session down the weed hatch before dinner. -- Brian <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Join SOW and help save our waterways http://www.saveourwaterways.org
