Narrowboat Balmaha – Ely to Cambridge

Sunday 14th to Sunday 21st September 2008
After a gorgeous, sunny weekend in Ely our sights were set on Cambridge. But just before we left we made a visit to No Problem to catch up on Sue and Vic’s news. Back to Balmaha for a night cap and we parted in the morning, heading in different directions.

Cruising south we stopped-over at Little Thetford, a popular pull-in for boats clearing out of Ely. The evenings have grown cold enough to light the fire and the scraps of wood and coal from last winter came in handy and will probably last us until we’re back on the canals.

We were shocked to find that the Cam had a problem with floating pennywort, mile after mile of small clusters and, to my surprise, an epidemic at Tip Tree Marina. I had been led to believe that this was a “dreaded” weed but it seems it is tolerated or even ignored and in some places it threatens navigation. Both the Environment Agency and the Cam Conservators may soon have a serious problem.

Two locks before Cambridge we teamed up with a friendly plastic and my boat holding skills were tested as the lock filled. We had anything between 5 feet and 5 inches between us and it must have showed because my face and knuckles went white more than once as the boat surged first one way then the other.
Here’s a picture of the other boat after we’d been in the lock with her.

Only joking, but I bet the owner of this one felt a bit sick when he/she discovered the bilge pump wasn’t doing its job.

Moorings at Cambridge were plentiful and once tied to something solid we hit town for provisions. Tucked in a corner round the back of the shops we found a market place with stalls catering for students – bike repairs, tie-dye clothes, smells and smokes, music and books.

The next day we hit town again and did the open-top bus tour. About half way round we had this feeling we’d done this before. It was something to do with driving off into the countryside and turning at the American Forces Cemetery that clinched it. Useful facts about how the place got to be a city and how many bicycles clutter the streets and how students in the old days weren’t allowed to catch trains to London would have stuck in my memory but for some reason they were missing.

Once off the bus we were hit by punt trip vendors. How do you explain that we can’t get too excited about punting when we spend all our time in a flat bottomed boat, drifting along at a slow walking pace and occasionally having to shove it along with a wooden pole?

The journey up river to Cambridge had hardly been a pleasure. Wrapped in winter coats against the chilling breeze under 100% cloud cover the countryside bore a distinctly grey appearance. But travelling back down the Cam, bathed in sunshine, we were suddenly struck by the beauty of the river. The journey back to Ely was a joy with the yellow, brown and green of trees, thistles and pennywort lining the sparkling blue green waters.

This unexpected reappearance of the big yellow disk sent us scurrying out of town to the river Lark for some much needed vitamin ‘D’.

The remainder of the week was spent messing about with boaty jobs. Things like painting the brown bits green, varnishing woodwork exposed to the weather and smoking out other boaters with our barbeques.
Haven’t done any fishing this year, hasn’t been the time nor the ideal temperature for me and messing about on the wireless hasn’t been what I’d hoped - rubbish propagation.

Last week’s blog item on WW2 aeroplanes brought a fabulous response (thanks Mike B, Mike P, Steve and Eddie) so I’m reverting to a previous subject for help, WW2 minesweepers. Thanks to Len I have info on MMS217, so now I’m looking for pictures and crew contacts for BYMS-2181. This is for my old mate Rip in Bournemouth. Any takers?

This looks like being our last week on the Fens, we’re off up the Nene to the Grand Union in preparation for winter hibernation. We shall miss the rivers and we shall miss the friendliness of the villages and small towns like Ely but the canals are calling us back.