THE BACKS

WEDNESDAY 11^TH TO FRIDAY 13^TH JULY 2012                           

Duggie has a small but disabling cut on one of his pads, so after a short comfort walk, Jacquie and I hit the town. We like the tiny City of Ely, dominated by the Ship of the Fens, we could live here, Jacquie took a picture of the house she would like to live in, just in case it ever comes on the market!! Even one of the ugly looking geese likes to take a wander around the city.

  Our tour was completed by coffee and cake at the charming Peacock Tea Rooms, just up from the river, we had been advised that the loo was delightful and it did live up to expectation as did the coffee cake and service.

After lunch we moved on upstream and three and a bit miles on, we turned at Pope’s Corner onto the River Cam. We had intended to stop overnight at one of the two GOBA moorings, but neither was visible. Instead  Don found a quiet EA mooring just passed the appropriately named, Five Miles from Anywhere pub and we slid in alongside.

Thursday was a rare day, this summer, as there was more sun than cloud. The Cam became prettier the nearer to Cambridge we were and eventually the rowing club houses were much in evidence. We stopped immediately before Jesus Lock and sluice to use the immaculately clean Elsan disposal unit and to fill with water, even the pumpout was working here although we didn’t need it. We moved to the 48 hour moorings on the other side, which looked peaceful enough and prepared to explore yet another City.

As we walked up to Magdalene Bridge we were overwhelmed with offers of a punting experience, from the many young students, but we resisted. The traffic free city is a delight to mooch around, apart from the crowds of course. The architecture of the buildings particularly the university colleges are superb. The day was rounded off with a lovely evening on Angonoko as Judy and Don had invited us onboard for dinner.

We had decided to stay put for another day, the mooring was indeed peaceful overnight, apart from the heavy rain on the roof. Jacquie met up with an old chum, who travelled in by bus from her home town of Eaton Socon, whilst I wandered around the famous Cambridge Backs. Powered boats are not allowed through Jesus Lock during the summer months, leaving the water clear for the punts, actually a punt is really the only way to visit the Backs as the colleges come down to one side of the river and the grounds up the other, but a good view can be had from the bridges at either end of this stretch.