What a contrast to our last trip to Ely!
Hardly any traffic on the river itself (even Bait's Bight lock was with us) and then the luxury of pumping out, then mooring-up on The Fort St. George pub's mooring without the Ghastly Gathering of Tupperware and their attendant crews of morbidly-obese male/ hatchet-faced acid-eyed females to spoil things.
Cambridge at this time of year is a joy to visit: the rowers are mostly on holiday, (we love you all, really!!) the plastics who hog moorings (we love you not at all..) don't generally venture this far from Ely (it being more than four feet from their home marina may have something to do with this....) and the Cam is at it's tranquil best.
Truly a lovely river!
Jackie took the helm on the way back, which allowed me to sleep off the jolly nice pint of beer I'd had at The Fort..... When I woke up we were about to do Bait's Bight Lock. Jackie did a greaser of an entrance, earning applause from a lone gongoozler. I operated the lock controls, and we were soon through without drama.
Exiting the lock, we saw one of the boats that moors there permanently there had grown a lawn! Fab!
Lots of harvesting action was also taking place in the fields either side of the river, with shotguns in attendance to take care of the local rabbit population.
When we got back home, we had a beer or two on the grass by the boats and were joined by The Lucky Ducks and John III from nb Montiezoomer. This turned into a jolly nice shared supper on board Pippin where we provided pea and mint soup and James and Amy supplied the pizzas. By 10.40 I was fading fast, so The Ducks took their leave and The Pippins snoozed until 8.00 the following morning....
I awoke with the thought that I hadn't seen my lovely bro-in-law, David, for ages. A quick nudge to Jackie meant texts were exchanged and he was to arrive at the local station at around 1.00 p.m. Mad cooking ensued, but we ended up having proper-job roast chicken, roast potatoes etc etc etc and a cheeky bottle of prosecco followed by some white wine. During lunch, (our oven is on the slow side and you can't muck about with poultry...) David decided on a swim.
This is not recommended in the Cam: we have a resident disco-boat that plies its trade in these waters which has never, ever, been seen to use the pump-out at Jesus Lock. (Either their sewage tanks have Star Trek Technology containment fields, or they are pumping untreated sewage into the river.....allegedly..... perish the thought...).
Anyway, the idea of swimming in last night's disco by-products does nothing for me.
David, however, is made of sterner stuff.
It must be said that he is also a year-round swimmer at Hampstead Ponds in London.
This may well account for his having the constitution and immune system of an Ox and a Rhinocerous respectively.......
No way are you going to catch me doing it, though!
I've swum in the Cam several times from your field and lived to tell the tale!
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