Ely like Sunday Morning...

Ely mooring

The Duck spent the weekend in Ely, after I cruised it in on Friday night in the evening sunshine- and very nice it was, too.

However, we've spent our weekends elsewhere. On Saturday, we left the boat for work and for coxing, respectively; I then coached an outing for City (which went rather well, the crew definitely improved over the course of the outing) and I had several encounters with "Mr ASBO" as we've taken to calling him- a very territorial swan who attacks anything and everything that rows, sculls, canoes or narrowboats past.

However, come 4:30 we were sitting on a train to Whittlesford Parkway, to meet the Moomins- aka Simon and Ann, who moor at Bill Fen along with Jim and Sarah of Warrior. We were heading into London, to the Swan and Bottle in Uxbridge in particular, for a CWDF meet-up. We had a lovely evening, catching up with Bones and Maffi, and several other people who we met for the first time. Chris of nb Baldock and Marine Engine Services in Uxbridge gave us some useful tips on keeping our engine in fine fettle; if you see me with my hand in the wet exhaust, I've not gone mad- I'm just checking there's not excessive amounts of slime, which comes from bore glazing.

Come Sunday morning, we awoke to the lovely sight of sunlight dancing in patterns on the ceiling, reflected from the surface of the water. Amy unfortunately had to set off for work; I decided to brave the long, long, long, loooooong and boring Queen Adelaide section of the river- a 4 mile featureless straight- to move the boat to Littleport. Using the iPod in the speaker dock, and listening to Cream's greatest hits, helped to stave off the tedium- along with dodging several plastic boats and splashing through the wash of a few speeding cruisers- and nearly running over a careless Cambridge University Boat Club pair who decided that they owned the river and would head straight for me....

Unusual boat with a Reliant Robin (or possibly Regal - I'm sure someone will correct me) as part of its cabin seen on the way from Ely.

Littleport is a wonderful town, with many Victorian listed buildings in the town centre, and a very very large number of useful shops, including no less that 4 chip shops, three Indian restaurants and several Chinese restaurants, along with a proper butcher, baker, and greengrocer.

The Duck, moored just opposite Littleport.