Leaving Wicken Fen - towards St Ives

We left our delightful mooring in Wicken Fen at 8:40 this morning - we saw what we came to see and it is now time to resume our travels.

Back slowly along Wicken Lode, then through the guilotine gates of Upwell Lock onto the Cam.  The river is very wide from here to the junction with the Great Ouse at Popes Corner and so we made good progress.  Turn left onto the Old West River, part of the Great Ouse, and then somewhat to our surprise we were faced with a totally different waterway - shallow, narrow and rather weedy.  So our speed slowed from nearly 4mph on the Cam to around 3mph.  Rather tedious, made much more so by the scenery, or lack of it.  Most of the way the river is enclosed behind embankments  and so there is little to see.

Densie moored on the Old West River about a mile from Aldreth

View from the embankment with flat farmland stretching nearly to the horizon

By 13:30, after lunch on the move we were both feeling tired so we decided to stop for the day at an isolated mooring far from anywhere in particular.  This gave me an opportunity to climb the embankment to see what lay beyond.  Nothing - well not quite nothing but flat arable farmland with very little else in view.