Reach and Devils Dyke.

We tore ourselves away from Wicken this morning. We intended turning left at the junction and heading up to Reach, the wind had other ideas. It's a tight turn and the wind was across it so we ended up heading in the wrong direction. It was the work of but a moment to nip through the lock, do a quick pirouette on the Cam and head in the direction we were after.

The swallows have claimed a niche under the bridge that crosses the lock.
It was actually helpful that we went down to the lock, it gave us a chance to take on water and dispose of the empties rubbish.

Right turn here and we were headed for Reach through typical fenland.

There was much evidence of old peat workings, now waterlogged. On Dartmoor they are known as peat hags.

The lode became narrower and we were soon combating

rafts of blanket weed. We had no choice but to push on, literally.

Middle of a field, middle of nowhere, we found these sculptures. So it's not only C.&R.T.

Just before the end of the lode we came across a merry band of E.A. chaps who had put a line across the cut which forced us to come to a dead stand.

It turned out they were doing a head count of the fish. They didn't keep us long and we arrived at the GOBA moorings. I will bring in a touch of caution here, yes you can wind a fifty-seven footer, but not if it draws more than twenty-two inches, we had to plough through mud to manage it.

Here we are safely(?) moored. That's as close in as we could get.
But Reach is a pretty little village with some attractive houses.

The Anglo-Saxon earthwork known as Devils Dyke runs from Reach for seven and a half miles to Wooditton near Newmarket.

There is a footpath along the top and we walked out along it for a way. Good views over the farmland,

Nice field of 'taties.

We also spotted a couple of windmills.
We had just got back to the boat when the heavens opened and we had thunder and lightning just to add to the entertainment.
Tomorrows aim is Burwell, will the lode be as weedy as this one?

Watch this space......