Friday; it was just a short cruise from our mooring on the Old West River up to Popes Corner and the River Cam, but not before we had a visit from Bob and Anne on NB Hawkeye. They had texted us to say that they would be with us first thing in the morning so we were up early ready to greet them (but they slept in) so arriving a little later. Pulling alongside we tied their boat up and they joined us for a cup of tea and we shared tales of our adventures since we met earlier in the year. Now with promises to keep in touch they set off to meet friends in Ely later that day and as they set off rounding the bend it was our turn to leave.

The River Cam came as a big surprise to me as I had always imagined it being a narrow river, from what I had seen crossing it many times on the A14 and my journeys through Cambridge. However it was a wide river and deep which provided enough water for us to make good way, even though we were running against the flow, upstream. Passing the marina at Popes Corner we were soon out into the countryside offering us a different landscape to that which we had seen from Earith as we wound our way toward Clayhithe, our chosen mooring for the day.

 Sally contacted her cousin Carol who lived close by and invited them to come and visit us, but alas David her husband was working so the visit was put off until our return journey next week.

We passed many moored boats on the way upstream and by the look of them most were residential and had established small gardens and plots. Some of these boats were the old river barges, being long and wide and you could imagine them being very spacious and comfortable inside, pretty much the same a bungalow would be. We did see a couple of other boats moving up and down the Cam, giving us hope of a good mooring when we eventually reached Cambridge, one such craft was a beautiful river cruiser called Steel Away which we had seen at Great Barford, giving us a wave of greeting as they passed us.

As we approached Upware and the Five Miles from Anywhere pub, we had a sailboat coming toward us, running with the wind and had his mainsail and spar right out across the river, so we had to move tight to the right hand bank to give him room to manoeuvre.

It was a glorious sight to see as they cruised downstream with nothing more than the power of the wind to drive them along and the crew looked as though they were having a great time.

From Upware we ran up to the junction with Swaffham Load and on to Bottisham Lock, with its gates open ready for us to run straight in.

The lock had two gates on the downstream and a guillotine gate on the up, and both were power operated which was a nice surprise, only needing to press a few buttons. Out of the lock we passed the Cam sailing club with lines of small sail boats and yachts before arriving at the bridge at Clayhithe and our mooring for the night. It was a good mooring allowing Gypsy to run around and explore, and Socks to have a good run down the towpath and the field next to it.