The big off - well rather a little one really

We're on the move! After a lot of dithering, shopping, checking and a drive over to Dog In A Doublet lock to pick up an EA visitor's licence (63 quid for seven days) we finally left Bill Fen for the summer Grand Tour Oop North at 2.30pm.

Three hours and a lot of blanket weed round the prop later we reached the main Middle Level 'through route' and instead of turning left for the Nene, turned right for a quick 10 minute buzz down to a visitor mooring at Floods Ferry. A fiver for a night's stay with a free beer at the bar thrown in compared pretty favourably with a night against a Fen bank in clouds of mozzies. Especially after a scorchio-and-a-half of a day.

The 'residents' at Bill Fen had waved us away in style – made me feel we were about to tackle the Atlantic not the Nene. Great though the marina is, I am starting to tire of the featureless plod toward, well, something. Fertile agricultural plain it might be but the Fens are startlingly devoid of wildlife save in and immediately around the river. Count birds on the fingers of one hand during the average day.

The one thing the rivers do have is low bridges and our 'Ramsey special' hinged exhaust chimney (above) got some serious testing - and passed.