Five miles from anywhere

Man and dog enjoy the beer at the No Hurry Inn

 Today has been one of our shorter days' boating. We went barely half a mile out through the lock and round the corner to moor up at the pub next door – the wonderfully named Five Miles From Anywhere No Hurry Inn.
It's a zany name but a pretty accurate one: draw a triangle between the nearest towns - Ely, Cambridge and Newmarket - and the cluster of houses that make up the hamlet of Upware will be right in the centre: a good five miles from anywhere.
The present pub is a large and functional rather than handsome building that was built in the '80s to replace a thatched pub that burnt down in 1955. That one had its origins back in the 1760s. Originally named the Black Swan, it became the Lord Nelson in 1806, and from around 1850 was popularly known as the "Five Miles from Anywhere: No Hurry". It was rebuilt in 1811, but closed by the 1950s and demolished following a fire of 1955/6. All facts courtesy of Wikipaedia; my knowledge of fen pub history is not quite that encyclopaedic.
The present pub and its large garden are a popular spot, especially on a hot sunny day like today, with a selection of decently kept bitters and a wide range of pub grub type meals. Our lunchtime sandwiches were a bit ordinary but the hot meals looked more substantial. Shame we had some chicken that was overdue for using in a curry tonight.
But use the pub and you can use the moorings, several of which actually have the boater's dream – electricity! Not free but a £1.50 electric card will see us through a battery charge up and water heating.

Dog on the run – Brian enjoying his five mile walk

After lunch and a long toasting on the tug deck we went for our own 'five miles from anywhere' walk that took us via a range of footpaths through Wicken Fen and back to the boat.
Tomorrow it's back to Ely to stock up with food and hopefully find a mooring to watch the city's Eel Festival at the weekend.