The idea of travelling to Cambridge was to stay at my friend’s house before moving on to Birmingham on Saturday for Abi and Jon’s wedding. Susie and I spent Friday shopping for a patio heater (our wedding present) and trying to work out how something half the size of Susie’s car could be transported!

By Saturday morning we had given up on transportation issues as we left the heater in Cambridge. The wedding went beautifully with the forecast rain holding off all day. The ceremony was nicely simple with the highlights for me (apart from finally seeing Abi in a dress and Jon in a suit) being the wedding cake, which was in five tiers of individual cup cakes.

After all the speeches were finished and we had drunk all we could, we retired to our hotel. This turned out to be a bargain with a huge full English breakfast included. After leaving our hotel on Sunday we made our way back to Cambridge. Monday was spent exploring Cambridge and taking advantage of the shops to buy some more books for the trip.

On Tuesday I caught the last train back to Inverness once my post (one months worth) had arrived in Cambridge. It should have been an uneventful day however on speaking to canal office it appeared there would be a small challenge on arrival. The marina is locked up each night and unmanned after dark with the staff informing me that the site was “highly secure”. They suggested I found a B & B for the night, which I did not think, would be too easy when I arrived at midnight. Therefore, on arriving in Inverness I went to see if there was any way of getting back on the boat.

After walking around the “highly secure” fence a few times I found a gap in the security and walked straight around the end of the fencing, onto the pontoon! Wednesday and Thursday were quiet days while I sorted out fuel and food while waiting for the weather in the Seaport Marina.