And so to retrace the river back..

Today – Nr Cardington Lock to Great Barford, River Gt Ouse, 5.5 miles, 2 locks
Monday – Moored Nr Cardington Lock

We pulled the pins this morning on this delightful mooring in the Priory Country Park, and left the two muscovy ducks to ‘their’ river bank, having shown their annoyance at our intrusion to totally crap all over the back deck and roof of NP on Monday night!

I suppose I am sad to be heading down river, and as I write a big sigh.. but there is still the Little River Ouse and the River Lark to have a look at before we venture back to the Middle Levels and on to the main system at Northampton.  I mustn't be sad… it has been absolutely fabulous..

The trip today is a lovely part of the river which bends and twists with unkept river bank, no footpath for much of the way along here.  Trees overhang their branches across the river making steering interesting weaving in and out of the low branches..

Our first lock today was the very deep Castle Mill Lock..

This has a side emptying sluice, and no sluices to open on the gates… here Vic is opening the sluice to empty the lock, the other is one is to let the water in!.. see how deep this is…

And see those chains!  These are a menace to narrowboat skirts… the 10 mil ‘ledge’ along the bottom of the boat..

Soon away from this one we passed the Danish Camp.. a lovely tea room where mums were out with their toddlers today on the lawns.. it’s a pity there is nowhere to moor, I am sure they would get some good trade from the river.  The name intrigued me, and I found out that probably nearby here there was an old Danish Dock where there would have been space to accommodate 30 ships and 2500 men, probably associated with the Dane’s advance to Huntingdon.. but after their defeat the ‘Docks’ became an 11th century moated farmhouse..

Anyway… at the next lock, I had to pull into the landing stage to wait for a boat to lock up.. oh and what an interesting little boat it was too!

This boat has solar panels to run the 3 batteries that propel it.. the elderly couple were hoping to reach Priory Marina in Bedford, and were also hoping the sun would come out from behind the clouds so they could make it!

Apparently, their three fully charged batteries will take them 70 miles.  The lady was doing the traditional thing of working on the lockside, while her hubby drove the boat.. she was finding the big heavy steel gates quite hard.. but they were both happy enough, obviously enjoying each others company

NP is feeling it a bit with all the dogs around.  I wish they wouldn’t go in the water so much… I almost regret teaching the pup Tilly how to swim.. she is in the water all the time, then running from one end of the boat to the other soaking me as she brushes past all the time… next lesson.. ‘Teach dog to shake!!’..