Guessing the way to Great Paxton

St Ives to Great Paxton, River Great Ouse, 13 miles, 5 locks

It was nice to be on the move today, although our early start was in horrible drizzly rain, and that carried on for a couple of hours.  The river is certainly more to my liking now, no more the high flood banks, but open farmland.  We have also lost the main fen district of East Anglia, there are trees along the river banks for much of the way.  All very different than when we joined this river back at Denver.

By this afternoon the weather had improved, the wind dropping and the rain stopping… I guess by the weather forecast that the rest of the country is bathed in sunshine.. but it was pleasant enough.

This river splits into channels quite a lot, and there were many times today when I didn’t know which way to go.. not many signs around to actually tell you, but it wasn’t long before we were at Huntingdon and looking for a much needed water point.  Here we met Pat and Kate of NB Shotley Shuttle.  They had left St Ives EA moorings about an hour before us this morning and now they had stopped to try get someone to fix their poorly TV.

The water point was a joke!  Again one of those push button things you see in a public toilet.  No way!

Anyway, the end of the tap was smooth, it would be impossible to connect a hose to it.  I really can’t for the life of me understand why on earth EA are using these kind of taps.. it’s just stupid..

Carrying on past the noisy road at the riverside of Huntingdon, we made our way to Godmanchester Lock.  Once again it wasn’t marked which channel we should take, and looking at the guide book it was confusing.  I hoped that I had guessed the right way, but it got narrower and narrower… I really did think I had got it wrong, when all of a sudden a lock appeared around the corner… phew!

This is the first lock that we have encountered that did not have an electric motor to lift the guillotine, and it took around 100 turns, to get it up, winding it with a windlass..

Just before Offord Lock there is a Marina with diesel, pump out and water!…Thank goodness for that because I knew we must have been quite low not being able to get in for any at St Ives because the wind was so high, that NP’s 20 or so tons might have done some serious damage moored tupperware tart carts in the vicinity.  So I wandered into the Marina and asked for water, expecting to have to pay a couple of quid or so… “Yes sure, help yourself it’s free”… well there you go then, not all marinas are on the make, however the diesel was 44p, the dearest we have seen on this river so far.

Leaving Offord Lock I knew it would be the last of the day having planned to moor for the weekend at the GOBA moorings close to Paxton Nature Reserve.  I was hoping there would be room, and what a surprise I got when suddenly Vic said “Hold it, thats the moorings there”.. “Where??”  “There, there!”  Sheeeesh…. went by the moorings, or should I say mooring… The GOBA moorings are only about 35ft long with an overgrown tree on one end!!

Pointing NP directly at the bank for Vic to get off the front, I snuggly fitted into the small gap with a grassy bit only at the front… ah well, we have our very own private mooring for the weekend!!