Mink at Ashton.. but 'tis a lovely mooring on the Nene..

Saturday – Elton to Ashton Lock, Oundle, River Nene, 7.5 miles 4 locks

We thought we would do ‘the lot’ on Saturday.. well it was a lovely day.  Pulling the pins after collecting bread and milk from the village of Elton we stopped for water at Fotheringhay before making our way to Ashton Lock.  Some lazy boaters had left the guillotine down at Ashton Lock. all guillotine locks HAVE to be left empty and in the up position.. so this meant that we had to work the wheel three times.. once to lift it.. second to drop it.. third to lift it again as it should be left on the Nene.. we cursed the lazy boaters who had just gone upstream and left the lock..

Never mind.. another boat arrived to go upstream as we were locking through, a crew of lively youngsters and a keen mum and dad.. “Leave it to us.. get on your boats, we will help out here”… great stuff!

After locking through,  we turned left to moor in the cut just above the lock.. and now that the weekend is over, there is just No Problem and Moore2Life moored in this very quiet place..

Not so quiet though….

A mink is hunting in the area, and yesterday we watched in despair as it took two moorhen chicks, and while walking today, watched again in vain as he took two more a bit further downstream.. .. darn things..

But I suppose that is one of those things that we are going to have to put up with now.. mink are about in the countryside.. our native animals are going to have to learn to deal with them.. but here is an insect hardly likely to be bothered by them.. I was delighted with this pic I took as we waiting for the water to fill at Fotheringhay yesterday..

Lucy improves, and Ann and Chas on NB Moore2Life are going to look after her for a couple of days while Vic and I travel to Oxford.  Vic has an appointment with a specialist at the John Radcliffe Hospital to check out his legs which were giving him a circulation problem back in March.. we will be back on Wednesday..