No Problem mooring in the rushes to visit Houghton

Today Brampton Mill to Houghton Mill, River Great Ouse, 4.5 miles 2 locks
Yesterday – Moored Brampton Mill

We were going to move on to Godmanchester yesterday, but there were a few boats about and I wondered if we would get on the visitor moorings down the little arm that leads to the town.. so I suggested we stayed put, and I walked over there in the morning with Lucy and Meg to get some milk.  The walk was across the huge meadow, in fact it is the biggest meadow in England.. ha it was quicker to walk across than it was to cruise from Brampton to Godmanchester!

Sure enough I was right, the visitor moorings were occupied.. NB Coleen and NB Kanbedun were there too, people that we have met over the last few months and I stopped to chat to both boat crews..

Time enough to return to No Problem, dump the milk, collect Vic and jump on a bus to Huntingdon for a browse round and lunch..

Pulled pins today late morning and cruised on to Houghton.. These guys had the right idea, the anchor was out and they were enjoying themselves fishing in the middle of the river..

Caught up again with Coleen, sharing Houghton Lock with them…

Before putting the pins in just a smidge after this lock on the right hand side in among the rushes.  There are no perfect moorings here, although on the other side of the river EA have some 48 hour moorings, but they are on an island, and you cannot visit Houghton.. I wanted to!.. And I did…

Beautiful thatched housing on the little lane from the Mill to the centre of the village, and the square in the middle also contained the bus stop and village information…

Note the red phone box, and the Post Office, come village store, just the other side of the clock tower.. just to the right was the most amazing building…

And to my right from where I was taking this pic is the pub.  Houghton is, and has everything that an English village should have, I am so pleased I managed to visit this place.. never managed it in 2005 or 2006..

But sitting in the rushes might not be everybody’s cup of tea… to me it was, No Problem was sort of hidden from view on the bank above, and with the glass out of the windows, I got a couple of nice pics… Here one of a damselfly…

And this lovely one of Meg looking to be mischievous on the river bank thinking I am not watching her!…

So being low in the rushes ain’t a bad thing at all!! .  The sky in that pic is actually very black, not blue, but it passed over and not a drop of rain fell!

Pauline and Gerry from Lowestoft, if you are reading this, Brian who also has a narrowboat and who also lives in Lowestoft would like to make contact with you both, his email address is ditchcrawler(at)googlemail.com.  Replace the (at) with an @

Tomorrow I shall hibernate, and try to do so for the next two weeks.. I need to plan when to pull the pins!  Well the games only happen every 4 years don’t they!!