Goodbye Nene, we climb the valley to Gayton

Today – Weston Favell to Bugbrooke, River Nene and Grand Union Canal, 11.5 miles 20 locks
Weekend – Earls Barton to Weston Favell, River Nene, 4.5 miles 3 locks

Over the weekend we moved from Earls Barton after picking up a Tesco Delivery by the lock there.  Our first stop was Cogenhoe where we met Annie of NB Moore2Life who would be joining us for the two day trip to Bugbrooke. 

It was a gorgeous day on Saturday as you can see and the river was quiet with not a ripple.. above is the view behind us and this is the view in front…

And look at this below our mooring….

That is the bottom of the Nene some 10 feet below No Problem, it’s like looking into an aquarium!

Sunday saw us move further upstream to the open waters of Weston Favell our last mooring before rejoining British Waterways canals..

This is the Northampton Washlands where flood water can be caught and stored.  When the river is in real flood boats are not allowed into this place, there are barrage gates at each end  of the area that will close when flood water needs to be diverted from Northampton Town, here is one of them as we passed through today after leaving our pontoon mooring of last night..

The main river goes from left to right by that tree on the other side of the gate and that is the area the flood water is held..

Our last ‘free’ pump out on the river at Northampton…

The Environment Agency do not charge for this service, British Waterways do charge, and boatyards charge even more!!  With water refilled we moved to the Town Quay for a shop at Morrisons before meeting Paul Balmer of Waterway Routes who joined us for the climb of the 17 locks of the Rothersthorpe flight of locks to Gayton Junction.

So off the Nene for this year….

Bottom lock of the Rothersthorpe flight means we are now on British Waterways canals.. oh by the way, that is Molly, the little jack russel of Annie, who also had a couple of days with us.. Lucy and Meg have already noticed that there is a towpath… they are gone!! Back in their element of towpath running!

Along the flight there are some wonderful sculptures, this one pointing the way…

With a big crew today, we made light work climbing to Gayton, and by early evening we reached the top..

Many thanks to Paul and Annie for your help, always very much appreciated..

I managed to pick up some eggs from the farm by Gayton Junction at last.  The previous couple of visits to the farm found the owners out, this time I got lucky.. A quiet cruise then to Bugbrooke, much slower than on the river.. saw more boats moored up in that short trip than we had seen on the move all summer in East Anglia! I need to get used to this again!

I have so enjoyed the rivers of the east this year, and although I got somewhat fed up with the constant wind in the valleys, I have almost forgotten that now, and can only remember my enjoyment.  But I am glad too to be back on the canals once again… life in the slow lane once more..