Back up the Cam in wonderful weather

Junction Wicken Fen to Waterbeach, Reach Lode and River Cam, 4 miles, 2 locks

You know, days like today make you forget all about winter and snow and cold.  The hottest day in England since a day in August 2003 so they say… wow it was to!

That Reach Lode Lock I guess is the slowest mechanical lock in the whole country… poor old Vic’s finger was numb holding it in for so long!… Turning left out of Reach Lode we were soon back on the Cam heading in the direction of Cambridge.  There was a bit of wind, which kept us cool, oh but so pleasant and enjoyable.

We met one or two plastic cruisers, well it is a bank holiday weekend I suppose… I am really surprised at the absence of boats in this area beings it’s late May and a Bank Holiday…

Apart from when we turned off the Cam yesterday up the Lode, this is the first lock we have encountered since Denver and arriving on the Gt River Ouse.. Bottisham Lock..

All mechanical this one with pointy gates at the other end… Vic likes leaving the windlass on board!

You can see in the pic, it clouded over at this point, and we had a little rain.  Well it had been humid in the morning and so hot, wasn’t surprised a few clouds bubbled up.

Arriving at Waterbeach it was just pure sunshine again and  I wandered over to the village store there and picked up some bread and milk, determined to stay put for the weekend while we let the Bank holidayers enjoy the River.

Off up the pub now, it looks nice…. we are moored just up from here …

Hope you all have a wonderful weekend wherever you are and whatever you are doing, enjoy this lovely weather, and if you are at Crick reading this, have a great time, at least you won’t have to wear your wellies this time!

Moore2Life - The Full Story

I am absolutely delighted to see that Chas from NB Moore2Life has published his website on the internet.  Chas and Ann are great friends of ours, and I spent a lot of last winter teaching Chas how to write a website.  I could have just done it for him, but I knew, given time, he would get the grasp of it.

Chas is over retirement age, and it has only been in the last year that he has really started to use the internet.  It is a terrific achievement on his part.

Chas and Ann have always kept daily notes, I saw them, neatly typed up in wordpad documents.. Chas is not a speed writer, and it must have taken him just ages to type up with two fingers!

Most of those notes have now been published, and Chas’s ‘book’ is available for viewing from the first thoughts of having a narrowboat back in 1995.

It is an amazing read, and will be of great interest especially to those just ‘thinking’ about having a boat.  When Chas and Ann first started, it is obvious they had no idea…. they had decided though to share the boat with their long time friends Terry and Myra..  Firstly though, they had to find a canal!

“Terry had seen a canal at Aldermaston, however it was not in working order in the 1950's. If you travel north from the south coast you are bound to cross a canal. …  So one weekend in 1995 we all set off towards Hungerford and found the 'Kennet and Avon Canal' “

Then they had to find boats!

“Continuing our walk going west we came upon a lock. "This is promising" …  decided to go on to Newbury in the car. … A walk along the towpath under the bridge revealed the wonderful sight of Narrowboats. Never before had we seen so many in one place. We started to pick out the ones we liked and wondered how much they cost.”

The four of them didn’t even know that there were different types of boats..

“At this time we had no idea what 'Trad' meant and that there were also 'Semi-Trads', 'Cruisers' and 'Tugs'. We thought that 'Cruisers' were short plastic boats with outboard motors and not what we were looking for.”

This is an absolutely fascinating read… I am really looking forward to all the chapters being published, what an insight it is.

This must be seen as an inspiration to anyone thinking that it’s too late in life now to start a website.  Also what is unbelievable is the fact that Moore2Life is a continuous cruiser as is NP… there is no telephone line just a mobile phone connected to gprs, and the hope that the mooring chosen is good enough to get a signal to upload stuff to a website.

Moore2Life

Well done Chas

 

 

Nipped into Reach Lode

Today – GOBA Moorings (A1123 br) to Wicken Lode Junction, River Cam and Reach Lode, 2 miles 0 locks Wed 25th – Nr Little Thetford to GOBA Moorings, 2.5 miles 0 locks Tues 24th – Moored Nr Little Thetford

Well I am trying hard to catch up on my blog, emails and comments here, but I have another project on the go at the moment taking all my time up! Hopefully soon I will be able to direct all my energy to where i should be! Tuesday was wet and windy, and we were pleased to stay put and watch one or two brave narrowboaters pass us by with winter coats and wet gear on…. In the evening it did calm somewhat, which enabled Lucy and I to take off over the countryside yet again.. it was a nice mooring there belonging to EA.

Wednesday was better and we moved down and on to the Cam itself. I hadn’t seen an oystercatcher since I was on the River Ouse last summer, but a walk from the Goba mooring by the bridge took me through a cow field with, to my surprise, an oystercatcher seemingly quite at home with grazing cattle! Bloomin’ cattle gave me grief too… all youngsters, finding chastising a human being great fun… not so for me though…. thank goodness I had my walking stick with me… they did at least respect my overhead walking stick swinging!!

Today thought we would take a quick look at Wicken Lode… a nature reserve, a great nature reserve… but I want to leave actually going down to the bottom of that until we return after visiting Cambridge, but of course, I couldn’t resist walking the whole way to the bottom… Oh boy wasn’t I well rewarded… this then my backyard today pic

I have never seen a cuckoo in my life, always chasing the sound to get a glimpse of one, never seeing the naughty bird who waits for a different bird to leave a nest, flies in, chucks an egg out and lays her own.. the emerging chick either chucking out the other eggs or chicks to be brought up by the ‘substitute’ mum… but today I saw a cuckoo, in fact I even got a pic of it! It’s not the best pic in the world, but I’ll put it in the wildlife album later

Another sighting today a red kite… unusual for this area.. I only knew it was a red kite when I met a ‘twitcher’ also looking at the bird, I asked him what it was! Oh yes, nearly forgot, yesterday a barn owl… hunting near the mooring…. hey I better watch out I am sounding more like a twitcher every day here!!

Annie… You would go mental here, the walking is the best yet, hey get that Moore2Life lifted on a lorry and plonk it down here!

When we return it’s gonna be hard for Vic to prise me away from this place!

On the move again towards The Cam!

Today – Ely to Nr Little Thetford, River Great Ouse, 2.5 miles 0 locks
Wed 18th to Sun 22nd May, Moored Ely, River Great Ouse

A long week at Ely which included a trip south to Portsmouth for me.  Sheesh don’t I just hate travelling across London on the underground!   I am in the way to those people who live by their clocks.  I sat on the tube looking around wondering what they all did for a living, wondered if they gave any thought to their retirement and what they would do.  I wondered if they even knew there were waterways out there, I wondered if they even knew when they retired…. Such is their pace of life..

This is what they are missing… an amazing sight each day as the ‘youngsters’ were taken out on a regular basis.  All the goslings went for a swim up the river daily and were shepherded by various geese.  They did not belong to anyone in particular, and one evening while I was dan sauff Vic said he lost count of the goslings once he got to 80.  It’s most amazing, they travel in a dead straight line with a goose at the front followed by all 80+ goslings with two geese at the rear, and ‘out riders’ keeping guard!

I liked Ely, its a real market town… the cathedral is magnificent.  It’s on an island you know… they say Isle of Ely round these parts.. very nice.

Today we just did a couple of miles to a very remote EA mooring near the quiet village of Little Thetford.  I have managed to do some walking in between travelling south, and yesterday ventured out across the fens with Lucy, a 7.5 mile hike… got caught in a storm for about 20 mins, but was reasonably dry by the time I had got back to NP…

Today, after we moored, I found a lovely round route of walking, about 5 miles taking in the village here and also Stretham… it was good to be back and doing what I love to do!  I wondered if those people on the tube knew that this exists!

I have had lots of emails and comments to recent blogs, all of which I will catch up on in the next few days….

 

Featureless Cruise to Ely

Denver to Ely, Gt River Ouse, 16 miles 0 locks

We left Denver early… the weather wasn’t too bad, but still a biting wind from the north made me wear my heavy winter coat today.  I refused to wear gloves, well I just couldn’t admit to putting gloves on in the third week of May!… So I stuck my hands up my coat sleeve instead!

It was very mundane the trip from Denver to Ely, high banks and very straight sections, one section must have been a couple of miles long in a dead straight line… I didn’t enjoy it much, and it wasn’t until we came to the outskirts of Ely that at last we could see over the banks.. here the cathedral.  It had taken us just 3 hours 20 minutes at a steady relaxed speed not wanting to overheat the engine.

So I don’t have a lot to say about today!   However, we stopped in the centre for diesel at Ely Marina and also to pick up some gas, then moved to the moorings a little further on, mooring next to Pat and Kate who we last saw at Wadenhoe back last month. There are some nice pubs here in Ely, the waterfront is rather attractive, and it’s obvious that they have done a lot to promote the area.

I smelt fish and chips later this evening, and went out in search of the smell, to come back with some really tasty cod and chips…

I do hope this River improves as we go upstream.. We decided not to do the river tributaries that lead off until later in the spring.  Hopefully we will not encounter too much weed then, but we will turn off in a couple of days and make our way down the River Cam to have a look at Cambridge.

 

Woodford Riverside Marina

I had an email last month from the owner of Woodford Riverside, Peter Cockings after he had read my rather ‘surprised’ view of the Marina and the facilities.. I could only blog about what I saw there, not knowing that there were reasons for the sorry state.  The marina was due to actually close on 30th April.  Now Peter did actually tell me that he had informed EA…

“We informed the Environment Agency many months ago the facilities were no longer available to the public as my partner moved his boatbuilding business from the premises.and no one would be on site.”

But it was still on the EA website last time I looked… Anyway the reason for me writing about this tonight is because I missed a comment posted this week on that particular blog back in April… only noticing it today when I put a new bit on the side of my web page showing ‘recent comments’… from Martin Eastwood, a long time moorer at Woodford Marina..

“What you are describing is the remnants of the most wonderful Marina that I have known”…..  “I am so sorry that you saw it in this state. When the pair who run the Marina reestablish themselves you will come across a nice place”

Comment link here

Obviously Peter Cockings and his partners were well liked, and have had a raw deal from the farmer who owns the land.  I did say on my blog at that time that the farmer is going to open a new marina, Peter tells me that it is in fact himself and his partners who are opening the new marina, and I apologise for getting that wrong in my original post.  I do wish Peter good luck with the new marina… no doubt we will be popping in there in the future.

Back to Denver in the rain..

Today – Wissey Bridge to Denver, River Ouse, 1.75 miles 0 locks
Weekend – Moored Nr Wissey Bridge, River Wissey

Very relaxing and quiet weekend.. a beautiful day yesterday made me extremely lazy, spending a couple of hours in the afternoon on the back deck doing nothing!!

On Saturday three large tupperware gin palaces joined us on the mooring… the fellas decked out in shorts.. it was a bit cold for that!  Still, maybe they were hoping for some warmer weather in the evening when they had a bbq.  The weather was colder, but they were still in their shorts, but with anoraks and hoods on by this time.

By Sunday lunch time they were all off.  I was amazed… one of the boats actually had a bow thruster along with twin props!!  Well it did turn quick I must admit.

We decided yesterday that we could really do with an order from Tesco pretty soon, and thought the best thing to do was to nip back down the river to Denver’s 48hr mooring where I know there is a road that runs right alongside.  One thing about travelling a new waterway is that I am not sure where to pick up orders.. the banks on this river are so high you see.  Even if there is a bridge it is sometimes impossible to get access to roads.

In the future as we travel upstream we will find an access point, moor up then get the nice man from Tesco to deliver the next day.

It was pouring with rain this morning, but we had to make the move to be at Denver by noon.  As it was we were here at 11.30, and good job too because Tesco arrived just after we tied up.  We didn’t intend to stay here today, but the weather was just too bad this afternoon, and decided to spend the night here after all.

So to Littleport or Ely tomorrow… again I am surprised at the cost of diesel, expecting it to be a lot dearer on the river, just 38p a litre from Ely Marine was the quote when I phoned them this morning.

Hilgay and the River Wissey

Whittington to Wissey Bridge, River Wissey, 11 miles 0 locks

I mentioned GOBA yesterday, but didn’t explain what that meant.  Well GOBA is the Great Ouse Boaters Association, they have a brilliant website, I am wondering if the webmaster is actually a member, if so I must track him down for some tips for my own site

Leaving a donation in an envelope on the jetty to the nice guy who gave us a mooring at the bottom of his garden last night, we let the ropes go to travel back down this lovely river.  Here Wends, the sugar beet factory where your beet for the ponies comes from British Sugar!

This is the view of the huge factory on the river bank…. at this time we are travelling through that lake I was talking about yesterday… looking again today, it is well over 100 yards wide at this point, and tons of wild birds with their offspring all over the place at this point.

We stopped at Hilgay to pick up some milk and bread.  Here also is a very nice looking pub with food called the Rose & Crown, a butchers and a good general store.  No Post Office though.  Also not shown in the Imray guide for this river is an elsan tip-out, which I found in the park in the same building as the loos just out of site but behind the mooring.  AND!….  Hooray, a biffa bin for the rubbish.  However this was full to overflowing!!  Ah well, at least there was a bin there!

I was looking forward to reaching the GOBA  mooring just before the railway bridge, and was hoping and praying that beings it was a Friday it wouldn’t be full… I wasn’t to be disappointed, it was empty and very quiet, the birds being the only sound to be heard … It reminds me of Gateforth Landing on the Selby Canal, I really enjoyed our stays there… so here then my backyard today pic for you…

Lucy and I explored late this afternoon…. for two hours we wandered the lovely paths in the area…We are going to stay here the weekend, and I have mapped out 8 miles of tracks and paths for us to explore tomorrow… I love it. 

River Wissey Delight!

Denver to Whittington, Gt Ouse and River Wissey, 12.5 miles 0 locks

I had already walked some of the River Gt Ouse yesterday evening with Lucy, it was wide, and high banks… nothing to write home about except for the wild life on the river…

Very varied, and more ‘wildlife’ than similar birds in urban areas, tending to fly away rather than begging for scraps.  Anyway, it gave me a good chance to practice with the new camera, although I had to be quick! 

I saw this morning a duck with 15 chicks… thats the most I have ever seen for one clutch!

We decided to do a couple of miles along this rather ordinary part of the Gt Ouse, then branch off to the left to the River Wissey.. glad we did, it was a delight.  Some stretches were narrow.. other places as wide as the river we had just left.  At one point it flowed into a lake, maybe some 100 yards wide.  The water was crystal clear, and the bottom could be seen some 5ft below… pity it is out of season for fishing… still I expect I will be able to persuade Vic to return later in the summer for a couple of days of fishing on this river. 

We turned at the end of the navigable bit disappointed that the GOBA moorings that used to be here have now gone.. Apparently they were closed mid summer last year… I should have checked that they were still there I suppose… they are marked in the Imray guide.. still it didn’t matter. As we turned to return back along the river to find a bank for the evening to moor, a guy was at the bottom of his garden on his boat… I commented about my disappointment that the moorings had gone, and he very kindly offered the rest of his mooring space to us for the night.

There are some lovely GOBA moorings about a half mile in from the Gt Ouse, and we intend to make that our stop tomorrow night… I decided to join GOBA this year so that we could make use of their moorings throughout the Gt Ouse and the tributaries.. looks like my £17 will have its first use then

Up the Tidal Bit to Denver

Salter’s Lode Lock to Denver Lock, Great River Ouse, 0.5 miles 2 locks

NP just fitted into Salter’s Lode lock lengthwise, although I did make sure to keep her on the angle so as not to catch the tiller arm under the walkway at the back of the lock as we rose to meet the river height.  We are going upstream on an outgoing tide once the gates were open.  “Give it some wellie as soon as you turn to the right to get round or you will end up on the far bank” was the advice… OK then

So our new BMC 1.8 was given a good testing as I swung out of the north facing dogleg to turn right and to the south.  I could see what he meant about getting round quick, the tide was running against and not helping the turn… was no problem though and the engine performed well at revs it had not encountered till now, and we swung round easily without the need to brush off the far mud banks.

Passing one boat who had left Denver at the same time as we had left Salter’s, it wasn’t long ‘till we were locked through the big Denver complex and tied up at the visitor moorings above the lock.  Well I say above the lock, because we are now going upstream, but actually we locked down at Denver!!

Still hardly any boats about, it is early in the season, it was just us today wanting to go through Salter’s lock from the Middle Levels, I bet it gets busy in the summer though.

I think I have a contender for the funniest ‘facilities’ to be found anywhere on the inland waterways…. a tap!  Now then, this is a rather a special tap.  As you can see it has probably come from some scrap bath… not only that but it has a very errrrrrr non-wastage contraption on the top of it… a press button, more likely found at motorway rest rooms…

And before you even wonder, I will tell you that no way was I gonna get an elastic band to try keep the hose on there, and I wonder how long I would have had to hold the push button top down to fill a 250 gal tank!!!!… Some people do some funny things sometimes! ….. Wonderful stuff… and it sure did make me giggle.. hey maybe that is why someone put it there, maybe it is their sense of humour.. although I didn’t see a webcam around….

Thought we would take a look at the River Wissey tomorrow, it looks quite a nice diversion…

A trip down 'Memory Lane', Upwell

Today – Upwell to Salter’s Lock, Middle Levels, 6.5 miles 0 locks

I haven’t been to Upwell for what must be 14 years.  It was and still is a special place for me.  I had been coming here regularly for 4 years previously to that with daughters and sons on their jumping ponies.  Mill Lodge was the venue… ponies that were not specialist when we bought them, but with the work we all did, we made them specialists.  Top class junior jumpers they were.  Little Nell went on to be at the Horse of the Year show in 1985, even came third there!

I strolled down the lane that used to lead to Mill Lodge, and here on the right the plum trees in blossom.  My eldest daughter loved our visits when the plums were ripe, making me stop so she could scrump a few!

And here, the lane to Mill Lodge that was… Wendie, I know you will enjoy these pics especially .  At the far end of here there is a fence, it’s still there too, and it was there in October one year that we braved out that hurricane trying to sleep in the horsebox!

It’s all gone now…. .  I took no pictures of the new housing estate being built, I will remember Mill Lodge as I remember it.

I can’t help but put just the one more pic here to finish off my day ‘walking back in time’….. this is a place we used to look forward to as much as Mill Lodge itself…

Upwell, and Outwell, the two villages, were once one village, in fact before they were separated by names, it used to be the longest village in Britain… It seems it was too long running along Well Creek… so they named one Outwell, (going out of Well Creek) and the other Upwell (going upstream of it).  Both villages have butchers, and I do believe both have Post Offices, although I didn’t see the one in Outwell when we passed.

Beyond the villages the countryside once again was very flat and featureless really… the main road running alongside all the way to Salter’s Lock.  The bridge at Nordelph was the lowest we had gone under on the whole of the Middle Levels, had to take off the pole that supports the sky dish, the chimney went under with a micro inch to spare, in fact I think it just scraped as the boat rolled slightly exiting… phew!

Arriving at Salter’s Lock, I went to have a look at the job in hand tomorrow, for now it is low tide …. tomorrow it will be high to go out of the Middle Levels and on to the tidal Great Ouse for the short trip to Denver Sluice.  It reminded me of when I first took a look at the River Ouse in Yorkshire from Selby Lock… actually this one isn’t that different to what I saw then…. 

I need to turn right, presumably after the yellow X…. but I am sure the lockie will give me all the hints tomorrow morning at 10.30, when the tide will be in, and I will get a different view of the river. .  I took a lot of pics today, some of the Denver Sluice at low tide, another of Old Bedford River and some delightful views of Upwell and Outwell, and others on the way today… they are all in the May Album…

 

More pleasant to Upwell

Today – March to Upwell, Middle Levels, 8.5 miles 1 lock

It was cold this morning… there might have been a bit of a frost overnight, but the strawberries looked OK.  After taking Lucy for a walk in the lovely park here, collecting bread and milk, a visit to the Post Office to send cards to daughter and granddaughter (costly month May is!  ) and a reverse back to use the services, we let the ropes go hoping for a better day than Saturday to our intended destination of Upwell.

The townsfolk of March, who live with the waterway at the bottom of their gardens, have done it proud, and this time of year their efforts are rewarded with lovely gardens viewed from the water.  As soon as we cleared March however, the banks rose up again to protect whatever was behind them from the water below….

But today was different .  No more the high wind, cloudy and sunny.. Yes! .. much more pleasurable, eventually arriving at Marmont Lock around late lunch time.  Here the lock keeper, a lady, had been locking people through for the last 40 years she tells me.  On arrival you are instructed to ‘ring the bell’…. to be honest there is no real reason to have a lock keeper, it’s just a lock like any other lock… but it give time for chatter and rumours to be exchanged.

Then so to Upwell… lots of memories for me, well of Outwell actually, and since we aren’t quite there yet, maybe I will write about those later.  The ‘Old Nene’ turns into the lovely name of ‘Well Creek’ around here.. it sounds like something in rural USA, but it’s all English!  Much narrower now…..

Not only has the Middle Levels shrunk, but the bridges have also!  We were just about to go under the main road bridge when I put the breaks on rapidly… this one certainly looked as if we would have to strip the paint from the roof!

Even the guy in the landrover passing over had to take a look… probably giggling to himself and wondering if any plant pots would be left behind for him to pick up!

Vic has got used to this now over the last few days, and decided that we would not have to take anything else off the roof for this one… we squeezed through…

JUST!!

Well his decision, I only drive! .  Our mooring for the evening was just beyond, you can see the visitor moorings the other side of the bridge in the pic… Tonight we nipped over to the The Five Bells for a pint, and a bar meal… great prices, great night, and with that ends my blog for today.  All I need now is a quick nightcap to end a perfect day.

Cold and blustery to March

Sunday – Moored March
Saturday – Whittlesey to March, Middle Levels, 10.5 miles 1 lock

We decided not to say in Whittlesey on Saturday.  A group of about 40 or 50 youths decided they would party on Friday night on the park just by where we were moored.  They were OK, but I find large groups of youths rather intimidating shouting and swearing and generally being loud.  One or two of them knocked on the window then ran away again.  I guess it was more of ‘I dare you’ rather than any yobbish behaviour. I decided at that point to go and sit outside on the front deck just to try to deter them from approaching the boat again… Lucy sat on the pontoon… they all started to drift off just before 11pm leaving us in peace for the rest of the night.

Not wanting a repeat of the previous night we decided to move on to March on Saturday.  But it was extremely windy and blustery showers made for an uncomfortable trip.  Here then Ashline Lock where we used the windlass that we had recently purchased to let the water into the lock before diving inside NP to sit out a heavy hailstorm.

As soon as we left this lock the banks got higher and higher, and the Middle Level became straighter and straighter… now this was getting boring.. the wind making my enjoyment of the waterway almost turn to hate.. Here the turn for Twenty Foot River..

This drain bypasses March to emerge once again on our route the other side of the town.  I doubt if we could have got under that bridge anyway even if we had wanted to.  We have found the bridges extremely low.. the guide book is miles out with the heights (well many inches rather than miles!).  At the bridges that look very low we have had to be careful and take off the roof whatever needed taking off at the time, then replacing it again!

We passed ‘The Meridian Line’ between the two towns… I don’t really know what that means… I wondered if I went from today to yesterday or today to tomorrow… anyway I didn’t change my watch!

I sure was pleased to see March appear… a bit of shelter from the wind, and something to look at apart from banks and straight lines.  It was a delight through the outskirts, houses with lovely gardens cascading down to moorings at the waters edge was the favourite… most of the waterside houses had a boat of some sort moored.

On Saturday evening we decided to celebrate our arrival in the town with a pint at the Ship Inn right by the visitor moorings.  It is the oldest building in March.  Renovations found beams dated from the 1500s… It had good soundproofing too…. Good grief when we walked in the door a karaoke was in full swing!  We looked at each other with a silent “shall we, shan’t we” but found ourselves face to face with the landlord keen on serving his newly arrived customers… OK then.. he had made up our minds for us! .

After a couple of beers I decided that really it was quite good… well it takes a couple!  It was 11.30pm and still the karaoke was in full swing, I really didn’t want to leave.  The later it got the more brave the locals became.  I guess they thought themselves as budding Rowan Keatings… the beer of the evening giving them not a care in the world if they hit bum notes! .  We had also been invited to join in the buffet for someone’s birthday party… very welcoming!

Such a good night led to a late rise for me the next day, Sunday.  I am glad we didn’t plan to do anything… the weather once again was very unsettled, and the showers heavy.  The F1 was on anyway… A lazy day .

Albums and Comments..

I have worked hard this afternoon, and all Picture Albums are now updated…. That is the last few of April, and all so far for May. Wendie, there are some of today in Upwell.. a special place for you!

The comments are causing me a problem in that I cant post a reply to you all there at the moment on this gprs. I will try with dial-up a bit later, but thanks Pat, Jo and Peter Scott for you recent comments. If I can’t reply to you later, then I will do on a blog posting.

Oh by the way, if you find any pics not showing or not displaying properly, can you let me know. I don't check that they have all posted because it takes up too much bandwidth to check, so I rely on people telling me... thanks

Off to the Fens then..

6th May - Stanground Lock to Whittlesey, Middle Levels, 4.5 miles 1 lock I was feeling nervous for sure... just having got used to the Nene, now it was time to learn about the Middle Levels.

An early start by my standards to lock down to the King's Dyke.. called this after King Canute, who allegedly caused it to be cut. The elderly lock keeper Mr Routham (I hope I have got that right) sold us a windlass (lock key) for use on the next lock, and I do believe it also fits one or two of the locks on the River Great Ouse. We also had to purchase a key to open the service doors at March for water, tip-out and rubbish!

These two items cost us £8... Mr Routham told me that today was the anniversary of when he started being a lock keeper at Stanground back on May 6th 1956 and that it was also the anniversary of when his father started as a lock keeper on May 6th 1927! "There has been a lot of change in that time" says he... Phew there sure has. I didn't take the change back from the tenner I gave him feeling guilty later that I only tipped such a dedicated man to the waterways enough to buy a pint of mild on his special day. I think my conscience will perhaps tip him a bit better on the way back!

So within a year we have accumulated and used a Calder & Hebble handspike, a Leeds & Liverpool anti vandal key, a BW key, a normal canal windlasses, a River Nene lock key and now this new windlass and another key for Middle Level service stations! I am wondering how many more items we will collect on our travels!

So this is the fens.. no sooner are you through the lock than the land flattens completely. I thought the banks would have been higher than they were. It wasn't quite boring, there was enough to keep us interested along the way to Whittesley.

There is a very sharp bend here, and boaters had warned us that it is difficult to negotiate. Well I had no problems at all with it, but I can see that on the way back I may well have more difficulty. It is very narrow you see, and enclosed in concrete walls with a 90 degree turn under a bridge. I guess coming back I won’t get the front end round without rapping the wall… umm well that is a long time off yet, will worry about that later in the summer

It was, once again, very windy.. so decided to stop at the lovely moorings on open parkland.

Venturing out in the afternoon, I decided to take a look at the fenland. Wow it certainly was windy out there. The fields all have ditches round them dead straight and wide enough for a boat to go down! Fields are like something out of a mathematics book, very rectangular and all on an island surrounded by these ditches. Miles and miles of them, and mainly growing potatoes!

I do hope the wind eases tomorrow or we shall stay here

Middle Levels on Election Day

Today – Peterborough, River Nene to Stanground Lock, Middle Levels, 0.75 miles 0 locks
Yesterday – Moored Peterborough

Yesterday I was totally spoilt by Vic.  For my birthday he took me out to Weatherspoons in Peterborough.  I really like that pub, it’s always so lively and the food good.  Later I chose a new fishing rod… it’s much longer than the one I am used to,  so that should be a bit of fun the first time I use it in June

My interest in photography has grown, and Vic bought me a new camera as well…. I am just over the moon with it, and have been doing a bit of practice the last couple of days.  It’s much more complicated than my quick snap camera that my photos have come from in the last two years… Here my first efforts at a bit of wild life…. well these two are the best of about ten I have taken, so I have a bit to learn yet to get the best out of it.

I know there are a bit boring, but I wanted to show off my new camera with my first efforts!

This morning we went to the large Pet shop to get a bag of food for Lucy before moving back up to the waterpoint to fill up once again before leaving for the Middle Levels.  We never did find the rubbish disposal point in the amenities building on the embankment.  There was one door that would not unlock.  No doubt behind that door we could have dumped the rubbish.  So once again we had to leave rubbish in the many rubbish bins along the waterfront… not very satisfactory I know, but we had no choice once again!

So tomorrow then we are off along the Middle Levels….. but for now, I think I will watch the excellent BBC with their election program.  Sunderland South should just about be finished with their count by the time I post this!

A Family affair at Peterborough

Today – Ferry Meadows to Peterborough, River Nene, 3 miles 1 lock
Sunday and Yesterday – Moored Ferry Meadows

So here we are then, finally made it to Peterborough!  Here are the stats for those that like stats…..

River Nene, Northampton to Peterborough – 58.2 miles 37 locks 41 days!

I will let you work out the average per day… I never take the time cruised so you can’t have our average speed…. anyway it was just slow!!

After a lovely bank holiday weekend full of sunshine (and the hottest place in the land),  this morning we had rain.  There was a bit of a break after lunch, so we decided after all that we would go on down to Peterborough.  There couldn’t have been much water left in the tank anyway. We hadn’t filled up since Fotheringhay, that must have been a couple of weeks ago!

Our mooring for the bank holiday was just inside that backwater on the left of this pic.  I spose I walked a good 15 miles over the weekend, a beautiful place which is Nene Trust.  The rangers were errrrrr corrrrr worth a look too!

Just the one lock to negotiate then before we cruised into Peterborough, and no problems with the last one, a new routine to keep NP off the side…. well at least we are practiced for our next visit down this river, and for sure there will be one…. I have enjoyed the river very much, loved it!

The river keeps itself to itself on the outside of Peterborough, you wouldn’t even know you were on the outskirts, then at the last minute round the corner is this….

This the town centre!  Just under the town bridge, the brick one in the distance here, we found the EA facilities…. ah water at last!  We filled up and I spent the rest of the afternoon doing washing… 5 loads in all!  I put some light rope up all round the boat and now NP has turned into a drying room, well the weather outside is unsettled, in fact no sooner had we arrived here than the heavens opened for a couple of hours!  We are quite baking here tonight, well we have the fire lit you see to try dry everything off!

Since we left Northampton, there have been no facilities for rubbish disposal at all…. apparently there is a rubbish disposal somewhere here hidden away in the amenities block which we found contained the tip out station…. this was after Vic opened just about every door that was locked to see if he could find it!  I think one of the locked doors contains the refuse area!  I shall investigate tomorrow.

We got quite clever with the rubbish disposal, well we had to!  We just used carrier bags and only half filled them.  Every time I went for a walk with Lucy I would take one with me…. I always managed to find a waste bin on my walks…. good job too.  Anyway it’s about time the EA put some places on this river to dump rubbish!  All service facilities on this river are dreadful… it’s no wonder not many people come down the Nene.

So here then the perfect family scene…. taken this evening as the sun gave a nice end to the day… I guess it is two families… they all seemed to get on so well too, a happy little group this was.

Tomorrow we are going into the centre for a bit of shopping… Vic has promised me a new fishing rod for my birthday… and I am told there are lots of cards to collect from the Post Office here too… umm I hope Vic puts his hand in his pocket for a nice meal out tomorrow… now that would well compensate me for my extra year!