From Gayton on Grand Union Canal, Northampton Arm on to Weston Favell Lock, River Nene
We are back afloat again and plan to explore the Fens and drains and sluices in East Anglia this trip. Sounds delightful doesn't it!
We dithered at the start of the day as to what to do as hurricane Bill was expected today, but the sky didn't suggest he was imminent, so we set off with 17 locks ahead. It was dry and we struck up quite a pace with the use of the folding bike (with big wheels) between locks. Very narrow passage through the water reeds as you can see!
At lock 13 Bob did his good deed for the day by rescuing a small weasel that was shivering on the lockladder, having exhausted himself swimming frantically in the lock as we filled it. The weasel very trustingly got into the fishing net and then galloped away into the undergrowth.
As we moved down on to the River Nene, after a late lunch and a chance for the cycling legs to recover, we found ourselves on the outskirts of Northampton. As we are now in Environment Agency waters we have a different key to use at the locks . This is where hurricane Bill caught up with us, and after a few more locks we felt we had done enough battling against the wind and driving rain, so we are moored against a winter time emergency fens flood jetty, below Weston Favell lock, which looks as if it is push button operated - such power!
Grand Union 4.8 miles 17 narrow locks
River Nene 2.9 miles 3 wide manual locks
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