Sunday 4 July 2010

Upstream along the River Great Ouse, to Great Barford

Since our last blog, we have continued upstream along the Great River Ouse, heading towards Bedford.

We lunched in St Ives, where the town bridge has a chapel built into the middle of it, dedicated to St Ledger.

We have moored in some most attractive locations, like the village of Hemingford Grey, with its waterside Church, where the spire was blown down in 1741, and somehow the replacement just doesn't look quite right. Thatched cottages and hollyhocks were in abundance here.

No two locks on the use appear to be the same, different gate configuration, some deep some shallow; some wide, others quite narrow, some with lay bys in the lock chamber itself. Some are totally push button operated, others are manually operated, so as you approach each lock, you must go armed with the Environment Agency key and Great Ouse windlass.

Part of our blog absence is due to a swift trip home to cut grass and hair etc - the grass barely needed doing - but the hair did. Vagabond was moored very safely in a newish marina surrounded by log cabins. Narrow boats are now very much in the minority, - most jetties were taken up with powerful, expensive cabin cruisers.

Our mooring last evening was just downstream from St Neots, edging a grassy field, and where the lovely houses opposite had rolling gardens down to the waters edge. This morning before moving off, we saw people and dogs swimming in the river, rowing, fishing, the water was so inviting, so clear, and a perfect summers day. So we are now at Great Barford, and Bedford beckons tomorrow.