Monday 9 August 2010

From Marsworth along the Wentworth Arm, and back on to the Grand Union Canal to Bulbourne

Today, we spent the morning walking around Marsworth village and again up the locks alongside the Tring reservoirs. A very tranquil spot with grannies and grandchildren quietly enjoying the lovely area. A mother swan did delay our tow path walk slightly, as she just would not follow her cygnets into the water, and sat preening and defiantly blocking our path. Eventually she became curious as to the cygnets whereabouts and glided into the canal, and we moved on. During our morning coffee on the boat we spotted many, many huge carp just below the surface, They were monsters, and devoured some bread we offered. The local ducks soon backed off!

This afternoon we got going up the 7 locks to the Tring summit, and then made a sharp right turn down the Wendover Arm and suddenly we were threading our way along a narrow waterway, passing a flour mill and some very delapidated boats, some on long,or no mooring lines, drifting out in front of us making progress slow. The navigable stretch ends with a plaque, and a very fortunately, a spacious turning point. We returned back to the junction passing some different fishing styles, hidden in the bank reeds.

We are now moored at Bulbourne, the much photographed BW canal workshops, where lockgates used to be

made, but is now a private concern making unusual garden ornaments in iron.

Sunday 8 August 2010

Fenny Stratford southwards to Marsworth Junction, Grand Union Canal

We have made pretty slow progress as time is on our side, and the weather on Saturday was wet AND the Captain has a stinking cold!

After a shop stop at Leighton Buzzard Tesco on Friday, we moored below the Grove Lock. This was a rendezvous to meet friends for the evening. A little light entertainment before dinner in the form of a hire boat with young children dancing on the roof, and of course one fell in, fortunately she held the centre line on the way down so it was easy to retrieve her!

Good beer and food at the Grove and the pub sign depicts the leaking lock gates, and boy do they leak! ""Fullers" is a total misnoma!

Today, Sunday, we teamed up with a family aboard narrowboat Cream Cracker and shared locks all the way to Marsworth Junction. A very pleasant way to spend a sunny morning chatting and laughing until ........................ as we left the last lock, filing out one behind the other, we encountered 2 old narrowboats, movingtowards us, breasted up. Cream Cracker was lucky and managed to take avoiding action and steer around them, but not for us, the 2 old boats came straight for us and smacked us well and truly, causing damage to our bow paintwork mainly because these rogues did not have bow fenders fitted. Ugh!

The incident post mortem really spoiled the next couple of hours, but we are moored up now, and there are lots of smiling people enjoying Bluebell Cafe ice creams in the sun, so we joined them and soon felt better.

Thursday 5 August 2010

Stoke Bruerne to Fenny Stratford, Grand Union Canal

We are back afloat, having spent a week ashore attending to cutting the nearly green grass of home!

So, after purchasing some Christmas cards from Stoke Bruerne shop, and some Welsh cheese from the Cheese Boat, we have proceeded with apace down the Grand Union Canal. Not so fast that we couldn't pause for a good pub lunch in the garden at The Barley Mow in Cosgrove! Most attractive soft sandstone bridge in Cosgrove - Gothic - and apparently unique among canal bridges.

So many bridges today as we wended our way through Milton Keynes - not used to bridges - so few across the river Nene and Great Ouse. There is a very clever, long mural painted depicting canal boats with a modern slant ie aircraft being transported by boat!

Our day was fine and bright, but there is a most definite feel of autumn in the air.

Tuesday 27 July 2010

From Cogenhoe River Nene to Stoke Bruerne, Grand Union Canal

We made very good progress yesterday, 23 locks! Another day with virtually no rain, and none as we left Northampton and rose the 16 locks to Gayton Junction. Rather shallow pounds, but with a couple of narrowboats on our tail, we were very motivated, and they would have welcomed the extra water we flushed down.

A very noisy night at Gayton, with constant traffic and trains racing by - how envious are we!

Blisworth Tunnel, 1.75 miles long was its usual wet experience. No need to water the boat flowers today, the tunnel did it more than adequately.

Drizzle at Stoke Bruerne, but lucky to find a mooring for the day. Despite some quite unusually persistent rain there were many people ambling around the locks and musem area. After a Boaters Baguette in The Boat, we watched surprisingly few boats on the move. The usual gongoozler faction was present, and as always, it is so alarming to see young children allowed to run and peer over the lock edge completely unrestrained. Ugh!

Sunday 25 July 2010

From Thrapston to Cogenhoe, River Nene

Tonight is our final mooring on the river Nene, having spent 7 weeks away from canals, we feel we have given fenland a good going over for a while, and it is time to get back to the system. Today, we have been sorely tried with weed, especially above Wellingborough. Our pictures show some of the conditions we had to make our way through - it's all very well cutting the weed but it needs to be raked out and onto the bank. Some small cruisers spent more than an hour trying to get their outboards cleaned off and make progress through the fibrous roots and pea green soup. The lock gates opened sufficiently wide for us to get through.

Our last evening is at Cogenhoe, where we have moored before. We are alongside a quiet site of summer cabins, that look so idyllicly situated beside the river.

Friday 25 July 2010

From Ferry Meadows Country Park, to Thrapston, River Nene

We had a leisurely departure from Ferry Meadows, after a walk to the nearby village of Cherry Orton. A day that threatened to rain from the start, and it sure did just as soon as we moved off our lunch stop, under Wansford Station where we had been the afternoon before.

It was shower after shower through the afternoon, until we reached one of our favourite moorings on the Nene, at Fotheringhay. Since our last visit, a windsock has appeared in the farmers field. He says he hasn't acquired a helicopter, but why else would one fly a windsock, we wondered.

Today, we made a determined effort to get away earlier and were moving before 9am, as there were 9 locks and about 15 miles to do to get to Thrapston. Some of those locks were manual, requiring many turns of the wheel to lower and raise the guillotine gates. So that, plus an hours walk around Thrapston, will mean a good nights sleep ahead.

Wednesday 21 July 2010

From Denver Sluice, River Great Ouse, to Ferry Meadows, River Nene

Since our 'day off' on Sunday spent at Denver Sluice, we have made up for lost time and put our skates on. We had a long wait on Monday for the right moment of the tide, to leave Denver and go along the short tidal stretch to Salters Lode, which required a 45 degree left turn across the outgoing tide into the lock to return us to the middle level. All went well, and we moored with some Norwegians aboard a hire boat, at Outwell. These people were on their first trip, and so had our days adventure, ahead, in reverse. Totally charming people, whose English was faultless and who had no idea of what was ahead!

Early on Tuesday morning, we left Outwell and Upwell, where the villages are sliced down the middle by the river, and out onto the middle level, some stretches of which are just long straight, narrow lengths of water, where you see no one, no boats, no walkers, just acres of flat, cultivated land, often with wind turbines.

Our aim was to moor for the evening at Whittlesey, where we knew there was a jetty, which left a short journey tomorrow, on to Stanground Sluice before Peterborough. All was well, a space was there and we felt a sigh of relief, but it was not too long before narrowboat 'Benji' appeared, also seeking a mooring and we invited them to tie alongside. Soon the wine and beer was flowing, and we were sharing an Indian takeaway and swapping boating tales, with our new neighbours, Julian and Lynne.

So, today, as per our prebooked passage up Stanground Lock from the Middle level, we made our way back onto the River Nene and down into Peterborough. (The lady lock keeper at Stanground Sluice told us that she was the third generation of lock keeper, and had been born at that lock house.)

After using the waterside Asda with access gates exclusively for boaters, we made our way down the Nene to Ferry Meadows Country Park, that has a few boat moorings inside its grounds. The Nene Valley Railway has a station at Ferry Meadows and so we took the train (diesel unfortunately), to Wansford where there was a huge array of engines, and mail coaches, and lots of good intentions for the volunteers to work on, including Thomas having a facelift. A good trip, following the Nene in places, and we will be going under some of the rail route tomorrow.