Mink. Oh for a rifle.

5 Locks, 3 Miles, and 1 Tunnel now moored at bottom of Crane’s Lock
Total of 190 locks and 180¹/₂ miles and 4 Tunnels since 5th Nov 2006

Today has been a good day for cruising as it has been beautifully sunny and warm. The occasional wind has caused a few problems at the locks but all in a days work as they say.
After passing through the Saddington tunnel (880 yds) we moored up by bridge 73 and took the bridle path across a paddock into Fleckney for a look see around the village. Going by the dates on some of the older houses the village dates back to at least 1890 probably earlier. After lunch we pulled the pins and moved further north to the nearest winding hole. We don’t want to venture too far north as we are meeting Tracey in Market Harborough for Easter.
Not long after we moored up above Cranes lock and surveying the scenery when I spotted a large black mink swimming around the reeds in the winding hole opposite us. When he climbed out onto the back we could see just how big he was and had I been in possession of a rifle he would have been a goner. Perhaps that’s why there are no ducks or other water fowl around here.
Unfortunately we are moored close to the GNER mainline north from St Pancras station; however the trains are not as frequent as the Virgin trains on the mainline out of Euston. I have been intrigued by what I thought was a new line of HST trains in new livery and tinted windows. A quick search on Google gave me the answer which was that the GNER have been refurbishing their old HST 125’s in Doncaster because they have been in service since1976. A new HST is on the drawing boards but won’t be bought into service until 2012. I must admit they do look quite smart compared to the old blue and yellow colour scheme.

The loco is in the old colour scheme and the carriages in the new colour scheme.