Guess who we found?

5 locks, 5 miles, Now moored near Doddington on the River Nene

The weather forecast was for rain around midday and while we were preparing for the day ahead the sun was shining but we had not gone far when the rain arrived. It was a case of showers for the first 3 locks before the weather improved. At Earls Barton lock we had a problem securing the winding wheel so we did the honourable thing and rang EA to advise them of the fault. A short while later EA rang back to say that they had the fault listed and it would be repaired in the next day or two. The fault was caused by the usual problem, VANDALS trying to unlock the wheel with anything that comes to hand.

Christina doing the hard work

After seeing a programme on the TV about security and in particular security camera's I think that it would pay both BW and EA to install some camera's at problem locations. The camera's shown on the TV were so small and can be disguised in all sorts of ways that vandals wouldn't even know they were being filmed. Just a thought, what do you think?

After leaving Doddington lock we were on the look out for a couple of moored boats known to be in the area. As we rounded a bend we spotted the boats and 3 people with 3 dogs walking across the adjacent field. We had finally caught up with Sue and Vic on N/b No Problem with their travelling companion's Ann and Chas on N/b Moore 2 Life. It wasn't long before the kettle was on for the obligatory coffee and a long catch up chat as well as an introduction for Derek and Christina and of course the dog's, Molly, Meg, and the famous Lucy. Lucy made weblog headlines about 18 months ago when she broke a leg while out walking and her recovery was closely monitored by many.

Mid afternoon and the weather had improved sufficiently for us to venture out for a walk up to the village on the hill above us. Following the public footpath took us across fields of sheep and lambs and a friendly horse. From the top of the hill the view out over the surrounding valley was lovely and we could see huge acreage's of farm land turned over to growing Rape seed instead of more traditional grain crops that it's no wonder this country is having to import so much grain from overseas. Leaving the village we took another path down to Woollaston Lock which was a recommended mooring site. However we could see that all the moorings were taken up by what looked like permanent boats. The house alongside these moorings reminded us of Greengrass's place on the TV show "Heartbeat" with all the junk lying around the place and a 1940's WW2 army Ford puddle jumper hidden away under canvas.

Across another field and we came to what had been an old railway track bed which is now a very well laid out walking/cycling track which took us back roughly opposite the boat where we crossed yet another field full of sheep to get back to the boat, about a 3 - 4 miles hike.

This evening Sue popped in to swap info on all the moorings on the rivers Nene, Ouse and the Fens so we are now set up to be able to plan each days travel knowing roughly where we are going and where we should be. There is a lot to see and do over the next 6 - 8 weeks.

Another storm brewing this afternoon?

1098 locks, 1413½ miles, 41 Tunnels, 41 swing bridges and 19 lift bridges since Nov 2006