Saturday, August 23, 2014

Further than we thought, but worth it

We were up and out this morning with the plan to get moored up again by lunchtime.. We were on our own through the first lock and soon enjoying our cruise through the countryside on the Nene.
This river is beautiful and it certainly isn't boring. It twists and turns and challenges you in every sense, the water is crystal clear and its undercurrents strong, we love it already.
We got to the locks at Ringstead and found that the guillotine lock was operated by a wheel and not electric like some.
We've got to say they are hard work but the exercise will do us good.
Whilst helping another couple of boats we met coming up the locks, we were caught up by another boat at Woodford and Denford which was a great help and got us moving..
Talking to other boaters who know the area also helps as we were looking for a mooring now..  Our plan was to stop at Thrapston as we passed under the A14, we always remember looking down here thinking, one day!
The visitors moorings here are so difficult to get on (and we had good conditions) and when we saw them they were full anyway, so we went through the next lock where there were more moorings.
Full as well, so we carried on!
Never mind, we will stop at Titchmarsh, no chance, they were repairing the moorings here, so it was on to Wadenhoe.
It was so pretty cruising we wasn't bothered about mooring really, but we don't want to rush things, and want to see these places.
All the easy moorings were taken, except the ones right outside the pub, which we didn't want, due to how busy it would be over the weekend, so we opted for a mooring in the reeds.
The ground was a bit soggy, but we managed to get the pins in and tie to a stack with the centre rope. That'll do!
We wanted to try the pub out and see the village which was stunning. The pub, The Kings Head, never let us down and we sat very happy with a pint and a bag of crisps, heaven! and only three hundred metres from Derwent6, perfect for the weekend..
We have just stunning views out of all the windows....... it will be difficult to move from here..

2 comments:

nb AmyJo said...

Hi Guys
Looks really beautiful there. What are the lock lengths like? I can see Derwent6 fits OK but would AmyJo fit them as well? Would like to visit that way one day.
Hope both are keeping well.
Steve

Del and Al said...

Hi Steve, yeah the locks are plenty big enough for AmyJo. It is lovely, we've been trying to get down this way for the last three years, and so far we're not disappointed! Just got to keep an eye on the weather :-) Have a great weekend.....