The Nene Valley

We were up early with the morning dew so Derwent6 got a quick leather off as Al got ready to go.. She walked up to the lock at Elton and got it ready so Del could go straight in..

We love cruising early with the mist on the water.. and soon realised again how beautiful this river is..
We made our way to Nassington where there are some lovely houses and countryside. We are now in Cambridgeshire and with the glass like waters in front of us it made it so tranquil.
We got to Yarwell lock which has a lovely mill alongside it and also a tricky turn.

When you get through it you can see the caravan park but what is unusual about this caravan park is that no cars are allowed to be alongside the caravans, we liked that idea.

You can see why people flock here it is so beautiful again..

We then got to Wansford and looked at the moorings to go into town (which looked lovely) but the noise of the A1 put us off so we carried on.

We arrived at Sutton, which is the home of the Nene Valley Steam Railway, and there was a pontoon with just enough room to squeeze Derwent6 on the end. It was a lovely mooring, but we couldn't get telly (no loss there then)

We had a bit of lunch and then decided to have a look at Wansfords old station. Well what a surprise we had when we walked up the steps.. It was so pretty.

We walked into the station and our second surprise was that the museum was all free today as the trains weren't running.

You were able to go between the trains and their carriages even going up onto the plate and seeing inside..

You could walk around the station platform and see all the old cars, buses and sidings.

We were even allowed to go to a viewing platform where we could just sit and watch the guys working in the workshop. Here Thomas the Tank was under restoration..

All this was free so we put a donation into their box as we had really enjoyed it.. Afterwards we went into the café and had a coffee and a cake.

When we came out we could even go to the old signal box which was still all working, if you look closely you can see Derwent6 (circled) out of the window..

Normally a passenger boat runs off these moorings but it only runs weekends in September so we have timed it perfectly.