Yesterday afternoon, just as Christine had arranged, Judith and David arrived at the boat having walked through the recreation park, from the nearest point to leave their car. After a brief chat we all walked back to their car to be whisked away to the other side of Godmanchester where they now live. It was a pleasant walk beside the pool into town. It gave us a chance to see what the other marked moorings are like - we definitely had the best deal! Thanks to the volunteer lock keepers for their excellent advice.
David and Judith have been here for just three years on an excellent but substantial new edge of town estate. Their house is spacious and well laid out with, for modern developments, a generous sized garden.
Hearing that we would be passing by they had invited us for a meal but with our sometimes uncertain itinerant lifestyle and their busy one if had taken a bit of effort for Christine and Judith to home in on a date that we could all make!
As we have always lived in very different parts of the country we do not meet IRL (or F2F) very often so there was plenty to catch up on, reminisce and general chat putting the world to rights! They very kindly drove us back at the end of the evening and a delightful meal. Alas, forgot about photos!
Today we began by walking back into town the same way as yesterday which was almost directly to the parish church where the main service was at 9.30. The congregation were very welcoming and the service itself was in the central mainstream, of Anglican liturgy and practice. We could have stayed for coffee in the church hall but we were keen to move on for the same reason as previous days - the moorings are limited and we wanted to claim a spot sooner rather than later!
After changing we started the engine (early so the washing machine could go on) before reversing back from the mooring. It was a close call but we were not confident about depth of water on the opposite side for turning around where we were. So we reversed just a couple of boat lengths as we knew from our arrival that there was plenty of room immediately above the lock.
As can be seen from the photos, we had some glorious sunny weatherL when we awoke there was a short very light shower of rain which was not repeated (despite the forecast suggesting it might)
Not long before the only lock for today we passed under the electrified main railway line - here it is four track (it turns into two after Ely)
As our hoped for overnight mooring was a GOBA one, we were keeping a close eye on the occupancy of earlier pones as we passed by.
Just before the lock we passed Brampton Mill, now a popular and quality restaurant but we could not see how busy it was today. It ought to be packed! The water wheel still turns, powered by the same mill stream as when it was a working mill.
The approach to Brampton Lock is not easy to spot, not helped by the route signposted is different from that in our guidebook, In fact that indicated on paper looked choked with weed but when we reached the lock we could see that downstream traffic is signposted that way. Part of the reason for cafre is that the sluice/weir is quite large and can create troublesome eddies when there is a stronger flow.
Alighting at the lock was not straightforward as the one-boat landing was already occupied as a mooring!
As Mike started to empty the lock a Dad and his young son arrived to portage their paddleboards downstream. However, the youngster was keen to help and Mike's attention was then directed to making sure he did all the right things, understood why and what was happening and kept safe. A smaller cruiser arrived as we were entering the lock and was keen to share with us. The young apprentice was quick to learn and dad also joined in by making sure our boat kept wellaway from the cruiser. It did seem that the youngster was well pleased with the experience and we strongly suspect that dad was just a teeny bit envious! As always, showing a newcomer how to work a lock safely does not leave much room for the camera.
We now had a half hour pleasant run, avoiding several groups of paddlers intent on making us a little bit nervous about missing them!
The river here does not change level very much - its huge width helps with that. But it does feel as if it is getting wider the further upstream we get.
One of the few landmarks to help us work out how far we had come was the remaining abutment of a former railway bridge. The Kettering, Thrapston and Huntingdon Railway which opened in 1866. although it carried four passenger trains a day its main income came from transporting iron ore from several large quarries in the Thrapston area. The line was never really successful and by 1958 it was making substantial losses. All but the quarry traffic from Twywell ceased and that came to an end soon after. We have not found confirmation, but looking at old and new maps it looks as if much of the track bed formed the basis of a major improvement to the dualled A14.
Shortly after this we arrived at the first of two marked GOBA moorings. We were a little uncertain - as with most GOBA moorings they are very rural and do not usually have anything to tie to: out with the pins. Dense beds of nettles obscured where the bank started so we had to hack away a bit to see where it was safe to leap ashore. At least there was reasonable depth up to the edge. Despite the rather rough and narrow nature of the towpath at this point (Mike when landing had quickly discovered a large but covert pothole!) it was quite popular with groups of Sunday walkers.
We are only a few minutes away from Buckden Marina where we will leave the boat for two or three weeks before we start the long haul back the way we came, hopefully first completing the navigable river to Bedford which we have failed to reach on previous visits!
2.3 Miles - 1 Lock
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