Today's Navigation : Great River Ouse
When Mike woke at around half past six the view from the front cabin was quite spectacular as the rising sun caught the stonework of Great Barford Bridge.
Before leaving Great Barford, Mike moved the boat a very short distance forward so that we could fill the water tank. The tap provided an exceptionally good flow rate.
By the time we were ready to set off properly, the sun had risen somewhat and move d around so that more of the bridge was in sunlight - but the colours of the stonework were rather more muted.
We picked up from another boater familiar with the Bedford waters that narrowboats have had recent difficulty navigating the arch marked one way from this direction as the rapidly expanding reeds on the upstream side now left insufficient room for a longer boat to make the turn comfortably. We had been advised to take the No Entry route - at least we could see that there was no immediate oncoming traffic. Interestingly, there is no directional signage on the other side.
Our route today was quite winding and the various distinct changes of direction made it hard to get the best pictures at times!
At first we assumed that this bridge must have been a former railway bridge - we will see plenty today, working and retired. We saw a large construction vehicle pass over laden with construction materials. We later discovered that just to one side of he river is a fairly new sand quarry and that the bridge has only just started to appear on our various maps. As far as we have been able to discover, the site is owned by Breedon, a supplier of ready mix concrete and other materials and has been operating in this area for two or three decades. We guess that this bridge links the older site to the north with a new patch to the south of the river, enabling them to continue operations when the older sections are worked out. It also appears that the worked out pits are being used as waste landfill sites. In any event the bridge is new and purpose built!
And so to our first lock of the day: Willington. A substantial weir sits alongside the lock and there was a reasonable flow over it. (In general there were plenty of signs that the river levels are noticeably down.
At all four of today's locks we could recruit interested onlookers to assist. Here this made quite a bit of reduction in the amount of walking back and forth so we came through quicker than some.
Danish Camp is now largely an eating place but with plenty of outdoor space, just right for a day like today. However, its name comes from the belief (see) that this w cruise.as once an important site occupied by invading Danes. There used to be a moated island just behind.
Some of the next stretches - perhaps a little narrower - has trees grown up to cover right over the water, making it an especially attractive cruise.
Castle Mill Viaduct is quite long, bringing the busy A421 down from the A1. Unfortunately we could not find a spot were we could capture this in a photo - try again on the return?
Castle Mills Lock was the lock that prevented us from visiting Bedford back in 2010 when we first came this way, along with Andrew (frightening to look back at how few days we took over this river!) The structure alongside is not quite the same as at the previous lock which was a fixed height weir. Here we have more of a sluice with the ability to control the height of the water and hence the flow downstream. Some other locks we have noticed that they also have sluices, usually similar to the lock guillotine gates, but on a lengthy bypass and often almost out of view.
This lock dates from restoration projects in the 1970's and has one distinctive feature - apart from being usually deep. Instead of conventional slackers on each gate there are two placed centrally which let water in and out from the middle position. This is helpful when ascending as it tends to keep a boat in the same position as it rises.
Unusually there were two boats waiting to come down so it was in any case less work for Mike to do!
After a number of double pointed locks it was a surprise to return to guillotine locks for the final two, here at Cardington. Two very enthusiastic ladies were very willing to assist! They are part of a group in the early stages of planning a joint hire boat cruise.
We called in at Priory Marina as we wanted to used their elsan and rubbish facilities - we were disappointed earlier when a message came that they did, it seems, not have enough room to accommodate us tonight. We hiung about on the visitor mooring to have our lunch but were eventually dispossessed (in a very kindly way) by the trip boat John Bunyan that his hosted in this marina - they wanted to use the pump-out machine we we were right beside!
Yet another abandoned railway bridge, now repurposed as part of the Bedford to Sandy Country Way. Originally this was part of the Bedford and Cambridge Line, long closed. Only now is the East West Main Line eventually linking Oxford and Cambridge directly but having to find an entirely new route as too much of the original has been built over.
There is an exceptional number of bridges over the river in Bedford. Be grateful that we will not bore you with all of them! Instead let us turn to Bedford Lock. This is again a smaller lock, at only 3.3 m width it is barely more than a traditional narrow lock. It too has a guillotine at the upper end. A small girl with her mother was delighted to be asked to help operate the Gate Controls. At the end, the watching crowd (it is Saturday, sunny and in a large park area!) gave her a round of applause.
We turned left - right is a short arm closely parallel to the lower river level - out onto the wide reach through the centre of Bedford. County Bridge is perhaps the more elegant but two sets of railway bridges, both carrying busy electrified lines, were especially low and we had to duck right down to cabin roof level to avoid decapitation. Quite difficult to steer straight underneath them when unable to see where we were going.
We had already decided that the town mooring just before a newish footbridge offered definitely the best overnight mooring for some distance (back to where we started today, probably) Only one other boat was moored - our neighbours from two nights ago at St Neots.
Old Mill Lock has long been abandoned, along with all of the former mill structures. It was quite a narrow lock and we have to presume that it ceased being used well before all the other locks were widend.
At first we assumed that this bridge must have been a former railway bridge - we will see plenty today, working and retired. We saw a large construction vehicle pass over laden with construction materials. We later discovered that just to one side of he river is a fairly new sand quarry and that the bridge has only just started to appear on our various maps. As far as we have been able to discover, the site is owned by Breedon, a supplier of ready mix concrete and other materials and has been operating in this area for two or three decades. We guess that this bridge links the older site to the north with a new patch to the south of the river, enabling them to continue operations when the older sections are worked out. It also appears that the worked out pits are being used as waste landfill sites. In any event the bridge is new and purpose built!
And so to our first lock of the day: Willington. A substantial weir sits alongside the lock and there was a reasonable flow over it. (In general there were plenty of signs that the river levels are noticeably down.
At all four of today's locks we could recruit interested onlookers to assist. Here this made quite a bit of reduction in the amount of walking back and forth so we came through quicker than some.
Danish Camp is now largely an eating place but with plenty of outdoor space, just right for a day like today. However, its name comes from the belief (see) that this w cruise.as once an important site occupied by invading Danes. There used to be a moated island just behind.
Some of the next stretches - perhaps a little narrower - has trees grown up to cover right over the water, making it an especially attractive cruise.
Castle Mill Viaduct is quite long, bringing the busy A421 down from the A1. Unfortunately we could not find a spot were we could capture this in a photo - try again on the return?
Castle Mills Lock was the lock that prevented us from visiting Bedford back in 2010 when we first came this way, along with Andrew (frightening to look back at how few days we took over this river!) The structure alongside is not quite the same as at the previous lock which was a fixed height weir. Here we have more of a sluice with the ability to control the height of the water and hence the flow downstream. Some other locks we have noticed that they also have sluices, usually similar to the lock guillotine gates, but on a lengthy bypass and often almost out of view.
This lock dates from restoration projects in the 1970's and has one distinctive feature - apart from being usually deep. Instead of conventional slackers on each gate there are two placed centrally which let water in and out from the middle position. This is helpful when ascending as it tends to keep a boat in the same position as it rises.
Unusually there were two boats waiting to come down so it was in any case less work for Mike to do!
After a number of double pointed locks it was a surprise to return to guillotine locks for the final two, here at Cardington. Two very enthusiastic ladies were very willing to assist! They are part of a group in the early stages of planning a joint hire boat cruise.
We called in at Priory Marina as we wanted to used their elsan and rubbish facilities - we were disappointed earlier when a message came that they did, it seems, not have enough room to accommodate us tonight. We hiung about on the visitor mooring to have our lunch but were eventually dispossessed (in a very kindly way) by the trip boat John Bunyan that his hosted in this marina - they wanted to use the pump-out machine we we were right beside!
Yet another abandoned railway bridge, now repurposed as part of the Bedford to Sandy Country Way. Originally this was part of the Bedford and Cambridge Line, long closed. Only now is the East West Main Line eventually linking Oxford and Cambridge directly but having to find an entirely new route as too much of the original has been built over.
There is an exceptional number of bridges over the river in Bedford. Be grateful that we will not bore you with all of them! Instead let us turn to Bedford Lock. This is again a smaller lock, at only 3.3 m width it is barely more than a traditional narrow lock. It too has a guillotine at the upper end. A small girl with her mother was delighted to be asked to help operate the Gate Controls. At the end, the watching crowd (it is Saturday, sunny and in a large park area!) gave her a round of applause.
We turned left - right is a short arm closely parallel to the lower river level - out onto the wide reach through the centre of Bedford. County Bridge is perhaps the more elegant but two sets of railway bridges, both carrying busy electrified lines, were especially low and we had to duck right down to cabin roof level to avoid decapitation. Quite difficult to steer straight underneath them when unable to see where we were going.
After the second railway bridge we decided that we had done enough to satisfy our desire to tick Bedford off our list of Navigation Places We Have Visited. Kempston, the end of the navigable river, is on the IWA Silver Propellor Challenge but too many of them are barely accessible so we have not risen to that challenge! We also learned from another boater that the current water level there make it likely that we could not turn and would have had a long section of reversing.
We had already decided that the town mooring just before a newish footbridge offered definitely the best overnight mooring for some distance (back to where we started today, probably) Only one other boat was moored - our neighbours from two nights ago at St Neots.
8.9 Miles - 4 Locks
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