28 & 29 August
We had decided to make an early
start leaving the festival so were ready to leave at 7.30. At the first lock,
St Neots, we met up with Rosery who had moved off the festival moorings
yesterday evening. We shared the lock, but were unable to do so at the next
lock, Offord, as it is not long or wide enough.
As we were approaching Brampton
Lock we saw a group of canoes on the lock mooring. We expected them to move off
which is what canoes usually do, but it became apparent that they were going to
go through the lock and were just waiting for a cruiser to come out before they
went in. Brampton is a big lock and all nine canoes plus their small
accompanying motor boat plus us all got in. The youngsters in the canoes were
scouts going for a couple of nights camping.
By Godmanchester Lock we had left
the canoes behind, but Peddler and Hector had caught us up and we managed to
fit everyone in (though there was little room to spare!). Houghton Lock is also
big enough for three good sized narrowboats – this time it was us, Peddler and
Phenomenal (Hector having turned off into Hartford Marina).
We moored at Hemingford Grey in
time for lunch and then went for a walk to Hemingford Abbotts. We were due to
have a meal with our friends, Penny and Allen, in the evening so we phoned them
to finalise arrangements and suggest that their grandchildren might like to
come and see the boat. So a little later Penny plus daughters Rachel and Katie
plus Katie’s children Nia (2½) and Moses (12 days) arrived. Moses did not seem
very interested in the boat and slept through the whole experience, but Nia
enjoyed feeding the swans and ducks and exploring the interior of the boat.
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| Nice houses at Hemingford Grey |
We thoroughly enjoyed our meal
with Penny and Allen later and also enjoyed catching up on family news and news
of mutual friends who had worked in Tanzania with us.
We arrived back at the boat too
late last night for me to do the blog so again there is a two day helping.
We left Hemingford at 8.30 this
morning. There was no point in leaving earlier as Hemingford Lock is not open
until 9.00. It has a problem with part of its mechanism and so is manned by
Environment Agency staff.
It had been raining earlier in
the morning but it had faired up by the time we got to St Ives so we moored up
near the bridge. We had a short walk around, did some shopping and had a coffee
before continuing towards Earith.
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| St Ives |
The remaining locks (St Ives and Brownshill) were busy with boats moving in
both directions so progress was quite slow, but we moored at Westview Marina
which is just before Earith at 1.30. There are several of us moored here
together as the plan is to make a very early start tomorrow and proceed in
convoy along the New Bedford River which is tidal. More of this tomorrow.
This evening six of us enjoyed a
meal together at The Crown Indian restaurant before retiring to our boats for
an early night!
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