Thursday 9th August
Today it rained! Not just a bit, but a lot.
When we got up the weather was grey and cloudy, but dry. The
folk in the skiff got away before 9.00; we and the man from nb Arabella next
door waved them off.
We set off at 9.15 and went through two locks before
stopping at Wellingborough to take on water (and have a cup of coffee). As we
were leaving Wellingborough, we felt the first spots of rain.
It was just
drizzling through the next two locks, but we did have fun at the second of
these – Ditchford. There was a tree branch in the water which we thought might
cause difficulty when we tried to open the top gates. As it happened we got the
gates open and the boat in the lock without much difficulty. The problem came
when we tried to close the gates as the branch kept getting itself wedged
between the gates. We spent a good while moving gates backwards and forwards
trying to create a flow which would encourage the branch to either slide into
the lock or move out of the way of the gates. In the end it came into the lock
and we were able to close the gates. Thankfully we were able to open the bottom
gate with no problem and continue on our way. By this time the rain was heavier
and we did Higham Ferrers lock (the last for today) in a downpour. We did try
to remember all the crops and gardens which are desperate for rain, and be
thankful, but it was a little difficult!
We moored at Irthlingborough visitor moorings at 1.15. The
rain lessened but continued all afternoon so we stayed on board in the dry. I
did manage to persuade Steve that a bit of rain did not mean he had to light
the fire!
We ventured out when the rain stopped at about 5.30 and
had a walk along the old railway track past some of the many lakes in this area
where we saw some great crested grebes and picked some blackberries.
We hadn’t been back long when it started to rain again.
(Blame the lack of photos on the rain.)
No comments:
Post a Comment